Philadelphia – June 5, 2007 – A diverse group of organizations has announced plans for a world
conference on major international issues in 2010. The meeting, which will be preceded by a 2-year
consultation process with business, governments, and civil society organizations, will address the
problems of global poverty and the environment, and raising new sources of funds to solve them.
Plans for the conference were announced by a broad coalition of agencies, including Global
Marshall Plan Initiative, Network of Spiritual Progressives, and Centre for Global Negotiations.
The announcement comes sixty years to the day that US Secretary of State George C. Marshall,
speaking at Harvard University, made a proposal to aid the people of Europe, whose countries
had been devastated during the Second World War. The Marshall Plan, as it became known, was
a widely acclaimed emergency relief and reconstruction program from 1948-51 that reduced
poverty significantly and led to economic recovery throughout Western Europe during the
postwar period.
Conference organizers say that a similar action program is now needed to end international
poverty, promote development, restore the environment, create alternative sources of finance, and
restructure the international economy in support of sustainable development. Businessman
Frithjof Finkbeiner, former EU-Commissioner Franz Fischler, and scientist Franz Josef
Radermacher, who are coordinating the Europe-based Global Marshall Plan Initiative
(www.globalmarshallplan.org), noted that national leaders at the 2007 G8 Summit in
Heiligendamm, Germany, are failing to address the major issues because they represent just 15%
of the world’s population. “Global decisions must be inclusive,” said Finkbeiner. “This requires
the widest possible group of international stakeholders to convene and reach agreement on the
terms of a Global Marshall Plan.”
“The world remembers the original Marshall Plan as a generous act by the United States,” said
Rabbi Michael Lerner of the Network of Spiritual Progressives (www.spiritualprogressives.org),
a political activist movement based in the US. “It is vital now to achieve that same level of
generosity in America and across the world by increasing our foreign aid budgets to at least 2%
GDP per year for the next twenty years to address the world’s major problems, especially
poverty.”
The goal of the conference in 2010 is to create a democratic referendum for global action that is
universally supported by business, government, and civil society. Following a lengthy
consultation process, representatives will identify an agenda, a timeline, and the agencies required
to implement a global poverty relief and environmental program. Organizers expect international
public pressure to build until the designated agencies are authorized by the United Nations and
governments to launch the Global Marshall Plan. A site for the 2010 conference is being
determined.
Contact Information:
James B. Quilligan
Centre for Global Negotiations
www.global-negotiations.org
Phone: 215-592-1016