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Appendix II:
Funds for the World Social Forum
The WSF is not transparent regarding the sources of
its funding. Moreover, given the structure of the WSF, where a number
of organisations carry on activities semi-autonomously, it is near-impossible
to trace the funding provided to all activities by all funding agencies.
A.
Funds for the WSF Secretariat
Certain funds are provided directly to the WSF as a body. The following
list, available on the WSF website (www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/main.asp?id_menu=2&cd_language=2),
does not provide a break-up by amount:
WSF Partners WSF 2001:
- Droits et Démocratie — a foundation run by the Canadian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- Ford Foundation
- Heinrich Boll Foundation — of the
German Greens party, a partner of the ruling coalition in Germany,
whose leader, Germany's foreign minister,
was an active supporter of the wars on Yugoslavia and Afghanistan
- ICCO — an inter-church
organisation, funded by the Netherlands government and the European
Union
- Le
Monde Diplomatique
- Oxfam
- RITS - Rede de Informações para
o Terceiro Setor
- The state government of Rio Grande de Sul
- The city
government of Porto Alegre
WSF Partners WSF 2002:
RITS,
EED, CCFD, NOVIB, OXFAM GB, Centro Norte Sul, ACTIONAID, ICCO, FUNDAÇÃO
FORD, Governo do Estado de Rio Grande do Sul, Prefeitura de Porto Alegre,
Procergs, World Forum for Alternatives. B.
Funding for WSF participants
In fact the financial role of the funding
agencies is much larger than would be reflected in their contributions
to the WSF as such. For the
same agencies also funded various organisations which attended the WSF,
and staged activities there. For example, the following list is from
the Ford Foundation website database:
1. Ford Foundation Grants to WSF
and Related Operations (from the Ford Foundation website database; apparently
does not include current funding)
The following grants have been
given as part of Ford's "Asset Building
and Community Development Program", which "supports efforts
to reduce poverty and injustice by helping to build the financial, natural,
social, and human assets of low-income individuals and communities."
Organization:
Brazilian Association of NGOs
Purpose: For the 2003 World Social Forum, where civil society organizations
develop social and economic alternatives to current patterns of globalization,
based on human rights and sustainable development
Location: BRAZIL
Program: Peace and Social Justice
Unit: Governance and Civil Society
Subject: Civil Society
Amount: $500,000
www.fordfound.org/grants_db/view_grant_detail.cfm?grant_id=125148
Organization: Brazilian Association of NGOs
Purpose: Support for the organization of the first World Social Forum
Meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil in January 2001
Location: BRAZIL
Program: Peace and Social Justice
Unit: Governance and Civil Society
Subject: Civil Society
Amount: $100,000
www.fordfound.org/grants_db/view_grant_detail.cfm?grant_id=127166
Organization:
Brazilian Association of NGOs
Purpose: To hold a seminar on international mechanisms for the protection
of human rights during the second World Social Forum
Location: BRAZIL
Program: Peace and Social Justice
Unit: Human Rights
Subject: Human Rights
Amount: $40,000
www.fordfound.org/grants_db/view_grant_detail.cfm?grant_id=132399
Organization: Brazilian Consumer Defense Institute
Purpose: For a multimedia public information campaign at the World
Social Forum and the Pan-Amazonian Social Forum
Location: BRAZIL
Program: Asset Building and Community Development
Unit: Community and Resource Development
Subject: Environment and Development
Amount: $30,000
www.fordfound.org/grants_db/view_grant_detail.cfm?grant_id=125150
Organization:
Feminist Studies and Assistance Center
Purpose: To coordinate a campaign against fundamentalist dogmas during
thesecond World Social Forum
Location: BRAZIL
Program: Peace and Social Justice
Unit: Human Rights
Subject: Human Rights
Amount: $65,600
www.fordfound.org/grants_db/view_grant_detail.cfm?grant_id=132973
Organization:
Internews Interactive, Inc.
Purpose: For the Bridge Initiative on Globalization, a collaboration
with television agency Article Z, to provide a means of communication
for participants in the World Social Forum and World Economic Forum
Location: SAN RAFAEL, CA
Program: Peace and Social Justice
Unit: Governance and Civil Society
Subject: Civil Society
Amount: $153,000
www.fordfound.org/grants_db/view_grant_detail.cfm?grant_id=125339
2. Sponsors of the World Social Forum media centre
Another
example of indirect funding: the WSF media centre, given below.
(source: web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/esf.html)
The "independent" media
centre Ciranda was sponsored by Le Monde Diplomatique and IPS,
Inter Press Services (IPS). IPS itself is
sponsored by:
- Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
- Carl-Duisberg-Gesellschaft
- CDG (Germany)
- Charles Stewart Mott Foundation (USA)
- Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- European Commission
- Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations (FAO)
- Ford Foundation (USA)
- Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung - FES (Germany)
- German Ministry for Economic
Development and Cooperation (BMZ)
- Group of 77, G77
- International Labour Organisation - ILO
- Italian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs
- John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (USA)
- Netherlands Ministry
of Foreign Affairs
- Netherlands Organization for International Development
Cooperation, Novib
- North-South Centre (Council of Europe)
- Norwegian Agency for Development
- NORAD
- Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Student Union, Helsinki University
- Swedish International Development
- Cooperation Agency - SIDA
- U.N. Children´s Fund - UNICEF
- U.N. Development Fund for Women
- UNIFEM
- U.N. Development Programme - UNDP
- UNESCO
- U.N. Environment Programme - UNEP
- U.N. Population Fund - UNFPA
- W.
Alton Jones Foundation (USA)
3. Other sources of funds
At the first World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, the elected officials
present agreed to constitute an International Network of Members of Parliament
to advance the goals of the WSF. Francis Wurtz, chairperson of the United
Left in the European Parliament, revealed that "The principle was
adopted that the European Parliament would take responsibility for the
coordination of all technical aspects of the Parliamentary Network, including
its financing."1
The extent of coordination among the WSF funders
is clear from the following passage from the website of the US-based "Funders Network on Trade
and Globalization":
"World Social Forum Funder Conference: FNTG
initiated and has been helping to organize and co-host (with Ford
and Veatch) a funder
conference in
New York on June 12 [2002] at the Ford Foundation. The convening,
which brought together over 60 funders from NY and beyond, highlighted
the
work of the WSF, but also encouraged funders to support the participation
of
relevant US and non-US grantees at this annual forum, and the
development of alternative strategies for equitable and sustainable
development in
the US and around the world."2
Notes:
1.
How Not to Fight Globalization?", Alan Benjamin, The Organizer,
www.theorganizer.org/to/to_nd-3.htm (back)
2. www.fntg.org/about/services.html;
emphasis added. (back)
Issue
No. 35 Contents
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Appendix
I: Ford Foundation -- A Case Study of the Aims of Foreign Funding