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 University for a Night 2003 
 The Synergos Institute

I will talk to you from the point of view of a Latin American, specifically of a Brazilian, and I will start by describing the attributes of civil society -- both organizations and movements -- that put it in a central role in bridging the divides in the modern world.

Brazil's Helio Mattar is President of the Abrinq Foundation for the Rights of Children, which promotes policies and actions to improve the situation of children and adolescents. He is also President of the Akatu Institute for Conscious Consumption and a founder of the Ethos Institute for Business and Social Responsibility. He has served as Brazil's Secretary for Production Development in the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.

Civil society is the humanizing arena in a world which is increasingly centered around needs defined by the financial logic of markets and profits, with insufficient consideration to the social and environmental impact of business operations. A logic that tends to dehumanize relations by putting too much weight on the necessary competition and its vital energy of aggressiveness to fulfill financial returns, but almost forgets that human nature requires affection and cooperation.

Civil society is the place where the values -- feminine values -- of nurturing and caring for others are present through the daily practice of compassion. The excessively masculine world of businesses and markets tends to lack these values. If these are the attributes of civil society, it's no surprise that civil society organizations and movements are searching for ways to globalize solidarity in a world that already globalizes competition, concentration of income, social inequality and environmental degradation.

The work of organizations of civil society, helped by financing from philanthropists and grantmaking foundations, can transform citizens from spectators into builders of a humanized world -- a world with more 'solidarity.' In this way, solidarity becomes the central weapon in a real and effective preemptive attack against violence, drugs and terror.

On the one hand, civil society organizations and movements pressure companies (through boycotts and through selective buying) to include social and environmental calculus in their activities, so that the companies address issues such as child labor, discrimination, corruption, pollution and community development.

In a similar way, civil society pressures governments to shape laws, regulations and national and international agreements so to consider social and environmental issues. And civil society does both these things in a strong partnership with the media, which is so important to raise public awareness and enable society to pressure national and global government. In Brazil, for example, we developed a database for advocacy which has been very effective. It established a set of 165 indicators of the work of 750 mayors, which communities use to help guide their efforts to ensure effective government.

On the other hand, and most importantly, civil society can develop solutions to social problems, serving as a social laboratory. Civil society organizations then take these solutions to scale and, in this way, point out new, more effective public policies. The work of organizations of civil society, helped by financing from philanthropists and grantmaking foundations, can transform citizens from spectators into builders of a humanized world -- a world with more "solidarity." In this way, solidarity becomes the central weapon in a real and effective preemptive attack against violence, drugs and terror. This new social contract is being shaped with new roles for social actors based on a partnership of civil society, philanthropists, governments and businesses.

However, some big issues and challenges have to be faced by the social actors involved and I am going to cite here seven of them.

The first one: The need for businesses to recognize that, unlike private investment, social investment requires longer periods of time to achieve sustainable results. Social transformation is a long-term process.

Second: There is a need for businesses and for grantmaking organizations that help civil society to use creative means to measure the impact of social development initiatives. They must look at their efforts in an integrated manner -- social investment deals with the complex human interactions and cannot be measured in a simplistic way.

Third: The need to not only seek new solutions to social problems but also to identify and build upon existing knowledge and approaches. Many civil society organizations and communities have useful experience that should be evaluated, systematized and disseminated on a large scale.

Fourth: The importance of getting universities involved helping transform new social initiatives into social technology that be can be adapted and re-used. In particular, universities are in the best position to develop methodologies for evaluating the impact of new approaches.

Fifth: The need to engage communities so that they take ownership of new approaches and help ensure that their culture is respected.

Sixth: The need to recognize that national governments and global multilateral organizations are the only institutions capable of universalizing the use of social solutions to the benefit of people, using the media to raise the awareness of national and global leaders

Seventh: Finally, and most important, is the need to remember that helpless people by definition can only help themselves after they are helped to be on their feet, to have self-esteem, to have self-respect and to have sufficient strength to build a life and a future perspective for themselves and for their families.

If we face these issues and challenges, this new social contract rooted in the partnership of civil society, businesses, grantmaking foundations, philanthropists and governments will certainly contribute to build a new world; a world in which humanity becomes the first priority of development through a better balance of the masculine and feminine values of competition and cooperation. A world in which hope in the future takes the place of the present fears and a world in which justice -- social justice -- becomes the new name for peace. Thank you very much.
 

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