THE 'PREHISTORY' OF Social Watch

11 - Establishing Mechanisms for Follow-up

11.1 - The original idea

Soon after the Second PrepCom a meeting in preparation of the Intercessional Meeting planned for October 1994 took place in the Netherlands between ITeM, Eurostep and Novib.⁵⁸ During this meeting the concrete idea to establish Social Watch as a follow up to the Summit was born. It stemmed from the analysis that:

• Follow up should naturally consist of the monitoring of the implementation of the agreed Summit Declaration and Programme of Action;

• It was of crucial importance that monitoring would take place at national level, which would enhance the dialogue between civil society and governments in social development;

• The monitoring exercises should be compiled in such a way that it could contribute to the Commission on Social Development, if it was going to be in charge of implementing this task;

• The monitoring process needed to be open to all who wanted to participate, this could be realised by utilising instruments such as electronic mail and electronic sites, where participants could also respond to the substance offered by others in an ongoing process;

• The monitoring should be specifically directed to measure concrete targets, if established by the Summit;

• A secretariat should be established which had know-how of technically facilitating this process.

• There should be a shared concept of ownership over the instrument by participating NGOs. The mechanism should not be linked to a specific organisation.

The idea of a 'Social Watch' was discussed with colleagues in the Development and Women's Caucus and was received with great enthusiasm. The initial response in Novib to the proposed mechanism was, however, luke-warm and no preparations for any follow-up were undertaken. Further consultations were put on hold.

11.2 - Public announcement

During the Summit - under pressure of the media inquiring what NGOs would do to ensure that implementation of all the plans agreed by the Heads of State would indeed take place, it became clear that a mechanism for follow-up was imperative. In response to questions of the press Novib Director Van den Berg announced the establishment of 'Social Watch' at the Summit in Copenhagen, as a Novib follow-up initiative. In a first response to the results of the Social Summit a Novib press statement said:

"In the coming weeks Novib and its partners will start a world-wide campaign to begin to debate the social issue with national governments. The most important question in this debate is what changes in policy are necessary in order to implement the commitments made in Copenhagen.59

"A worldwide 'Social Watch system' is being prepared, which from the interest of the marginalised will attempt to measure the solidity of the the fine-looking intentions of Copenhagen."

Following this statement the launch of an initiative by Novib was announced in the Development and Women's Caucus.