Initiatives for human security

REPORT 2013International Caux Conferences

www.caux.ch

Conferences are organised by CAUX-Initiatives of Change and Initiatives of Change International every year in Caux, above Montreux, Switzerland. CAUX-Initiatives of Change, a charitable Swiss foundation, owns and runs the Caux conference centre. It is a founder Member of IofC International. The 2013 programme consisted of a series of conferences, each covered in this report. More information, including the full texts of many talks, videos and photos can be found at www.caux.ch/2013.

Editorial

Healing begins with the commitment of one individual 3

Caux-Expo

An astonishing exhibition at the Caux-Expo 4

Official Day

Inspiration for a broad audience 5

Just governance

Seeking a governance of integrity, a complex issue 6Reconciliation after conflict 6How to overcome the ‘resource curse’ 7

Healing history

A shared work of healing and justice 8Coming clean with history 8A global undertaking against racial segregation 9

Caux Dialogue on land and security

Adding ethics to economics 10Practical action on dry-land areas 10Is restoring land a business opportunity? 11Global initiative to preserve dry lands signed by IUCN and UNCCD 11Land and security in the Sahel region 11

Trust and integrity in the global economy

Recipes for leadership in today’s business world 12‘West is not best’ 12Katrin Muff: ‘Developing the human in the leader’ 13‘One is never too young to become a leader’ 13

Children as actors for transforming society

Making child participation matter 14The future of education: mixing innovation, imagination and interaction 15‘We need to listen to the children!’ 15Children’s workshops: encouraging participation 15

Publisher: CAUX-Initiatives of Change foundationEditor in chief: Cynthia JhaveriTexts and photos: Mirjam Beeler, Naïke Bochatay, Laura Graafen, Cynthia Jhaveri, James Nikitine, Pontus WallsténDesign and Print: Brunner AG, Druck und Medien, 6010 Kriens, Switzerland, October 2013

Learning to live in a multicultural world

The heart of resilience 16Building trust across generations 16‘Diversity is richness’ 17

Seeds of inspiration

Silence is golden 18The Charter for Compassion 18Finding inspiration in creative workshops and in the theatre 19Sharing experiences and inspiration 19

International Caux Conferences 2014 20

A few figures 20

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CONTENTS

backbone of the house’s services, to the Caux Scholars who brought an amazing support while working on their curriculum, to the Caux Artists Programme who produced high quality performances and to so many others who would de-serve to be named here.

In his speech, Kofi Annan stressed that ‘one is never too young to be-come a leader’. Nor is one ever too old, may I add, thinking of the late Stéphane Hessel who became a global star at the age of 93 with his booklets Time for Outrage! and Get involved!

In the face of the world’s needs, whatever our inadequacies may be, we must get involved. There is no excuse. May the 2013 interna-tional Caux conferences bring this conviction home to all those who will browse through this report.

Antoine JaulmesPresident

Foundation CAUX-Initiatives of Change

Healing begins with the commitment of one individual

Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, summarised the spirit of our 2013 conference season when he shared his vision of the three pillars on which to build societies. In his concluding address at the ‘Trust and Integrity in the Global Economy’ conference, he called for ‘peace and security, economic development but also the rule of law and respect for human rights. No long-term development is pos-sible without them. Every group of people must be respected. We have to look out for each other and remain vigilant. Genocide be-gins with the humiliation of one individual.’

The conferences broached issues of human security in that neces-sary spirit of listening and care. One highlight was the Caux Dia-logue for Land and Security which gathered together high level par-ticipants around Luc Gnacadja, Ex-ecutive Secretary of the UN’s Convention to Combat Desertifi-cation, for a three-day consulta-tion. If this battle is lost, 60 million people could migrate from sub-Saharan Africa towards North Af-rica and Europe by 2020.

The Healing History conference brought the issue of resentment and trust into focus, as well as the need for stories, more than facts, to bring about change. This was particularly emphasised by Dr Gail Christopher who leads the Kellogg Foundation’s wide-ranging racial equity actions in the USA, sup-porting racial healing in communi-ties and aiming to end structural racism.

Children as actors for transform-ing society was a world premiere, in partnership with like-minded organisations such as the Child-to-Child Trust. The conference incor-porated a large group of children and addressed – with them – the theme of childrens’ participation, an important emerging need as children can no longer be shielded from the sound and fury of aggres-sion and war or from the pressure to perform.

We owe immense gratitude to our sponsors, staff and volunteers for making these 2013 conferences possible. Special thanks to the conference organising teams, to the Caux Interns who were the

CAUX REPORT 2013 3

EDITORIAL

An impressive exhibition at the Caux-ExpoDuring the whole summer, an exhibition of EPFL architecture students took place in the exhibition space at the conference centre.

The exhibit was inaugurated by Andrew Stallybrass, director of the Caux-Expo,

and Christoph Spreng, CAUX-Initiatives of Change Foundation Council member, in the presence of Laurent Wehrli, Mayor of Montreux, and recently elected Presi-dent of the Grand Conseil of the Vaud Canton.

Organised in a joint partnership with CAUX-Initiatives of Change, the SDC (Development Society of Caux), the SHMS (Swiss Hotel Management School), the Montreux City council and the EPFL (Polytechnic Federal School of Lausanne), this public event was a great opportunity to showcase a model of the Caux mountain and twenty different drawings of architec-tural projects.

Andrea Bassi, professor in architecture at the EPFL and head of the project, conducted a presentation of the 3rd year students’ audacious drawings. The stu-dents worked on an entirely fictional project over eight months for which they had to create 20,000 square meters of buildings, including office space, com-mercial space and living space in the Caux village. The purpose of the project was to open up the debate around a

Lake Léman metropolis, with an empha-sis on Caux and the Riviera region of the Vaud Canton.

The students challenged themselves to overcome the difficulties that such a construction implicates on a steep, inac-cessible mountain.

At the crossroads of architecture, urban planning and ecological, futuristic and sustainability values, the results were curi-ous, very well researched and often phe-nomenal. We can mention the one project that imagined a prolongation of the Caux-Palace down onto the cliff edge, thus cre-ating a massive 14-storey promontory.

Andrea Bassi explains the projects of his students.

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CAUX-EXPO

Inspiration for a broad audienceOn June 30, the public came to the traditional Official Day to which representatives of the international organisations in Geneva, diplomats and representatives of the federal and cantonal and local authorities are invited annually. The speakers shared with the audience their visions on just governance.

The Official Day of the Caux 2013 ‘Initiatives for human security’ opened

with speeches by Antoine Jaulmes and Dr Omnia Marzouk, the presidents of CAUX-Initiatives of Change and Initia-tives of Change International, respectively. They pointed out the importance of striv-ing for change on all levels – from grass-roots to leadership, beginning with our-selves. ‘You need to think big but also work on small things,’ Dr Marzouk noted.

Swiss Ambassador Claude Altermatt from the Federal Department of Foreign Af-fairs started a plenary session ‘Towards a just governance.’ He paid tribute to IofC’s continuous efforts to bring together peo-ple from various backgrounds and engage them in dialogue, and underlined the common goals of Switzerland and IofC: the promotion of peace, democracy and rule of law through dialogue and com-mon understanding. ‘Switzerland is proud to support these series of conferences,’ he stated.

Dr Cornelio Sommaruga, Honorary President of IofC International and for-mer President of the International Com-mittee of the Red Cross, pointed at the consequences of globalization and the

responses it requires on all levels. In turn, he highlighted that just govern-ance and human security demand a ‘globalization of responsibilities’.

Building on her work with the Cana-dian indigenous people, Dr Maggie Hodgson emphasized the role of the community in identity building and personal change – the starting point of just governance.

The day ended with a much applauded speech by the Congolese Senator and for-mer Minister of Economy Moïse Nyarug-abo, a former rebel who is now committed to the fight against corruption. With a personal account, he illustrated that fight-ing corruption starts with ourselves. Stressing the responsibility of Africans in the fight for good governance on their continent, he also reminded the West of its responsibility to assist in this effort.

Antoine Jaulmes and Omnia Marzouk

Claude Altermatt Moïse Nyarugabo Cornelio Sommaruga

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OFFICIAL DAY

Seeking a governance of integrity, a complex issueDuring the ‘Just governance’ conference, a plenary session on seeking a governance of integ-rity inspired a lot of discussion, during and after the meeting. Two of the main themes of the conference were corruption and extractive industries.

Ekuru Aukot directed the Committee of Experts which developed the 2010

Kenyan constitution. Kenya’s constitution now sets out the qualities expected of its political leaders, he said. ‘But without drivers of change, agents of integrity, the constitution may not be worth the paper it is written on.’ He is working to bring younger people into politics through a model of representation whereby more political power is distributed to Kenya’s 47 counties.

Shehu Sani, President of the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, said that democracy is the foundation of integrity in govern-ance. ‘During three decades of military rule, some of us had to stand against dic-tatorship,’ he said. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and served four years before military rule ended in 1999. ‘Now we are working for transparency in gov-ernance and we are making progress.’

Lucienne Munono, a school principal from the Democratic Republic of Congo, told of her struggle to overcome corrup-tion in education. ‘When I refused to allow my students to bribe the inspec-tors, the students and their teachers

urged me to change my mind,’ she said. ‘I stood firm, suggesting we should in-stead give our candidates extra lessons in their weakest subjects. They accepted and that year we achieved an 80% suc-cess rate.’

Oleksandra Baklanova from Ukraine said that, in the absence of vision from political leaders, civil society can offer this vision. ‘In Ukraine we created the Nestor Group of professionals from many walks of life.’ As one project, they challenged the strategy of the city of Kiev, which focused on tourism. ‘We said that the priority should be the intel-lectual and creative services which shape the environment which tourists wish to experience. Gradually this approach re-ceived support and has now been voted a city strategy.’

Lucienne Munono Oleksandra Baklanova

Reconciliation after conflictA discussion around reconciliation, whether racial, religious or political, showed how civil society has an important part to play in educating reconciliation, transformation and forgiveness.

The ability to reconcile foes and bridge divisions is a vital attribute of anyone

seeking just governance. For Ashraf Ali, President of the FATA Research Centre in Northern Pakistan, the division to be

bridged lies between the state and society. ‘Most people feel excluded from the po-litical process because, in their view, it benefits only the elite.’ He is working to improve the quality of governance and he

also believes that the West could help. ‘If the money spent on drone attacks in my region went into developing the region, support for the militants would drain away.’

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JUST GOVERNANCE

The conference in brief

The conference on Just Governance explored the structures and personal qualities which promote ethical, in-clusive governance. It was held be-tween June 29 and July 3. Described as a ‘gathering of changemakers’ by one of its organisers, the conference provided politicians, government of-ficials, academics and others from over 30 nations with a chance to dis-cuss governance issues from a practi-cal point of view.

Ashraf Ali Inderjit Bhogal

Farai Maguwu

Tadesse Meskela

At present, Zimbabwean Farai Maguwu said, ‘African leaders col-

lude with powerful interests outside Africa to control their resources and Africans are alienated from these re-sources.’ Mr Maguwu is the Director of Zimbabwe’s Centre for Natural Resource Governance and a recipient of a Human Rights Watch award for his ‘tremendous courage in working to end rampant vio-lations of human rights’.

Chidi Odinkalu, Chair of Nigeria’s Hu-man Rights Commission, told of the agreement reached in Nigeria to include

Bedan Mbugua, director of a major Ken-yan media company, described his deci-sion in 2009 to meet the leader of Kenya’s ruthless gangster organization, Mungiki, whose members had just killed 27 people in cold blood. They met, and their discus-sion profoundly affected the leader, who ordered his followers to stop the killing – a decision which has held ever since.

From Northern Ireland, Inderjit Bhogal told of the work of Corrymeela, a com-munity devoted to reconciling the war-ring factions in that country’s conflict. ‘A peace agreement was signed 15 years ago,’

How to overcome the ‘resource curse’A plenary and some workshops focused on enabling the developing world’s natural resources to benefit genuine development.

communities affected by mining in the contract negotiations and ensure they receive a percentage of the royalties. He urged others to work for this provision.

The conference also heard from Africans who have won back control of their resources. Tadesse Meskela, General Manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union of Ethiopia, described the growth of cooperatives in his country, which have enabled coffee farmers to receive millions of dollars more from their exported coffee. And from Afghanistan, Benjamin Phelan, Technical Director of Future Brilliance, described their work in training jewellers to ensure that the gemstones mined in the country are then converted into jew-ellery, providing employment and in-come, before being exported.

Neil Buhne, Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Recovery, outlined the struggle in the region of Switzerland where the mining giant Glencore Xstrata has its headquarters. Many residents of the region argue that some of the taxes they receive from Glen-core should go to charities in countries suffering the consequences of the extrac-tion of raw materials. This, he said, exemplified a growing view in the devel-oped world that extractive industries are

he said. ‘But reconciliation is harder work than peace. Like Caux, Corrymeela is cre-

ating spaces in which difficult people can meet and hold difficult conversations.’

exploiting developing countries and this recognition could help reduce conflict over resources.

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A shared work of healing and justiceThe opening plenary of the ‘Healing history’ conference addressed ‘our dream for the twenty-first century’: embracing our common humanity in the work of healing and justice.

Dr Gail Christopher, vice president for program strategy at the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation, underlining the fallacy of the idea of racism, called on those present to ‘be in the business of changing a belief system. All humans are equal.’

Doreen Lawrence from the Stephen Lawrence Trust (UK) emphasized this point by the example of institutional racism of the UK police in the investiga-tion of the murder of her son in 1993 by 5 young white men. ‘Stephen was a bright young man, had a future and that was taken away from him. And for the past 20 years, my family and I have been fighting for justice. The struggle has been enormous and has taken a toll on

our family. Two men are now in prison for Stephen’s murder, but it has taken nearly 20 years to get there!’

Lisa Jackson-Pulver from the University of New South Wales (Australia) pointed to patterns of health disparity between Caucasians and Aboriginals as evidence of structural racism. John Powell from the Haas Institute for a fair and inclu-

sive society, University of California Berkeley, showed how influences on the subconscious mind can lead to racist ac-tions and policies. Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson and biographer of Mahatma Gandhi, referred to the challenge of re-ligious extremism and summed up the session with the question: ‘What does overriding loyalty to humankind de-mand of us?’Gail Christopher

Coming clean with historyTruth telling, healing and social change was at the heart of one of the plenaries.

Nine speakers addressed the topic of the impact of racial history and how

to address it. John W. Franklin, from the National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington, DC, USA), spoke of the need for a balance in historical accounts of racial conflicts, par-ticularly during the slavery era: ‘It is about knowing our part of the story but also about knowing the other person’s story.’

Ciraj Rassool, from the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, said recon-ciliation ‘is a discourse, it is a story’. Speak-ing of the importance of belonging but also of the human interaction with each other and with the problem of (de-)coloni-sation and provenance, he added that ‘land must not only be treated as property. Land is also landscape. Land is the land with human history on top of it.’

A variety of geographical and historical examples about racism emerged. Paul Komesaroff from Monash University in Melbourne spoke of Caucasians and Abo-riginals in Australia: ‘Race doesn’t exist but racism does. In order to progress, in the prospect of honest dialogue, we have to be prepared to put ourselves at risk.’ Scott Weber, director of Interpeace, com-mented on the importance of NGOs

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HEALING HISTORY

Michael Wenger from the Joint centre for political and economic studies

in Washington, DC, USA, pointed out the importance of healing the wounds of racism. This was followed by a transmit-ted message from the Director General of the UN Office at Geneva, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who emphasized the unique space for dialogue across communities created at Caux and its ability to formu-late innovative solutions for a better world.

Marc Leyenberger from the European commission against racism and intoler-ance from France highlighted the exist-ence of numerous websites that incite racial hate, and the crucial need to denounce these. It is tolerance and open-ness that makes peace possible. ‘But we must systemically renounce the voices of hate and violence. We cannot tolerate the intolerable.’

In her keynote address, Dr Gail Christo-pher, vice president for the program strat-egy of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, called for the creation of a global fund ‘for the healing of racism’. Racial segregation disables development in all sectors of so-ciety in the long term. It is crucial to find ways to ‘move people beyond their hard-ened beliefs,’ she said. ‘I believe this is the real work – to assert a system of common humanity.’

The conference in brief

From 3 to 7 July, a conference on ‘Healing history: overcoming racism, seeking equity, building community’ was held in Caux. While mostly focusing on inequal-ities related to race and class in English-speaking countries, this conference, which was designed in collaboration with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, also addressed other issues, such as discrimination against the Roma in Kosovo, relations between India and Pakistan in the Punjab, and the aftermath of the civil war in Chad. As participants shared a common concern for wounds left by historical events, they discussed ways to move forward without forgetting their roots. A full report is available at www.us.iofc.org.

A global undertaking against racial segregationHow can we move people beyond their hardened beliefs?

Ciraj Rassool

working together: ‘The peace building community and the transitional justice community need to reconcile, it is a pro-

Mireille Fanon-Mendès-France

Marc Leyenberger

cess that needs to be triggered.’ Mireille Fanon-Mendès-France (Frantz Fanon Foundation, UN independent expert)

summed up: ‘There isn’t a superior civilisa-tion and an inferior civilisation. There is only one civilisation: Humanity.’

Scott Weber

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Adding ethics to economicsThe first session of the ‘Caux Dialogue on land and security’ focused on the future of our resources and on the importance of ethics and values in our economic model.

Rattan Lal, professor of Soil Science and Director of the Carbon Manage-

ment and Sequestration Center at the Ohio State University, made a detailed ex-posé of the future of the planet’s soil and resources, placing his hope in a renewal of values. He called for sustainable soil man-agement, reminding the audience that all cultures consider land as the basis of life.

Responding to Prof Lal’s emphasis on val-ues, the Secretary General of the Club of

Practical action on dry-land areasDuring a morning plenary, the conference looked at effective grassroots action.

Bianca Jagger, founder and chair of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foun-

dation and ambassador for the IUCN Plant a pledge campaign, emphasised in her speech the importance of land and land degradation and put an accent on other very serious environmental issues, such as global warming. The IUCN Plant a pledge campaign has undertaken to elicit pledges from governments and land-owners to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2020, making it the largest restoration initiative in the world.Simon Maddrell, executive director of Ex-cellent Development, emphasised the im-

portance of restoring dry-land areas, pointing out that 80% of the poor people in the world live there. Tony Rinaudo, natural resources advisor, World vision, Australia, described his reforestation work in Niger, where reviving tree stumps with underground root systems that are still alive has reforested 5 million hectares and increased crop yields dramatically. Adam Koniuszewski, chief operating officer, Green Cross International, spoke about the various environmental actions under-taken by the Green Cross Foundation, such as the destruction of chemical weap-ons and obsolete pesticides, a very expen-sive process.Adam Koniuszewski

Bianca Jagger

Rome, Ian Johnson, proposed a complete revision of our outdated 20th century eco-nomic model starting with a wide-ranging review of our fundamental value system.

Bianca Jagger, founder and chair of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation, member of the Executive Director’s Lead-ership Council at Amnesty International USA, highlighted the importance of hu-man rights and empowering women in the context of land restoration, claiming that

‘we will either stand together or fall to-gether’.

This session provided the audience with examples of how land, security and human behaviour are related.

Ian Johnson

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CAUX DIALOGUE ON LAND AND SECURITY

Is restoring land a business opportunity?Projects are best co-created by business, farmers and civil society.

The conference in brief

The ‘Caux Dialogue on Land and Security’, held from 7 to 11 July, brought together people sharing a common concern for desertification, the effects of poor land management, and security. Adopting a unique approach, the conference focused on the link between land degradation and peace. In addition, various work-shops looked at the successes and failures of initiatives aiming to preserve land and build trust. The conference was convened by Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Deserti-fication, and Mohamed Sahnoun, Chair of the Caux Forum for Hu-man Security.

Allan Savory – a Zimbabwean biolo-gist, farmer, soldier, exile, and envi-

ronmentalist, winner of the 2003 Banksia International Award and of the 2010 Buckminster Fuller Challenge – started off by challenging the audience: as we are increasingly promoting sustainable agri-culture, organic and local food, how does that differ from what was done by our ancestors?

He went on to talk about desertification – ‘nothing is going to build peace as much Allan Savory

Luc Gnacadja and Julia Marton-Lefèvre

Land and security in the Sahel region

HE Amedou Ould Abdallah, from Mauritania, President of Centre 4s and former UN Special Representative to Burundi, West Africa and Somalia, introduced the session. He focused on the multi-faceted security threats to the Sahel region and how useable land – which is getting scarcer – plays a central role exerting pressure on populations. He was joined by a high-level panel which included HE Ridha Bouabid, Ambassador of the Francophonie; Luc Gnacadja; Chris Reij, of the World Resources Institute; and Ramadane Barma, Secretary General, la Médiature de la République, Chad. Addressing security concerns through land restoration was felt to be a promising approach to the region’s situation.

as reversing desertification’. According to him, the only way to do this is to reintro-duce livestock on dry lands, managed so as to mimic the effect of the great wild herds which used to graze generations ago. ‘Land management has to be holistic, it cannot continue to be reductionist,’ he claimed.

Once a panel of experts joined him, rep-resenting business and academia, the con-versation turned to the relationship between business and land restoration.

Global initiative to preserve dry lands signed by IUCN and UNCCD

On July 10th, Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General of the Interna-

tional Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Conven-tion to Combat Desertification (UN-CCD), signed an agreement to cooperate

The panel agreed that the urgent need to restore soil represents a business opportu-nity. Business, farmers and civil society should co-create solutions.

in drawing global attention to the value of dry lands.Julia Marton-Lefèvre described desertifi-cation as a ‘major threat to global sustain-ability, peace and security’. Luc Gnacadja added: ‘Dry lands are regions that not only house diverse animal and plant spe-cies but also about one third of the world’s human population.’ Additionally, they are critical sources of the global food supply.Before the signing, Julia Marton-Lefèvre planted a tree in honour of Gnacadja’s role at the UNCCD and Caux in bring-ing together the land restoration and se-curity agendas.

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Peter Brew

Recipes for leadership in today’s business worldWhat does it take to be a successful leader of integrity in today’s world? This was the ques-tion addressed by Joe Garner, former Head of HSBC UK retail bank, during his interactive keynote, opening the ‘Trust and integrity in the global economy’ conference.

Joe Garner discussed the issue of ‘lead-ing business towards 2020: the impor-

tance of character in a transparent world’. According to him, the recent financial crisis had resulted in ‘a massive pressure for change’ in the business realm, a dras-tic erosion of trust, and increasing corpo-rate scandals.

‘West is not best’Peter Brew, non-executive chairman of Trans4M, Center for Integral Development, gave a public lecture entitled ‘Initiatives for a new global economy’.

Peter Brew tackled the subject of sus-tainability in today’s global economy

and in businesses. He commented on the fact that following the rise of the East, ma-jor changes had occurred in the economy, and that each sector had its own problems. Some are due to changing situations in the world and the development of certain events, such as increased social instability and poverty leading to social unrest.Brew outlined possible solutions to the problems businesses face today, emphasis-

ing that ‘we have to understand that West is not best. We do not dominate the world!’, and that ‘we have to get sustainability into the DNA of businesses’. He underlined that ‘companies have to think beyond compli-ance: just because something is legal does not mean it’s right, and we have to start doing what is right. We have got to see each other not as potential enemies, but as part-ners for the future. The west can no longer see the rest of the world as its servant. We are partners needing to work together.’

anything, but that the business world had frozen us. As long as we keep our human-ity, things pass.’ Because of that, it is paramount to create work environments ‘where people can be themselves, where people can be people first, and bankers second’.

These new trends are, according to Gar-ner, ‘here for the long term, and they are not going to go away’. Using personal an-ecdotes, his sense of humour and studies, he illustrated how managers can act with integrity by trusting people, a message

Joe Garner

Therefore, how can business leaders do better? His solution at HSBC was to gather his brand new team and have everyone share ‘what they love, what they fear, and what they have in their pocket’. They realised that ‘we can deal with all these issues [of life] as human beings. So, we concluded that we could deal with

that was well received by the audience, as shown by the enthusiastic applause that followed his presentation.

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TRUST AND INTEGRITY IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

The conference in brief

From 13–19 July, the ‘Trust and integrity in the global economy’ (TIGE) confer-ence focused on ways to bring economic justice and environmental sustainability into today’s world economy. There were distinguished keynote speakers from the grassroots as well as the corporate level. They spoke of the potential and necessity of ethics in the various dimensions of the economy – from education to business-making – and explored ways for transformation. A 32-page report is available online at www.cauxbusiness.org.

‘One is never too young to become a leader’Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations and founder of the Kofi An-nan Foundation, closed the conference. His intervention, often humorous, was followed by a 45-minute session of animated questions and answers.

Kofi Annan said how happy he was to return to Caux after his previous visit

in 2007. He explored the challenges in human security matters posed by the eco-nomic environment, which have evolved greatly over the last few years. ‘I travelled the world and have talked to people,’ he said. ‘They are angry; they don’t manage to pay their bills.’ There is a need to re-establish trust in the authorities, he said.

He particularly emphasised the impor-tance of the younger generation, crucial for the future, and on the best way to pre-pare them for their role: ‘Getting degrees for what purpose? Wouldn’t it be better to give them vocational training? We have to

take care of the young who have to work to maintain the older ones. It’s a real chal-lenge protecting both.’ He encouraged them to launch themselves into action: ‘Young people are determined to par-ticipate in civil society, to become young entrepreneurs, to become leaders. They just need help and advice. One is never too young to become a leader.’

Kofi Annan also evoked the situation in Northern Africa and in the Middle East. ‘People have taken their destiny in hand,’ he noted. He nevertheless warned against the effects of the street demonstrations, by underlining that they shouldn’t overthrow real democracies: ‘The streets are not

equivalent to parliaments or to elections.’ About Syria, at the heart of the audience’s questions, he noted especially that the conflict should not expand to the greater region and called for further diplomatic efforts. He concluded by emphasising the three pillars on which societies should build themselves: peace and security, eco-nomic development but also the rule of law and respect for human rights.

Kofi Annan

Katrin Muff

Katrin Muff: ‘Developing the human in the leader’

During a session focused on how peo-ple and civil society can take action

to bring change in their communities, Dr Katrin Muff, Dean of the Business School Lausanne, spoke about measures that her school has taken to promote ‘management education for the world’.

She told the audience about the 50+20 initiative she launched at the Rio+20 Summit in 2012, a project aiming to find new ways for management education to

support sustainability. Indeed, she claimed that educational institutions have a responsibility towards society: that of ‘developing the human in the leader and the leader in the human’.

With the belief that ‘we need companies that are different from what they were in the past’, her school has adopted a com-pletely new approach which, instead of aiming for short-term profits, favours the planet and the common good.

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Making child participation matterThe first ‘Children as actors for transforming society’ conference addressed the issue of child participation from different angles.

Gerison Lansdown, Chair of the Child-to-Child Trust, opened the

conference by unpacking the essential ele-ments necessary for children’s participa-tion. This included: the right to be heard

– a fundamental value of children’s rights; an entitlement – not a privilege; both a substantive right and a general principle to inform the realisation of all other rights

– a means and an end; a right both for children as individuals and as a constitu-ency. This is a challenge to traditional power bases.

Jean Zermatten, the Swiss founder and director of the International institute for the rights of the child, explained how the context of child participation has changed since the introduction of the UN Conven-tion on the rights of the child (UNCRC), in 1989. He said that ‘the participation of children reverses what we previously be-lieved in. Children are becoming social actors, who we listen to and who increas-ingly influence our social lives.’

He stressed the importance of ‘not view-ing children as objects or property, but to recognise them as individuals with rights’.

He described this change of view as a revolution that is not yet over and that has to be worked on: ‘We have not yet moved on to really recognising the status of chil-dren and I hope that this meeting will help!’

Following this, Jana Hainsworth from Eurochild and Daniel Kropf from the

Universal Education Foundation pre-sented the initiative ‘Learning for Well-Being’. Jana Hainsworth noted that ‘in order to change society, it is us adults that need to change their perception. Our job is not to shape children to fit in our own ideas; it is to unfold the character of each child to help them to find direction in life.’

Daniel Kropf with his daughterGerison Lansdown Jean Zermatten

Child-to-Child TrustChildren changing their lives

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CHILDREN AS ACTORS FOR TRANSFORMING SOCIETY

The future of education: mixing innovation, imagination and interactionTwo distinct but not incompatible visions of our education model were presented.

Marie Wernham, international child rights worker and consultant for

UNICEF, started the discussion with the pivotal role of education, laying out the concept of ‘Child Rights Education’ through a presentation representing the different stages of education with roots, branches and leaves. ‘How does child participation relate to the different parts of the tree? It is a learning process, which involves learning as a right, learning about rights, learning through rights and learning for rights.’ She concluded with a figurative slide of an arch: ‘We need to

build the arch of human rights, with both children and adults together.’Christopher Clouder, founder of the Euro-pean Council for Steiner Waldorf Educa-tion, talked about education and ways to ameliorate it. He started with quotes from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s ‘The Little Prince’, favoring a more dream-like, imagi-native approach of education practices. He emphasised the importance of creativity in education and alternative methods of learn-ing. According to him, ‘there is no recipe. Everything comes from the inside. We spend our lives learning from each other.’

He concluded by reinforcing the socializing role of schools and repeated the importance of incorporating spirituality, emotion and love in our education model.

Children’s workshops: encouraging participationWhile adults attended the plenary sessions of the conference, children were busy with their own workshops.

Anna Bondarenko, who is a youth worker with Foundations for Free-

dom in Eastern Europe, is part of the team who organised these workshops. In her group, fifteen children coming from ten countries, speaking six different languages and aged six to ten gathered every morn-ing. Through games, theatre and drawings, the topics of the plenary sessions were dis-cussed with the children, who surprised adults with their wisdom.‘Sometimes, they say something, and you just think “wow”!’, she said, smiling at the thought. As she explained on the day

health was addressed, a nine-year-old boy claimed that ‘to be healthy, you need to be honest. If you are not honest, you feel guilty, and you feel it in your body: you don’t feel hungry, you get depressed. So, feeling guilty influences your body and your health.’Children were given an opportunity to share their thoughts with adults after the workshops, during discussion groups. Bondarenko was very enthusiastic regard-ing the outcomes of these conversations. However, she admitted that ‘as adults, we got much more from children than they

The conference in brief

From 24–30 July, the ‘Children as ac-tors for transforming society’ (CATS) conference, a joint initiative of IofC and the Child-to-Child Trust, took place for the first time. In line with the topic, children were actively in-volved – around 60 children and teen-agers participated in the conference. In the plenaries as well as in separate children’s workshops and mixed dis-cussion groups, the participants ex-plored ways to enhance children’s participation in fields such as educa-tion or post-conflict reconstruction.

Marie WernhamChristopher Clouder

got from us. If you are ready to really listen to children, you realise that there are many things that they already know.’

Children changing their lives

‘We need to listen to the children!’

Children’s health issues were at the heart of one of the plenaries. Sir Al-bert Aynsley-Green (1st Children’s commissioner for England) empha-sized the importance of listening to children. ‘Their health needs are staggering,’ he said, talking about children with physical disabilities. He ended with a few saddening fig-ures, stating that on average, in the UK, a child experiences the loss of a parent every 22 minutes. It is very important for these children to have someone to talk to in such hard times, or they may fall into depression and feel excluded at school.

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The heart of resilienceIn an effort to respond to the feedback from last year’s participants, this year’s ‘Learning to live in a multicultural world’ conference was much more interactive and participative as demonstrated in a plenary on ‘How to build resilient communities’.

Nassima Aboun, a psychologist from Belgium/Algeria, shared her per-

sonal experience with resilience after los-ing her job and everything she owned: ‘I had to start from scratch […] and little by little to overcome my problems – to do that I started within myself.’Hiroshi Ishida, Professor from the Insti-tute of Business and Accounting at the Kawansei Gakuim University, Japan, ex-plained what the tsunami meant for the Japanese: ‘People search for a meaning behind the disaster… They find it in the need to survive to tell the next generations and learn from our mistakes.’

Subsequently, Glenda Eoyang, Founding Executive Director at the Human Systems Dynamics Institute, took over the facilita-tion of the plenary, making this morning session a joyful experience. She explained that the process of building a community was happening in the room with ‘adaptive action’. ‘The questions: “What?” “So what?” “And now what?” are always help-ing when there is a problem and therefore the heart of resilience.’Her explanation was illustrated with a game, the marshmallow challenge, which provided great fun for the partici-pants. They had to build the highest

tower possible using 20 spaghetti noo-dles, one meter of tape, one meter of string and one marshmallow. The debriefing showed that every group noticed different learning points, but shared one observation: everybody in the team was aiming for the same goal, but it was their differences that helped to build the tower.

Building trust across generationsTwo case studies illustrated trust building during a morning plenary.

The first case study was presented by Marcel Obst and Rodrigo Araneda

(Xarxa Antirumores), from Barcelona. Their organisation works in trying to re-duce prejudices against migrant communi-ties in Barcelona. These include people who had to move from their countries due to their different religious/cultural beliefs or sexual orientations. Their case study fo-

cused on a young man from Georgia, who had to flee his country due to his homo-sexual orientation. Upon arriving in Spain, he was helped by members of the organisa-tion who enabled him to feel comfortable and be accepted by others.The second case study was the personal story of Seren Dalkiran, (Energized Earth Network) originally from Turkey, but born

and raised in the Netherlands, in very dif-ficult and disadvantaged neighbourhoods. In these areas, multiculturalism and inte-gration were foreign concepts and migrants felt left out, thus becoming outsiders.Over time, she became politically active and tried to push her multiculturalism as an asset rather than a defect. As she stated, ‘diversity is not a handicap, it is an indis-

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LEARNING TO LIVE IN A MULTICULTURAL WORLD

The conference in brief

From 1–6 August, the participants of ‘Learning to live in a multicultural world’ (LLMW), which this year put a special emphasis on intergenera-tional trust, could experience a whole new format of the conference: key-note speeches were abandoned and instead, the conference built mainly on the knowledge and exchange of the participants. This left room for many group discussions, dialogues and interactive exercises aimed at building trust across cultures, com-munities and generations, and at em-powering participants for action.

‘Diversity is richness’One morning was dedicated to the topic ‘Benefitting from the power of diversity’.

Fatma Wakil, a young member of the conference team who is originally

from Afghanistan but grew up in the Netherlands, shared her experience of liv-ing in these two countries. Her reflection and the subsequent discussion particu-larly raised the issue of lacking the sense of real belonging. ‘I felt too Dutch in Af-ghanistan, and too Afghan in the Nether-lands,’ Fatma noted. However, one con-clusion was that people rooted in multiple

cultures can also become potential bridge-builders, connecting different cultures and countries.

In a number of exercises the participants subsequently explored and discussed the value and potential difficulties of diver-sity: The majority agreed that ‘diversity is richness,’ as one participant put it, how-ever, more opportunities to ‘learn to live

pensable strength! For me it has been an incredible enrichment!’ She concluded by saying that we should not forget or dis-credit what past generations have done, but

in a multicultural world’ are necessary to avoid that diversity becomes a source of conflict. Glenda Eoyang, Founding Ex-ecutive Director at Human Systems Dy-namics Institute, underlined that it is crucial not only to recognise differences, but to connect across them: ‘Turn judge-ment into curiosity, turn conflict into shared exploration, turn defensiveness into self-reflection.’

instead work and build on their legacy to bring about change. Applying the participatory approach, par-ticipants did not simply listen to those case

studies but met in their discussion groups to reflect upon a one of the case studies, sharing their ideas either in the form of song, drama or art.

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‘Good friends tell you the truth, but they do it with love.’ Although it

could have been made with more love, it was a remark of a friend, when he was 24, which led Graham Turner to experience silence for the first time. During 15 min-utes, he reflected upon what he had done in his life, becoming aware of things for which he should apologise.

As time passed, he focused on his success-ful career, forgetting about this episode. However, he came to think about silence again, realising that he had not lived in line with his values. Sacrificing his savings, he started repairing past actions, ‘obeying an inner voice’.

In ‘The Power of Silence’, published last year, he set out the experiences of various encounters with silence: in a monastery in Egypt, in prison, with a man who had murdered one of his friends and for whom meditation sessions had been life chang-ing, or in Colorado, with a Trappist priest. As Graham Turner said, ‘a lot of people in

the Western world are afraid of silence. However, there are many people who are preoccupied with silence: musicians re-gard silence as just as important as the

Silence is goldenInterviewed by Caux Books director Andrew Stallybrass, Graham Turner, author and journal-ist, told a captivated audience about the power of silence. This opened the first plenary of the ‘Seeds of inspiration’ event.

Andrew Stallybrass and Graham Turner

The Charter for Compassion

The Charter for Compassion was the theme of one of the plenaries. It was created by the British theologian Ka-ren Armstrong. The Charter is inspired by the Golden Rule that states: ‘Do unto others what you would like done to you.’ Compassion is universal and the Charter calls for people to act accord-ingly: ‘to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures… and to treat everybody, without ex-ception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.’ It further expresses the belief that ‘compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries… It is the path to en-lightenment and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful community.’

notes they are playing.’ He encouraged everyone to consider silence as a resource and to have moments of silence and reflec-tion.

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SEEDS OF INSPIRATION

Sharing experiences and inspirationThe last morning plenary explored more personal stories with specific examples of disaster relief from Japan, while the closing plenary focused on participant feedback.

Mayumi Matsushita from Japan shared her disaster relief experience work-

ing as a volunteer to aid those in need fol-lowing the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami in Fukushima. She pointed out that ‘if we have the will, we are all capable of making a difference.’ This was put into action in

Japan, where various examples of success-ful relief aid were established. Mayumi’s group had several main focus areas, such as rebuilding and cleaning up devastated homes. She talked of hosting tea times in temporary homes in the most affected ar-eas, thereby trying to bring a smile onto the very saddened faces of people who had lost all their possessions, homes and, in some cases, family members and friends. As Mayumi concluded, even though there is still a lot of work to be done, Japanese people never give up.The evening plenary summed up the spirit of these few days: ‘Seeds’ was intended to focus on the participants – the content would be driven by their experiences and their inspiration. Among the numerous comments, a young man from London

The conference in brief

The Seeds of inspiration event (7–12 August) offered participants an oppor-tunity to share their experiences and the sources of their inspiration (whether an experience of faith, of art, of science, the influence of another person or of a world event, etc.). The aim of the event was to expand people’s horizons, to re-fresh their commitment and to renew themselves. The format was very par-ticipative and concentrated on interac-tions between people.

Mayumi Matsushita

During the conference, the participants chose among a wide range of creative

workshops and discussions, including Jap-anese calligraphy, the topic of ‘reconciling religious difference’, circle dance, magic and juggling. These provided a space for personal encounters, giving participants from all over the world, the chance to ex-press their creativity, learn new skills and have unexpected experiences – making the conference a true source of inspiration.Two of the evening events revived the great tradition of theatre at Caux: a one-man show on a spiritual folktale with John Locke, The Legend of the Fourth King, and a modern adaptation of some scenes from Shakespeare, by the Intermission Youth Theatre from London.

Finding inspiration in creative workshops and in the theatre

showed his overall feeling by saying that he ‘felt plugged into this event’.

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CAUX-Initiatives of ChangePO Box 3909CH-6002 LucerneE-mail: info@caux.chWeb: www.caux.chTel +41 41 310 12 61Fax +41 41 311 22 14

Initiatives of Change International1, rue de Varembé, PO Box 3CH-1211 Geneva 20E-mail: iofc-international@iofc.orgWeb: www.iofc.orgTel +41 22 749 16 20Fax +41 22 733 02 67

A few figures

• 1451 participants

• 109 children and young persons (up to 17)

• 102 nationalities

• 13,866 bed nights

• 9.6 average bed nights

• Incl. 71 interns (and team)

• Incl. 29 Caux Scholars (and team)

• Incl. 32 Caux Artists (and team)

• Incl. 125 volunteers

International Caux Conferences 2014Exploring the human factor in global change

30 June–4 JulyCaux dialogue on land and securityAddressing the connections between poverty, conflict and land degradation

5–10 July Trust and integrity in the global economyInspiring people and purpose for sustainable prosperity

12–17 JulyJust governance for human securityStructures and personal qualities which foster ethical, inclusive governance

20–24 July Seeds of inspirationSharing inspiration that shapes lives

26 July–1 AugustChildren as actors for transforming societyYoung advocates for change

3–8 August Living in a multicultural worldInnovation and action for social cohesion

10–13 AugustInternational peace-builder’s forumConnecting personal and systemic change

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