History

The Norwegian  Campaign was initiated to generate general awareness around the Brundtland Commission’s Report – Our Common Future – on sustainable development. The campaign inspired similar initiatives in other countries and was central in establishing an international platform of collaboration around the summit meetings held in 1992. At the end of the 1980s there was an increasing awareness of environmental issues and a growing recognition of the connection between environment and development challenges. During the UN’s Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the world’s leaders committed themselves to following up on both a climate convention and a biodiversity convention. The Rio Conference marked the culmination of interest by the general public, perhaps because most people believed that politicians would now take a grip and act.

Optimism in the potential of technology was considerable and there were few who wished to touch on the uncomfortable questions connected to sustainable use and equitable sharing, though Norway did take up that gauntlet, arranging two international conferences on sustainable consumption. Developing countries expressed their frustration before and after the Rio Conference regarding the lack of will to see the development-related challenges they were faced with, to facilitate transfer technological knowhow, and provide the required financial commitment. So despite the fact that sustainable development was topical in the 1980s and 90s, it was the environmental issues that dominated. The World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen and the WTO Conference in Seattle marked a political watershed. Trade, investment and other large-scale economic conditions for development were given a more important position on the agenda. This also affected ForUM’s members in the years that followed: the Finance for Development process and the Johannesburg Summit in 2002 marked the end of the series of large, cumbersome UN summits. 

Throughout the 1990s and into the new century, environmental challenges were primarily associated with pollution and biodiversity. But after the UN’s climate panel presented their third report in 2001, the general public began to take the threat of climate change seriously. The disturbing, rapid climate changes now present themselves as the largest and most urgent global environmental threats. 

ForUM has followed these international processes closely. Its role has been to raise the profile of the Global South and the relationship between development and the environment. The demands of developing countries, as well as capacity building and technology transfer, financing, improved trade conditions, emission cuts in rich countries and now mitigation, have therefore been part of, and are part of ForUM’s programme.

In the 1990s ForUM acted purely as an administrator for the work of its member organisations, and functioned primarily as a meeting place. In recent years ForUM has undergone considerable change, and issues such as joint policy development have become more central. This in turn has led to changes in working practices and roles, and lead to the involvement of a broader collaborative network beyond the member organisations. ForUM’s board has taken a stronger role in defining policy outcomes, and the secretariats’ advisors play a more important part in giving specialist advice and leading the different thematic focus areas. Working methods are now chosen according to what will most successfully contribute to the policy outcomes the members have set themselves. ForUM has therefore evolved from being a meeting place for policy debate to being the policy think tank for environment, development and peace organisations, with the aim of achieving greater influence through coordinated advocacy/lobby activities.