THE 'PREHISTORY' OF Social Watch

10 - The Quality Benchmark of the Social Summit

NGOs expressed great dissatisfaction at the beginning of the second PrepCom in August-September 1994. Max van den Berg stated on behalf of Eurostep:

"The economic policies of multilateral organisations define poor people as the problem rather then the solution. The initiatives of the poor people themselves are crushed, instead of being welcomed. If we do not address the structural economic policies, that exclude one fifth of the people from fundamental rights of citizens, this summit is as a lion that has no teeth, and can not even roar."

The strong criticisms conveyed in the Development Caucus led to the first common document prepared by the Caucus in collaboration with the women's caucus, called "Twelve points to save the Social Summit."54 This statement, later launched under the title: "The Quality Benchmark of the Social Summit" and endorsed by more than a thousand NGOs from all over the world set the foundation for a set of principles that united participants in the Development Caucus.55 In the first statement of the Development Caucus given to the second PrepCom on the 29th August 1994 the statement was presented.56

The Benchmark would remain throughout the preparations a tool for measuring how much progress the governments made. At the Summit itself the Development Caucus issued a statement "Did we achieve the Quality Benchmark?"57 The 'benchmark' also remained a point of reference in the follow up of the Social Summit (See annex 4).

The 'Quality Benchmark' was an important element in the establishment of Social Watch. Firstly, it demonstrated the new possibilities created by electronic communication in international advocacy. The 'Quality Benchmark' was written by a large number of people all over the world making inputs to the drafts by e-mail. This gave a shared ownership to the document and by email the document became a mobilising tool around the Summit. It was endorsed by organisations from all over the world, even those who could not go to New York, but agreed with its content. Thirdly, the benchmark provided a measure. It introduced the concept of utilising the Summit as a continuous process to measure progress in implementing the goals of social development.