The Alliance for a Responsible, Plural and United World is an informal group of people and organizations who wish to act together to contribute to the changes required to meet the challenges of the 21st century.  

History

At the end of the eighties, many initiatives were cropping up throughout the world within a wide variety of circles to contribute to the setting in motion of spiritual, scientific, economic, organizational, and political forces in view of organizing a vast process, on a worldwide scale, to participate in the quest for values, proposals and rules that might allow us to meet the new challenges of the 21st century.

At the beginning of the ninetees, several continental, collegial and thematics meetings were organized. In 1993, this process resulted in drawing up the Platform for a Responsible and United World.

Since then, this text has been signed by several thousand people either in their own names, or on behalf of organizations and networks, in more than 115 countries. It proposes the following:
•	A diagnosis of the nature and causes of the imbalances threatening our world, 
•	Values and principles for carrying out actions to create a responsible and united world,
•	Priorities and a strategy.

Regional groups have been set up, and international networks of professionals and topical workgroups dealing with the major issues of our era are growing, all working towards building the Alliance, which has the financial and technical support, among others, of the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation for the Progress of Humankind (FPH) – France and Switzerland.

The process entails inventing new forms of collective action, from local level to global level, in order to influence jointly the future of an increasingly complex and interdependent world.
The challenge of the Alliance is to privilege unity within diversity, by proclaiming the capacity of our societies to understand and make the most out of complex situations and the legitimacy of diverse geocultural, social and professional standpoints.

Organization

The Alliance, an arena of exchange, consideration and proposal, is organized around 3 main pillars:

Local groups that bring together the people of a municipality, region, country or continent on the basis of the realities and stakes at play in their societies. This is the geo-cultural path. It mirrors the diversity of places and cultures.
Groups of socio-professional players who want to spur dialogue and mobilize a profession or milieu (young persons, farmers, scientists, elected representatives, etc.). This is the collegial path. It mirrors the diversity of social and professional circles, their concerns and responsibilities vis-à-vis society and the challenges facing the world today. 
The topical workshops seek to form think-tanks dealing with the major issues concerning our common future (the sustainable management of water, regional integration and globalization, financial markets, art and society, etc.). This is the topical path. It mirrors the diversity of the challenges facing humankind in the 21st century. The topical workshops are grouped in four areas: Values and Culture, Economy and Society, Governance and Citizenship, Humanity and the Biosphere.

2000 and 2001 are milestones in the Alliance's history.
During these years, the aim is to build on the wealth and experience accumulated by the Alliance's workshops while forming links with convergent citizens' movements.

This step consists of:

Consideration and debate by all the workgroups (geocultural, collegial and topical), to produce concrete proposals formulated collectively. 

The organization of international, topical and collegial assemblies, within each workshop and with other groups throughout 2000-2001.

The tangible result of this process will be the publication in several languages and in several countries of "dossiers of proposals for the 21st century" and the drawing up of a Charter for a Responsible, Plural and United World.

The organization of four simultaneous Continental Assemblies (Africa, the Americas, Asie, Europe) and one regional meeting in the Arab world (Lebanon) in June 2001.

In order to incorporate and use all the contributions of each group, a World Assembly will be held in December in Lille (France).

Communication

For further information: 

The Alliance web site http://www.alliance21.org in three languages (French, English and Spanish), recounts the Alliance's history, the challenges it seeks to solve and the workshops and the discussion forums it accommodates.

Other regional newsletters are published regularly: Claves in Spanish for Latin America, Carta Brasil in Portuguese, Butterfly Futures in English for the Asia-Pacific region, and Majalat in Arabics.

Caravan, the journal of the Alliance, reports on the Alliance dynamics. It is released every four months in three languages (French, English and Spanish). Each issue focuses on a region and one or two topical dossiers. 

The addresses and descriptions of the main people involved are listed in a directory that can be consulted on the web. 

For further information: 

The Alliance for a Responsible, Plural and United World
E-mail: info@alliance21.org - Web site: www.alliance21.org