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UPF-Italy Discusses ‘Competition and Collaboration’
Written by Franco Ravaglioli, secretary general, UPF-Italy
Monday, November 28, 2022
Rome, Italy—The sixth Italian Peace Forum was held on the theme "Competition and Collaboration on the Global Path to Sustainability and Social Harmony."
Eleven participants attended the online meeting, which was held on November 28, 2022.
The presentation was given by Dr. Marco Ricceri, the secretary general of the European Institute of Political, Economic and Social Studies (EURISPES). Following are excerpts from his talk:
“Why collaboration and competition? Because we live in an extremely contradictory phase. It is a historical period of great tensions and conflicts destined to widen. … At the same time, however, we see that all states are organizing policies and plans in relation to the common United Nations Platform for Sustainability and Development Goals and that they are well read in the plans that all states send to the UN review.
“I would like to clarify two important aspects related to the sustainability discourse. … Sustainability, in the most correct meaning, is the reduction of the risks of failure of a system. So we are outside any moral or economic concept; any system is subject to the risks of breakdown. The more I intervene in reducing these risks of rupture, the more sustainable I make it.
“It means that now we really realize the risk of rupture of our system, whether it is global or regional or national and so on. The basic concept of sustainability is that I have to move from a development model based on quantity to a development model based on the quality of development. That means changing modes of consumption, changing production processes, and so on.
“The UN agenda is very clear and offers a huge and very specific opportunity, because it says that one of the elements on which the construction of sustainability strategies rests is new governance. That is, states are no longer able to do it alone; it takes the public-private relationship; it takes a lot of civil society participation.
“To give an example, UPF should be an active stakeholder that sits at the tables where sustainability plans are drawn; perhaps to discuss aspects regarding social imbalances, the relationship between territories, communities and so on. UPF should ask to carry out this because it has the right to do so, according to the United Nations. …
“Second point: If people do not participate and clarify their thinking on the strategy of sustainability, as many very authoritative experts tell us, in the end finance and banks design the path. And the social banks only care in being able to say they sponsored ten more hospitals, but they don't care about social cohesion.
“But YOU have to sit at the table because the agenda tells you that you only build it by bringing the experience of organizations, as, for example, UPF can do.”
To read the entire speech, click here.
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