An event that is organized to coincide with the annual World Economic Forum, the World Social Forum held its fourth annual meeting in January this year in Mumbai, India. Developed as a consequence of a growing international movement that advocates greater participation of civil societies in globalization and in the international financial institutions, The World Social Forum attempts to create a new international arena for the creation and exchange of social and economic projects that promote human rights, social justice and sustainable development.
The World Social Forum is not an organization, not a united front platform, but "…an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and inter-linking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neo- liberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a society centred on the human person".
For the Forum participants, the scope of successful local projects is demonstrating that public policy is more efficient and effective when applied on a decentralized basis. These are landmark meetings to marshall joint local government efforts with a view towards a new paradigm of social development.
As stated by Noam Chomsky: "The World Social Forum offers opportunities of unparalleled importance to bring together popular forces from many and varied constituencies from the richer and poor countries alike, to develop constructive alternatives that will defend the overwhelming majority of the world's population from the attack on fundamental human rights, and to move on to break down illegitimate power concentrations and extend the domains of justice and freedom."
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