Mission
Created in 1975 the Third World Forum assembles concerned intellectuals committed not only to the pursuance and expansion of the debate on the various possible development alternatives (itself considered in all its economic, social, political and cultural dimensions) but also to make real impact on the society concerned through debates.
Third World Forum mobilises, throughout the three continents (Africa, Asia, Latin America) about 1,000 personalities whose well known names usually associated with both creative thinking, capable of exhaustive probing and analysis of issues as well as men and women who proved their worth through their contributions in the formulation of policies, either as experts or as leaders of thought and social movements.
Third World Forum has been active for almost 30 years, during which it has been functioning as a network of intellectuals of three continents engaged in debates on various aspects of the ‘challenge to the development’ of the peoples concerned.
Since this ‘development’ is in turn defined on the basis of the exigencies of a progressive social context (‘development’ for the benefit of the masses) that could foster enhanced democratisation of society in all of its dimensions (progress of political democracy, social rights, in gender issues, etc), in view of the mutual relationship between the internal social changes peculiar to the peoples and nations concerned and the prevailing trends in the global system. These debates concern macro-economic strategies, the forms of micro-economic management, analysis of economic forces’ vision of society and socio-political movements, in other words, all aspects of social life, as they include all the major issues concerning the world system (world economy, North-South relations, problems of environment and those relating to national and regional security and geo-strategy).Positively the objective of Third World Forum is to identify concrete alternatives and formulate policy recommendations in the various areas in which it conducts research. Those alternatives and policy recommendations should not be the product of teams of researchers studying the problems in isolation.
The product must be the result of interactions between ‘theory and practice’, between the scientific analysis of the problems and challenges on the one hand, strategies of action and targets of actual social movements on the other hand.In that spirit, TWF operates as a ‘network’ associating on the one hand organisations of what is usually called civil society and on the other hand centers of reflection where scientifically equipped thinkers pursue their research in response to the demands formulated explicitly (or implicitly in some cases) by the movements.
That choice is fundamental for Third World Forum. It stems from the idea that real world is not changed through pure ‘academic’ reflections, but basically through the activities of social actors. But simultaneously it considers that the more those actors will be intellectually equipped to analyse the challenges, the more will their formulation of targets for action and policy recommendations be feasible, possible, efficient from the point of view of advancing towards required alternatives.