From Copenhagen to Doha: hope and the unfinished agenda for social development

Nana Akua Anyidoho

The Copenhagen Summit of 1995 was marked by optimism and unprecedented civil society participation in global social policy debates. (Image redit: social.desa.un.org)

By all accounts, the first World Summit on Social Development in 1995 unfolded with a sense of possibility that is difficult to imagine from today’s vantage point of multiple crises and political fissures. There was a sense of optimism, that a better world was achievable. And, for the first time, civil society had a seat at the table…even if that table was set in an army barracks a safe distance from world leaders. Still, with the active encouragement of the co-chairs, trade unions, youth groups, women’s organizations, NGOs, and grassroots movements debated and consolidated their contributions to the declaration. They lobbied government representatives who made the trek out to them and protested in the streets outside the venue where government delegates negotiated the content of the declaration with the fevourfervour of those who believed that it would actually matter.

I doubt that anyone in at that first conference would have anticipated that it would take another 30 years for a second summit to be organized, at which we would need to restate the same arguments about the importance of social development. A summit in which civil society was now in the same venue but somehow with less voice; where the “Civil Society Forum” meant states talking at rather than with civil society; and where the draft declaration was adopted on the first day without any meaningful public debates.

Thirty years later in Doha, civil society was present but with diminished space for meaningful engagement and debate. (Image Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe)

I wondered how the architects of the original summit would view this journey from Copenhagen to Doha - a journey long in years but short on progress.

I had a partial answer in the keynote delivered by Juan Somavía on the first day of the summit. While the product of many minds and voices, the intellectual and political agenda in Copenhagen bore the fingerprints of Juan Somavía, then the co-Chair of the Preparatory Committee. He argued for social development as an integral aspect of economic policy and repeatedly emphasized that the global economy could no longer rely on exclusionary growth models. Under his leadership, the Summit elevated the notion of “people-centred development”, a rhetorical inflection point that was given practical meaning in the invitation to civil society to participate in the summit. This discursive shift subsequently influenced the UN’s post-Copenhagen initiatives, the Millennium Development Goals, and Juan Somavía’s later work as Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), where he championed ‘decent work’ as an important dimension of social development.

Juan Somavía helped shape the Copenhagen Summit’s vision of people-centred development and later advanced it globally through the ILO’s Decent Work agenda. (Image Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider)

In his reflections at WSSD II, Somavía described the Copenhagen Summit as a moment of “incredible convergence and clear political direction.” Yet he acknowledged the obvious – the considerable gap between aspiration and reality, between the goals of the declaration and its the actual outcomes. Why did governments (as the agents primarily responsible for the implementation of the declaration) find it so difficult to follow through on their commitments? Somavía offered three reasons, all of which point to how the Doha Declaration might avoid the same fate. His remarks also provide a guide for the strategic roles that organizations such as GETSPA and IDEAsS can take on in the post-Doha processes.

First, Somavia suggested that the while the goals of in the Copenhagen commitments were ambitious and worthy, governments were stymied by obstacles that had not been sufficiently recognised and analysed. This points clearly to the importance of the in-depth research that GETSPA and IDEAS undertake about the structural causes of the issues confronting countries. What can we do to make sure that these studies and their recommendations are attended to?

The gap between global commitments and lived realities continues to define the unfinished agenda of social development. (Image Credit: Getty Images)

The second reason for the failure to achieve the aspirations of the first WSSD is tied to the first:; the specificities of national priorities eventually diffused and ultimately absorbed the responsibilities undertaken identifed in the first summit. Again, this affirms the importance of the in-depth analyses of African and global South contexts in which our two organisations are consistently engaged.

The third problem was the lack of attention to the processes and progress of implementation. A better system for follow-up and accountability could have addressed this limitation. Unfortunately, as GETSPA has pointed out,theout, the Doha declaration also falls short on this front, lacking time-bound targets (beyond GDP) and accountability mechanisms beyond periodic reviews. 

Of course, other accounts have been given of the challenges that led to the failures of the 1995 declaration, including insufficient international and domestic financing, and shifting global economic and political currents that undercut social development ambitions. But instead of offering an exhaustive diagnosis, Somavía—now 84—used his remaining minutes to speak more personally, drawing on more than five decades in the struggle for social development. When you decide to dedicate your life to trying to make change, he said, you have resigned yourself to swimming against the current. “You are told it’s unrealistic. Powerful interests are against it. It’s not the moment. Be careful.” And yet he had lived long enough to see the impossible happen – the breaking up of colonial empires, the fall of apartheid.

In these concluding words, I believe Juan Somavía offered an essential ingredient for change that permeated the Copenhagen summit but seemed to be in short supply in Doha: hope.  I have already spoken of the muted voice of civil society.  At the sameIn addition, an inordinate emphasis was placed on the private sector and the solutions it pushes, including digitalisation, (*link to other blogs in the series*). The atmosphere was also ladened with the awareness that the UN itself is facing an existential crisis at a time when multilateralism is most needed - a fact that was oddly elided in the many speeches.

An increasing emphasis on private sector-led and digital solutions risks sidelining people-centred approaches to social development. (Image Credit: worldbank.org)

Yet, from Somavía’s perspective, the Doha declaration - ‘an important and at times a powerful document’ – was itself a sign of hope. The fact that a polarized world could come together to agree these commitments spoke to what was still possible. But ultimately, Somavía’s seemed to say, we have to generate our own hope. Beyond its existence, we can find hope in the document’s content, as our joint GETSPA/IDEAsS statement on the draft declaration points toout: there is its frank acknowledgement of the uneven and slow progress on poverty and inequality since Copenhagen; its focus on marginalized populations and recognition of overlooked areas of social development; and, importantly, the calls for international cooperation and solidarity.  As inadequate as they are, we will have to take these as a starting point to then push for much more.  And to those for whom this all this sounds disappointingly familiar, the veteran of two social summits had a final word: Cchange only happens through perseverance and “now is the time to build [that] capacity for resilience”.