FNTG Report (August 2001)

Globalization continues as a galvanizing and controversial project, fiercely debated in policy circles, and hotly contested in the streets of cities around the world. With major international meetings in final stages of preparation, including the annual World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington in the Fall and the 4th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Qatar later this year, trade and other globalization issues will continue to dominate headlines and public discourse. With more and more attention being paid to its impacts in the US as well as to global/local links, globalization is becoming of increasing importance to all funders interested in social justice and environmental sustainability, whether their funds are earmarked for the international or the domestic arena.

The Funders Network on Trade and Globalization was set up in the aftermath of the WTO Ministerial in Seattle at the end of 1999. FNTG is launching a number of initiatives over the coming period to support funders in their efforts to understand and analyze processes of globalization, and to engage with other funders and organizations of civil society around these fundamentally important issues.

• In September, FNTG will publish and distribute widely a booklet entitled "Globalization and Grantmakers: Demystifying the Issues, Actors and Funding Opportunities". This report is designed to help grantmakers navigate globalization and highlight in practical ways how globalization is relevant to grantmaking. We hope that this is a useful step toward ongoing dialogue about globalization among grantmakers, and between grantmakers and the broader community.
• We are in the initial stages of setting up a globalization web portal, a dynamic and comprehensive web site that will provide easily accessible information on a dozen or more issue areas, including information about funders and NGOs involvement, recent publications, resource links and so on. We hope to launch the site by October.
• FNTG is organizing a funder convening on globalization at the time of the World Bank and IMF meetings in Washington DC, from September 27 through 30. Civil society groups from the US and around the world will be converging on Washington. Taking a lead from EGA and CGBD efforts in Seattle during the WTO Ministerial, we will organize funder briefings and discussions with NGOs in the mornings and evenings, so that funders can participate in on-going events and activities. Although the institutions of the IMF and the World Bank will serve as a backdrop to our discussions, we will use this opportunity to explore wider social, economic and cultural aspects of globalization, in ways that will be enlightening and inspiring to domestic and international funders alike.
• FNTG will continue tracking issues and events around the up-coming WTO Ministerial in Qatar. As logistical issues in Doha and government and NGO strategies become clearer, we will explore the feasibility of organizing a donor delegation to Qatar in November, or in other ways marking and learning from negotiations and on-going events.
• We are making preliminary plans to organize an FNTG funder delegation to the World Social Forum in Porto Alegré, Brazil at the end of January. Forum organizers are expecting 60 thousand or more representatives from community organizations and civil society groups from all over the world at this "alternative Davos." This year’s theme is again "another world is possible" - Like the Forum itself, FNTG will focus on exploring community efforts at home and abroad seeking and building alternatives which promote sustainable and just development.
• In addition, FNTG will facilitate panels at the EGA retreat in Minnesota and the National Network of Grantmakers conference in California in October. FNTG will soon launch a series of monthly conference calls on specific topics of interest, and eventually nurture working groups around shared funder interests.
  We look forward to keeping you informed of these activities over the coming months, and to engaging with you more deeply around these important issues. Please feel free to contact me or members of the Steering Committee with any questions or comments you may have.

Mark Rand, FNTG