The following message should interest for COMM-ORG members. Many community economic development(CED) and local development(LD) practitioners will attend the conference. Having been a member of this list for almost two years, I can assure you that the contents of our october conference will be of great interest for people involved in CDC's and other similar organizations in the US. We have CDC's in Quebec. Many will attend the conference.
Please send messages to the address at the end of the announcement.
Yvon Poirier
**************************************************************************** **** Update on the GLOBAL MEETINGS ON COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 1998 Sherbrooke (Quebec, Canada), October 22, 23 & 24, 1998
Preparations are advancing quickly and energy is mounting as the Sherbrooke Assembly approaches. Here are some of the highlights of recent weeks:
Over 200 submissions to the 'Defining the Challenges' phase were received and these questionnaires have formed the basis for an analysis and repertoire which is now being finalized. This rich document presents a wide range of local development (LD) and community economic development (CED) initiatives from around the world and its overview of practices will be used as a starting point for the work to be done at Sherbrooke.
The organizers are pleased to announce that the opening address at the Global Meetings on Community Economic Development (GMCED '98) will be given by Ruth Caplan. This dynamic American has a long experience in environmental sustainability and grassroots democratic empowerment. Through her work at the Tides Centre, she coordinates the Economics Working Group which has developed a General Agreement on a New Economy, GANE, which suggests a structure that would allow communities to move toward sustainability, equity and full employment. She was also elected national co-chair of the Alliance for Democracy in 1996, but has recently stepped down in order to concentrate her work on the Alliance's MAI / Positive Alternative campaign. She will, in fact, be coming to Sherbrooke directly from the international NGO strategy meeting taking place in Paris parallel to the resuming OECD negotiations on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment. All this promises to add up to a very timely, wide-ranging and challenging commentary on the role of LD and CED initiatives in our current context of globalization.
Ms. Caplan will by no means be the sole expert present. Widely-respected local practitioners, including Michel Dinet, Ana Tallada Iglesias, Nancy Neamtan and Jacques Proulx, will be coming from around the world to guide discussions and contribute to reflection.
Of course, the strength of this event will be the wealth of knowledge, experience and ideas brought by the participants. As of August 19, over 500 participants from North & South America, Europe, Africa and Asia have already registered -- over half of the 1,000 places available at Sherbrooke. They will be representing an enormous variety of LD and CED projects which address diverse needs, interests and communities, but which also increasingly share common challenges to their work. The opportunities for both local and international networking, learning and sharing will be tremendous.
Don't miss it! For more information and an on-line registration form, you can visit the web site of the GMCED '98 at http://www.ifdec.qc.ca or contact the Institut de formation en developpement economique communautaire by phone at (514) 281-2081.
Michael Toye Adjoint Coordinator, GMCED '98 comiter@ifdec.qc.ca http://www.ifdec.qc.ca