IRISH CIVIL SOCIETY took on the world at a recent event in Dublin’s RDS. Members of environmental organisations, global justice groups, community groups and cultural organisations brought their different perspectives to bear on identifying priorities for Irish and global development.
Equality, new forms of governance, sustainable development, human rights-based development and a new economic model that did not exploit people or the planet were agreed as stand-out priorities.
Irish civil society, in agreeing these priorities, could be condemned as predictable, full of aspiration and short on detail. Repetition, though, is not a measure of predictability. It is a reflection of political unresponsiveness. Aspiration is not a criticism. It is a reflection of how our politics is so devoid of ambition.
Nearly everyone does better in more equal societies. Businesses that invest in equality and diversity systems are more productive and innovative. Democracy is predicated on transparency and accountability. Government and the state should and could be a powerful force in building a flourishing society.
Our global ecological footprint is unsustainable. We use the equivalent of 1.5 planets annually to produce the resources we use and absorb the waste we create.The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is accepted across the globe. This includes rights to work, education and an adequate standard of living. Rather than merely protecting human rights, we could now fulfil them as a minimum global standard; a new economics would be required to underpin all these apparently sensible aspirations.
Claiming Our Future, in conjunction with Dochas and the Wheel, organised the event. The aim was to influence the Irish Government as it leads the EU in developing a policy position on what should replace the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. A new global framework for development is to be agreed at the UN General Assembly in September.
The Millennium Development Goals were agreed in 2000. They focused on areas such as eliminating extreme poverty, improving access to primary education, gender equality, environmental sustainability, and increasing overseas development aid. Real progress resulted in all areas.
However, 1.22 billion people still live on less than 1.25 dollars a day. The richest 1.4 billion people consume over 80 per cent of global output. Women do 66 per cent of the world’s work but receive 11 per cent of global income. Global CO2 emissions increased by 45 per cent between 1990 and 2010. The problem with the Millennium Development Goals is that they did not address the structural causes of the issues they sought to deal with. They focused primarily on the social dimension and left the economic dimension to the market.
There is a troubling disjuncture between politics and civil society. Why is it predictable that civil society will seek equality, good governance, environmental sustainability, human rights and human flourishing – and just as predictable that politicians at home and abroad will not?
Our political systems have declined to a point where they cannot introduce profound change in the way we organise society. This has been characterised as low energy democracy. This is where political systems no longer mobilise people, are slowed down by procedure and tradition, and are subservient to the market. Such political systems cannot introduce the structural changes required to eliminate poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation.
Abraham Lincoln promised government of the people, by the people, for the people after the American civil war. This dictum might now be more accurate as government of the people, by some people, for various vested interests. This needs to change if the UN is to deliver goals that offer a better Ireland in a just world.
Niall Crowley is convenor of Claiming Our Future – for more information on the issues, visit www.worldwewant.ie
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