PSPD in English Archive 2001-10-31   1021

Focus on the Global South

Focus on the Global South

Chirawatana Charoonpatarapong

(Program Coordinator, Focus on the Global South)

Focus on the Global South is a program of development policy research, analysis and action. Focus engages in research, analysis, advocacy and grassroots capacity building on critical issues. It was founded in 1995 and is currently attached to the Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute (CUSRI) in Bangkok, Thailand.

Focus on the Global South combines professionalism and activism in its effort to bring critical analysis and innovative organizing to bear on the problems wrought by the currently dominant patterns of globalization. Focus sees the prevailing mode of globalization as a highly unequal one that is marginalizing vast numbers of people throughout the South.

Our Programs

Focus’s program thrusts are in four thematic areas:

Economic and Financial Liberalization

Security and Conflict

State, Market and Civil Society

Culture and Globalization.

These four thematic areas integrate the two earlier program areas of Focus namely
Micro-Macro Issues Linking Program (M&M Program) and the Regional Paradigms Program.
Focus has three country offices, apart from the Bangkok office. These offices are located in Mumbai (India), Manila (Phillipines) and Singapore.

Economic and Financial Liberalisation

Since its inception Focus on the Global South has engaged the economic globalisation process. Focus”s programs focussed on trade, investment and financial liberalisation and engaged principally, the World Trade Organisation, The International Monetary Fund and regional economic organisations such as APEC and ASEAN. The intention of Focus’ analysis has been two fold a) to systematically uncover the ways that the dominant arrangements and institutions marginalise the vast majority of people in the global south- including the South in the North and b) to promote alternative ideas, paradigms, institutions and global and regional arrangements based on expanding equity, sustainability and democracy at the national, regional and international levels.

Focus has also concentrated on fleshing out and highlighting the impacts of globalization- both positive and negative- at various levels but with special attention on the national, sub-national and local levels. It has examined the role of multilateral development institutions in influencing development agendas. Research has sough to analyse how development policies are manifested at various levels and ascertain the differential impacts that result from these manifestations. For this reason Focus has worked with a variety of partners: local activists, people’s organisations, NGOs, local activists, local government agencies, senior and mid-level policy makers and members of civil society.

It is Focus’ assertion that long term and more sustainable alternatives to current development models can be found if all members of society have a critical understanding and decisive vote in the process.

Security and Conflict

Contrary to expectations, conflicts have not abated with the end of the Cold War. In fact, in many cases, conflicts and tensions have increased, with the flaring of antagonisms along cleavages that were ‘frozen’ during the Cold war, such as ethnic and cultural differences. Today’s conflicts are derived from a mixture of antagonisms that are a legacy of the Cold War, old territorial disputes, struggles over resources or potential resources, North-south struggles, class, ethnic, cultural and gender differences. Dominant patterns of globalization have also contributed to the emergence and re-emergence of both new and traditional forms of violence.

Focus combines two approaches to security issues. On the one hand, it is squarely in the tradition of the peace movement by advocating withdrawal of military bases, disarmament and conflict resolution through diplomacy, collective security and multilateral arrangements. On the other hand, Focus realises that stabilisation and conflict resolution mechanisms are not enough. It is necessary to address the roots of conflict, and this lies in resolving inequalities engendered by differential access to natural resources, food, property and income. It also means addressing environmental degradation, since this is becoming a key source of potential conflict among states.

The key elements of the Focus’ approach to Security and Conflict are: opposition to unilateralism; a push for conflict resolution in a multilateral framework; going beyond the traditional security framework to address the social, cultural and environmental sources of conflict and promoting capacity building at the local, sub-national and global levels.

State, Market and Civil Society

Neo-liberalism, or free market capitalism, with its doctrinal push to liberalise, deregulate and privatise economies of developing countries is the ideology of globalisation. Contradicting the neo-liberals, Focus has consistently emphasised the activist state has a vital role to play in the development process. While not supporting neo-liberalism, Focus also does not believe in turning (or returning) to either centralised socialist systems or the state-assisted capitalist systems typical of East Asia. Focus sees state activism as essential in preventing the irrationalities of the market that trigger crises and in addressing those issues of primordial concern which cannot be solved by the market, such as marginalisation and inequality.

Focus advocates the application of the principle of subsidiarity,which holds that whatever can be produced with manageable costs at the local level should be undertaken at that level, leaving it to trade to supply those goods and services in which communities are not self sufficient and extending this principle to the political realm in terms of decision making, meaning that political decisions that can be made locally should be made locally.

Culture and Globalisation

One critical dimension of globalisation, which is charecterised as its soft side, is the process of cultural homogenisation. Communities in both the North and the South have preserved their solidarity in the midst of succeeding waves of globalisation owing to their deep cultural reserves. The key vehicles of globalisation- corporations, multilateral agencies and technocratic educational systems- seek to extract these reserves and homogenise diversity through mainstream development and strategic policies based on neo-liberal agendas. This has triggered much resistance on the part of these communities and because they often lack the voice to effectively articulate their opposition on the economic and political front.

Focus highlights this aspect of many cultural movements that are currently sweeping the south. Focus recognises that among many of these movements, especially those labeled as “fundamentalist”, positive elements coexist with retrograde ones. Focus seeks to draw appreciation of the complexity of Southern cultural movements, while simultaneously drawing out those aspects that can be incorporated into progressive secular movements for change.

November 9 event in Bangkok, Thailand:

Several grassroots groups including farmers, women workers, HIV positive people are planning to hold an all-day rally in Bangkok on November 9 under a general theme “WTO out of our life.”

The general purpose will be to inform the public of their positions on the Agreement on Agriculture (WTO out of Agriculture) and TRIPs (No patent on life & rice and on drugs) which was delivered to the Prime Minister on October 22. A more specific objective is to raise awareness about US role and interests concerning intellectual property rights and agriculture trade.

The marchers will stop in front of the US Embassy to protest the US position on TRIPs and the recent biopiracy of Thai jasmine rice. The marchers will then congregate in a public park nearby where there will a panel discussion on who benefits from the WTO mixed with concerts and cultural events to promote local knowledge and way of life.

The contact person for the event is Pongtip Samran, representative of the Globalization Working Group.

Board Members

Alejandro Bendana
ISGN, Nicaragua

Amara Pongsapich
Director,Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute, Thailand

Binny Buchori
INFID, Indonesia

Gothom Arya
National Electoral Commission, Thailand

Josefa Francisco
Development Alternatives for Women in the New Era (DAWN), Philippines

Leonor Briones
University of the Philippines, Philippines

Mikyung Lee
Member of the National Assembly, South Korea

Muto Ichiyo
Peoples’ Plan for the 21st Century, Japan

Nguyen Van Thanh
VUFO, Vietnam

Peter Rosset
Food First, USA/Mexico

Rajagopal P.V.
Ekta Parishad, India

Kamal Malhotra
Senior Advisor, UNDP, New York

Advisor

Dr Victor Karunan
Save the Children Fund UK, Thailand

Dr Martin Khor
Third World Network, Malaysia

정부지원금 0%, 회원의 회비로 운영됩니다

참여연대 후원/회원가입


참여연대 NOW

실시간 활동 SNS

텔레그램 채널에 가장 빠르게 게시되고,

더 많은 채널로 소통합니다. 지금 팔로우하세요!