Since 1994, the Alliance has rallied women and men who, everywhere in the world, are seeking to develop and share the thinking, experiences, and activities of their work for a more responsible and united world. Today it has brought together more than 2,500 persons from 120 countries - Allies who are signatories of the Platform for a Responsible and United World - and several thousand non-signatories, who are active within the Geocultural, Topical and Collegiate (socioprofessional) Paths or working on the Alliance's communication tools.

Together, they have fixed a first date to imagine and prepare the 2000-2001 Assembly.

A two-year process is scheduled from January 2000 to December 2001, consisting in:

• the simultaneous organization, by all Workshops, of considerations and discussions leading to concrete, collectively elaborated and approved proposals;

• the organization of meetings and exchanges within every Workshop and with other groups within, at the margin, or outside of the Alliance;

• a networking and visibility effort.

The 2000-2001 Assembly features two key moments: four simultaneous continental assemblies to be held in June 2001 and a world Assembly gathering 400 persons in December 2001. These assemblies will integrate and fruitfully exploit the contributions and initiatives of all those who will have taken part in the 2000-2001 Assembly. The thinking shared during this process will materialize into two major kinds of documents: Proposals for the Twenty-first Century and a Charter for a Responsible, Plural and United World.

The Alliance - a social dynamics and place for thinking and formulating proposals

The 2000-2001 Assembly is also the opportunity for the Alliance to mark and celebrate the end of the first stage of its development on two levels:

• As a social dynamics, the Alliance testifies to the vitality of those who have chosen to overcome their feeling of helplessness to face the challenges of the present world and to reinforce themselves mutually in the preparation of a more desirable future. In this perspective, the Assembly not only makes it possible to exploit the wealth and diversity of the groups active in the Alliance, but also "to make alliances" and generate rewarding synergism with all the movements, initiatives, and events that constitute elements of a mutation toward a more responsible and united world.

• As a place for thinking and formulating proposals, the Alliance aims to develop and discuss the values, experiences and above all the concrete proposals that will serve to meet the challenges of the emerging century. In this sense, the Assembly constitutes a period for drawing up collectively a set of proposals resulting from the rich experience and various initiatives and considerations developed in the Geocultural, Topical and Collegiate framework. It must lead to the development of "Proposals for the Twenty-first Century Files."

Sharing the wealth of diversity

The strength and specificity of the 2000-2001 Assembly consist in placing articulation among the three Alliance Paths -Topical, Geocultural, and Collegiate -at the heart of the process. Since its creation, the Alliance has taken up the challenge of encouraging unity in diversity by explicitly integrating the complexity generated by the diversity of the challenges and of the geocultural, social, and professional contexts.

The 2000-2001 Assembly is today the opportunity to get the highest value out of sharing the wealth provided by these three forms of diversity. Indeed, articulation of the three Paths favors mutual enrichment among the groups by introducing uncustomary perspectives, thus generating innovative proposals. It also makes it possible to highlight the questions that are common to different contexts, challenges and places, as well as, on the other side, the incommutable specificities.

In the framework of the 2000-2001 Assembly, special care is therefore put into crossing the Alliance Workshops and Paths and articulating the whole of the dynamics and thinking. Throughout the entire process, exchanges take place among groups, including the integration of the material, therefore of other groups into their considerations, and participation in other group meetings. The material and initiatives of the Topical and Collegiate Workshops will make it possible, for example, to enhance the progress of the continental dynamics and, in return, the results of the Geocultural meetings will contribute to the Workshops and Colleges. The June 2001 continental Assemblies and, above all, the December 2001 world Assembly will be the opportunity to share contributions of the different Workshops.

Some Allies, beyond their involvement in a Workshop, have also entered a reflection process aiming to develop a Charter for a Responsible, Plural and United World. This Charter is to express a number of universal principles that can meet humankind's major challenges for the Twenty-first century. It is being elaborated by alternating periods of drafting a charter specific to a context, a place, or a challenge, and periods in which these documents are brought together and combined.

The articulation of the whole of the process depends on a good visibility of the initiatives and thinking of the different groups, an adequate circulation of information and materials, and the convergence of time frames and methods. To guarantee its success, the enlarged International Facilitation Team of the Alliance, with the support of a small support team, the anchorage point of which is in Paris, is in charge of the overall follow-up of the 2000-2001 Assembly.

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