Development with equity and environmental responsibility

Some of the themes in the first debate resurfaced in the second, which was focussed on a draft report on the above theme. The rapporteur, Artur Henrique da Silva Santos, is President of the Brazilian Workers Central Union, as well as being a member of the Brazilian Economic and Social Development Council. AICESIS is a relatively young organisation, still learning by doing. Drafting such reports in a consensual fashion, with so many stakeholders involved, is a major undertaking, but the rapporteur managed. The problem in many parts of the world is that economic development and social and environmental responsibility are all too frequently considered to be incompatible alternatives, rather than complementary components of the overall solution. In that context, food security – already an urgent issue in many parts of the world – is a graphic example.