Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
As the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum in Sri Lanka draws to a close, it’s exciting to reflect on the fact that this county - inhabited and loved by its people from coast to coast, and home to some of the world’s most biodiverse, verdant and abundant forests, rivers and wetlands - is also poised to become the birthplace of a new global meta-movement of social movements committed to bringing health and vitality back to the planet’s communities, countries and climate.
Up in Kandy, in the mountains of central Sri Lanka, we are more than 700 delegates from over 100 countries – including peasants, Indigenous Peoples, fisherfolk, pastoralists, workers, feminist movements, environmentalists, migrants, urban food insecure, consumer groups, researchers, health activists, and artists. We are collectively building a global platform of resistance and solidarity, grounded in the principles of food sovereignty, grassroots feminism, agroecology, social, gender and climate justice, peoples’ and energy sovereignty, and economic democracy.
ETC Group is proud to be supporting the Nyéléni process: our programme and communications staff all present in Sri Lanka, participating in different capacities, including as regional delegates and staff.
We bring our niche ‘advance-warning approach’, helping to counter the threats posed by emerging corporate-driven technologies, such as the digital hijacking of food and farming and the manipulation of the earth’s climate.
We’re also aiming to foster collaborative ways of breaking the hypnotic hold that corporate narratives are currently exerting over the United Nations and other policy making spaces, as well as generally contributing our enthusiasm for bold, creative and accessible communications! We're thrilled that three artists that we work with - Becky Green, Cath Dizon and Charley Hall - submitted the illustrations they created for ETC to the Nyéléni Call for Artists, you can see their work in the online Nyéléni Virtual Gallery.
If you are keen to see just what the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum looks and sounds like you can find out more here:
• Flickr: check out all the photos! There are currently more than 300 with more being added daily.
For other links and information please check the Nyéléni LinkTree and the 3rd Global Nyéléni Forum website.
We will post more news over the next couple of days!