Impact

Beyond the impact achieved through the publication of TWF and partners researches, the TWF has been animating a large set of debates, which have made a real impact. May be the best proof that this impact was not negligible is reflected is the role which TWF has been invited to play in the revival of the social move­ments throughout the whole world, more and more visible since the second half of the 1990s.

In that spirit Third World Forum was among the organisations that decided to set up together, the World Forum for Alternatives created in Cairo in 1997.

Third World Forum and the World Forum for Alternatives took the initiative, in partnership with others (Le Monde Diplomatique and Attac) in organising at Davos in January 1999, ‘another Davos’ opposed to the dominant globalised neo­liberal economic strategies that constituted the agenda of the ‘World Economic Forum’ (dubbed Davos Forum) with comments by a representative sample of the major social organisations and movements (trade unions, peasant organisations, women’s movements, NGOs and think tanks).

The initiative of this other Davos was widely publicised through the creation of the World Social Forum whose first three meetings were held in Porto Alegre (Brazil) in 2001, 2002 and 2003 and in Hyderabad (2003). Third World Forum and the World Forum for Alternatives are therefore actively involved in the develop­ment of the World Social Forum.

Third World Forum is now present in most major social fora, whether national, regional or global. In that way its contribution to the current most important debates is duly reflected.