See the issue: Our role as individuals - Can we as individuals contribute to the achievement of the Global Development Agenda?
The concept of the "world citizen" is not traditionally a part of the professional jargon of international development assistance. We hadn't planned to talk about it. However, we were surprised that many stakeholders we contacted during the phase of consultations mentioned this issue. So, we decided to write an article on it for the manual. We also included a specific question in the interviews we conducted in the preliminary phases of manual writing.
(See the main responses
to the question: "According
to you, is the “world citizenship” a modality of self awareness that can be
achieved by all? Whose responsibility is it to build such an awareness?")
In conventional policy
dialogue, the idea of a “planetary citizenship” is not on the agenda.
Cooperation from richer countries to poorer ones is seen, in the best case
scenario, as a “moral responsibility” towards those who are less fortunate; or
else it is seen as a prevention of the negative impact, on richer nations, of
the consequences of unmitigated world poverty: such as displacement of
populations and global security threats resulting from breakdown of governance
in the poorest countries (for eg. Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia)
So, we were surprised when a sizeable number of stakeholders we
contacted, supported the active participation of richer nations in the global
agenda for development; not a participation based on traditional policy
justifications, rather based on concepts like "global responsibility for the one
Earth” seen as a sort of “one country” where we, as members of mankind, are its
citizens. Perhaps, this is a sign of a new sense of global responsibility that
an increasing number of persons feel for issues of global governance. At the
same time it is also a sign of the increasing distance of people from national
policies and their doubts on the effectiveness of International Organizations,
As emerging from interviews with stakeholders, these organizations are often
seen as ineffective in overcoming the short-sighted national-centric policies
that animates most foreign policies in the world.
Not that people who support the concept of “word citizenship” wish for a central world government!.
Loyalty to national
governments and to more local identities is not seen in contrast but, on the
contrary, as a necessary correlation, of a wider loyalty to the planet. These
are the two sides of the same love for humanity as a whole. Preservation of
cultural diversity is seen as possible only as far as there is a global effort
to generate synergies amongst the different local identities that contrast the
uniformity now being imposed as a result of politically ungoverned economic
globalization.
This new emerging
vision of “world citizenship” encompasses the principles of social and economic
justice, both within and between nations; non-adversarial decision making at all
levels of society; equality of the sexes; racial, ethnic, national and religious
harmony; and the willingness to sacrifice for the common good.
While few of the people interviewed were aware of the policy plans connected with the MDGs, a consistent number of them were aware of the philosophy of world citizenship as the one propagated by civil society actors.
“World citizenship” is a modality of self
awareness that can potentially achieved by each one of us. We only need to
step outside ourselves and look around us. And we will notice that the
consequences of what happens in the world has started entering our homes. We
can no longer be local citizens even if we want to.
It is especially the responsibility of conscious and educated people, who have traveled and worked across countries, who have the capacity to look beyond our boundaries, to share our thoughts, emotions and positive experiences, share the spirit of tolerance, non-violence, brotherhood and peace. And contribute, as individuals, to build "world citizens" whenever we can.