Paris, 10 August 2001

Dear Madam / Sir,

We are delighted that you have accepted to be one of the four hundred participants of the World Citizens Assembly to be held at Lille from 2 to 10 December 2001 

The note enclosed herein provides you with information necessary for you to take advantage of the time remaining until the Assembly. It concerns the means available to you to gain better knowledge of the Alliance process and participate in it (chapter 1); the preparatory work that each participant will have to carry out in accordance with the scenario sent to you with a previous letter (chapter 2); and the information exchange system (chapter 3).

A certain number of practical actions need to be taken quickly by both us and you in order to organise your journey and identify the subjects that interest you most. To achieve this, please return the information sheet enclosed to us as soon as possible.

Furthermore, I am happy to inform you that preparations for the Assembly are currently taking place in Lille in accordance with the scenario, with respect to your reception and the involvement of society in the region.

Yours Sincerely,

	Pierre Calame
	Director-General

Enclosed: 	Appendix 1: Information sheet 
	 	Appendix 2: Letter of invitation so you can obtain a visa
	 	Appendix 3: History of the Alliance 

Chapter I: Allowing you to know the Alliance process better and participate in it more fully 

The World Citizens Assembly is the final step of a long international collective process. It is also the opportunity for considerably expanding this process geographically and socially. Consequently, most of the participants at the Lille Assembly will discover the Alliance movement. Below you will find the means available to permit you to understand this movement and participate more fully up to the Assembly.

a)	Your contact

A person in the organisation team has the specific task of answering all your questions and helping you to make the contacts necessary. Please find her/his coordinates at the end of the letter.

b) Knowing the history of the Alliance

You will find enclosed a brief history (Appendix 3) which we hope will provide you with understanding of how the Alliance came into being, the challenges it attempts to meet and how it is organised.

c)	The Alliance web site 

The Alliance web site address is: http://www.alliance21.org. The address of the part in this web site dedicated to the Word Assembly is: http://www.alliance21.org/lille. 

We have placed emphasis on use of the Internet to provide information to all quickly and economically. However, we are aware of the limits of this tool in some countries where access and cost make its use difficult, thus we take particular care to ensure that the necessary information is sent by ordinary mail or by fax to all those who do not have access to the Internet. Unfortunately, mail deliveries are frequently slow and unreliable in areas where the Internet is not accessible. Therefore, please check whether you can use the Internet and send us the Internet address where we can contact you if necessary. 

For all information related to the web, please contact Mr. Denis Pansu or Mr. Pierre Johnson (web@echo.org).

d) Your centres of interest 

The workshops will be subject oriented as from the 5 December, i.e. the third day of the Assembly. Participants from the different colleges will present the proposals resulting from the first two days work at these workshops. The latter will be organised in the framework of the Alliance's four "topical foci”:

Focus 1: Values, culture, sciences, techniques, education, arts, media.
Focus 2: Economics and society.
Focus 3: Governance, from local to world-wide.
Focus 4: The relations between humankind and the biosphere.
We need to know your topical preferences as soon as possible.
Please also indicate them on the information sheet (Appendix 1).

e) The methodological tools of the Alliance available to you

To facilitate the international collective work of analysis and proposals, the Alliance has gradually developed working methods applicable to the different colleges and workshops. They concern: the structure of the web site; the co-ordination of the Internet forums; the presentation of the experience records; the "map" of the links between the topics dealt with; and the writing of the proposals booklets. These methods are presented in the methodological guides and can soon be downloaded from the Alliance web site. We can send them to you by e-mail on request.

Chapter II: The preparatory work necessary from each participant 

The scenario enclosed in the previous letter described the different preparatory tasks expected from the participants. The following provides several operational details.

a)	Prepare your contribution to the Assembly 

This is an Assembly and not an international conference of a traditional nature. Wherever they come from, each participant is considered on an equal footing and commits him/herself for the entire Assembly. There are no lecturers on one side and an audience on the other. Each person will take turns to speak, listen and co-ordinate. The Assembly is organised to stimulate genuine dialogues and formulate real collective reflection. This is why most of the work of the Assembly will be done in workshops grouping about twenty persons. 

In these workshops, each participant will have a great deal of time in which to speak and debate but this will not be done in the form of a formal lecture. Your written contributions, if possible translated into several languages, will be made available to all the participants.

The week includes three main steps:
•	A step dedicated to the "collegial" approach (3 and 4 December) during which each participant will work with people from his or her social and professional background from different regions of the world;
•	A step dedicated to the "topical" approach (5, 7 and 8 December) during which he or she will deal in-depth with an issue and a strategy for change with people from different backgrounds and different regions;
•	A step dedicated to the "geocultural" approach (9 December) during which a summary will be made of the proposals for the different parts of the world. 

Your participation in the Assembly will be all the more fruitful if you are able to prepare these three steps.

b)	Involvement in the Alliance collective works 

You may have noted in the previous letter and the accompanying explanations that you have been "situated" in the Assembly in relation to the region of the world from which you come and to the social or professional background you represent.

The Alliance's collective work is structured around three “paths”: a "geocultural" path that resulted in June in a series of continental meetings; a "collegial" path that gathers people from the same milieu on an international level; and a "sectorial" path that gathers people in topical workshops to reflect on the same questions. The addresses of the co-ordinators of the collective work feature in the "World Citizens Assembly" brochure enclosed in our first letter. Please do not hesitate to contact the relevant co-ordinators for the regions, colleges and subjects that interest you in particular. Your contact can also help you to get in touch with them if necessary. 

c) Be the messenger of a larger group

Four hundred participants from twenty regions of the world and more than twenty different milieus means less than one representative per region and per milieu! In order for the Assembly to be meaningful, each participant should feel invested to contribute the experience, reflections and proposals of an entire group. Some participants will be the messengers of one of the Alliance's collective movements. Others can call for similar reflections within their own networks.

During the Assembly, you will be able to use computers linked to the Internet. Thus you can diffuse information on the content of the debates and proposals to your networks in real time. Given the time programmed for the Assembly, you will also be able to receive their reactions and link your networks remotely with the works carried out at Lille. 

d) Associating the media with the preparation and procedure of the World Assembly

Many sections of the media are interested in the Assembly, since awareness of the realities of globalisation is universal. The Assembly is a strong symbol of the construction of world civil society whose urgency has become apparent to everyone.

You are undoubtedly in contact with the media, whether newspapers, reviews or the radio. You are the person most likely to encourage their presence at the Assembly or else to report on it. To do this, please contact B. Manier (benedicte@echo.org). Perhaps the next few months before the Assembly could be put to good use to supply these media with content and invite them to organise the preparatory debates.

e) Preparing the contributions of all peoples for tomorrow's world

During the Assembly, each participant will provide a contribution from his people to the heritage of the world: a poem, a thought, a story, a prayer, a custom, a song, a technique, an institution, etc. that they feel is a contribution from their civilisation to the construction of tomorrow's world.

All these contributions will be presented to the participants and the public in a marquee erected in a square in Lille city centre. This will symbolise the diversity of the world's heritage. Please make your suggestions as from now.

Chapter III: The system for exchanging information with you until the Assembly 

Together, we need to avoid a contradictory situation: on the one hand, the desire to supply you with all the necessary information and, on the other, the risk of submerging you with too much information. Thus we have decided on the following system: 

a)	Grouped dispatches of information:

We plan to send you the following three despatches:

Dispatch 1 (September): The practical organisation and the participants 

Dispatch 2 (October): The first preparatory documents

Dispatch 3 (November): An overall view of the Assembly proceedings 

b)	Sending information to the participants via the Internet:

From 15 September onwards, we will create a heading on the web site entitled "participants of the World Assembly”. All the questions raised, either via the contacts or sent by mail, fax or email, will be answered on the web site, thus everyone can benefit from the process. 

A reminder of your contacts 

CONTACTS 	

Travel/Visa/Accommodation: Karine Goasmat 
FPH
38, rue Saint-Sabin
75011 Paris 	
Phone: 33 1 43 14 75 75 
Fax: 33 1 43 14 75 99
Email: lillemondeorganisation@fph.fr
	
Web: Denis Pansu, Pierre Johnson
FPH
38, rue Saint-Sabin
75011 Paris 	Phone: 33 1 43 14 75 75 
Fax: 33 1 43 14 75 99
Email: web@echo.org
	
Press information: Gustavo Marin
FPH
38, rue Saint-Sabin
75011 Paris 	Phone: 33 1 43 14 75 75
Fax: 33 1 43 14 75 99
Email: press@alliance21.org	
Co-ordinator: of the college that concerns you

	Phone: 
Fax: 
Email: 

Your contact 

	Phone: 
Fax: 
Email: 	

List of coordinators of socioprofessional groups or colleges

Stokeholders ACTARES secretariat@actares.ch 
Artists Hamilton Faria hfaria@polis.org.br 
Business leaders and Executives Yves de Bretagne yves@fph.fr 
Local authorities Roger Winterhalter and Isabelle Decout isabelle@echo.org 
Enseignants-Universitaires Laura Maffei lauram@ctera.org.ar Alfredo Pena Vega penavega@ehess.fr
Women Nadia Aissaoui nadia@echo.org 
Inter-religious John Taylor echappee@bluewin.ch 
Engineers : Régis Ribette : regisribette@wanadoo.fr 
Youth Nacéra Aknak-Khan nacera@vsnl.com 
Journalists Siddhartha sidd@vsnl.com and Bénédicte Manier benedicte@echo.org 
The Military : Gustavo Marin : gustavo@fph.fr and Richard Pétris richard.petris@ecoledelapaix.org
Inhabitants organizations Joël Audefroy chm@laneta.apc.org 
Farmers Silvio Marzaroli silviom@maragatos.com and Bara Goudiaby enea@telecomplus.sn
Health and Social workers Juan Vielmas jvielmas@terra.cl 
Scientists Frédéric Piguet apsab@bluewin.ch 
Unions Alternatives alternatives@alternatives.ca 

For the following socioprofessional groups or colleges : « Publishers », « Philosophers », « NGO », « Financiers », « Fishworkers », « Civil servants », « International Public Institutions »,  « Political leaders », please inquire directly to your contact person.