Manifesto for Democracy and Sustainability Now Online

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Mar 25, 2013
by Salzburg Global Staff Writer
Manifesto for Democracy and Sustainability Now Online

Cherishing "Democrability"

“We cherish sustainability… we cherish democracy…” states the opening preamble of the newly launched Manifesto for Democracy and Sustainability.

The Manifesto and an accompanying online Platform were launched on Wednesday March 20, 2013 by the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development (FDSD) to “guide the action that’s needed to re-shape democracy so that it becomes a powerful force for sustainability”. 

Salzburg Global Seminar jointly convened the session “Towards a Manifesto for Democracy and Sustainable Development” with FDSD from December 12-14, 2012, with the generous support of the Huffington Family Foundation.

Schloss Leopoldskron hosted 21 young and established professionals from 14 countries, from Argentina to Zimbabwe, for a three-day workshop to fine-tune inputs from an international Manifesto consultation, conceived and led by SGS Fellow and FDSD President, Halina Ward. SGS staff then helped draft the final text of the Manifesto in 2013.

You can read the full Manifesto on the Democracy and Sustainability Platform. The Platform is an online space that offers videos and testimonies on why people and organizations around the world are signing up to the Manifesto and encourages others to share their “ideas for an action or initiative that could get democracy to work better for sustainability”.

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This session came at a key moment for Salzburg Global Seminar as we consolidate our Program around three focal areas, with participation and sustainability at their core (more details to come in April’s Fellows newsletter).

SGS is committed to addressing the physical survival and wellbeing of current and future generations in a holistic way, as health and life prospects are closely tied to environmental quality, access to jobs and income. 

Looking forward, SGS will be asking how societies at all levels can adapt political, economic and governance systems to fully engage citizens, improve leadership and collective action, support openness and accountability and promote the rule of law. 

We believe that innovation and multi-dimensional strategies will deliver more effective results over time.

As international consensus grows on the need for more robust action to address climate change and resource scarcity, SGS’s convening will ensure rigorous discussion of long-term options with a strong focus on social justice.

Salzburg Global Seminar sees 2013 as a year of great opportunity.

Session 515 “A Climate for Change: New Thinking on Governance for Sustainability” will be held June 23-27, 2013 in Salzburg, Austria.

This session is timed to inject fresh systems thinking into the rapidly-evolving policy, civic and business landscape as we build towards a new post-2015 development agenda and the delivery of a new climate framework.

The session will bring together around 50 emerging and established decision-makers, innovators and practitioners across geographic and sectoral divides.

This non-standard group will straddle representatives of intergovernmental organizations, national governments, corporate public affairs/environment departments, SMEs and entrepreneurs, civil society, community initiatives, science, education and media. 

The session will combine a focus on micro/bottom-up action and macro/multilateral processes.

Session outputs will include priority actions to feed directly into the first meeting of the UN’s High-level Political Forum in September 2013 in New York, the 3rd Global Green Growth Forum in October 2013 in Copenhagen and the work of the WEF Global Agenda Council on Governance for Sustainability.  


The Manifesto for Democracy and Sustainability is on the following social media platforms:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Democrability

Vimeo: www.vimeo.com/democrability

Twitter: @democrability


The Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development (FDSD) launched and convened an international consultation process to create the Manifesto. Many other organizations, including the Salzburg Global Seminar, helped along the way. You can read more about the process here: www.fdsd.org For more information on session 515, “A Climate for Change: New Thinking on Governance for Sustainability” (June 23-27, 2013), please contact Georgios Kostakos at gkostakos@salzburgglobal.org