Don't miss out! Participate in the 2012 CIVICUS World Assembly

Dear Friends, Dear Civil Society Activists,

It is with great pleasure that I’m inviting you to participate in the 2012 CIVICUS World Assembly that will take place from 3 to 7 September 2012 in Montreal, Canada. As a CIVICUS Board member, I’m delighted to offer you the special Early Bird discount rate which has been extended until 15 August.

As you may know, the 2012 CIVICUS World Assembly will focus on defining a new social contract, through discussions on three key themes: ‘changing nations through citizens’, ‘building partnerships for social innovation’ and ‘redefining global governance’. 

Your participation in this year’s Assembly would be particularly important, as the 2012 Assembly will see the launch of a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder process, led by CIVICUS, on defining a new social contract, that will culminate in the presentation of recommendations to the United Nations in 2015. The 2012 World Assembly participants will set the guiding principles of this process, so your voice really can count!

In addition, the 2012 World Assembly, the 12th such event, promises an extraordinary variety of cutting-edge debate and encounters. The World Assembly programme offers 43 activity sessions from 5 to 7 September, while from 3 to 4 September, the Youth Assembly welcomes all participants under the age of 30 for 10 additional sessions.

And in addition to these sessions and the networking opportunities at our Citizen Café, the plenary discussions will also bring many powerful insights to the proceedings from the local, national and global levels. From Marina Silva, social leader and former Minister of Environment in Brazil, to Daniel Ben-Horin, Founder and CEO of TechSoup, and from Olav Kjørven, Assistant Secretary General for development policy at UNDP to Caroline Anstey, Managing Director at the World Bank, our ground-breaking keynote speakers will join inspirational participants from across the board, including policy-makers, government decision-makers, donors, civil society leaders, activists, academics, artists, bloggers and many, many more.

I invite you to find out more about the full programme on the World Assembly website, and to view the thematic videos and to check the brochure for further information.

The World Assembly comes at a pivotal moment for citizens to redefine the relationships and conditions we want for a sustainable future in a changing and volatile world. But even ahead of Montreal, we want to start the process of defining a new social contract now. So I also invite you now to submit your key pieces of research, analysis, commentary and other essential documents that can help inform our upcoming discussions. We will then make them available to all World Assembly participants to feed into our reflection! Find out more here

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I look forward to welcoming you in Montreal in September. Drop me a line if you saw this here and are going to join us...

Best wishes,

Uygar - on environment and civil society I should have said :)