For the past fourteen years, Convergences has been carrying a clear message alongside actors of change from all horizons: the convergence of actors and agendas to work towards the transition to sustainable and inclusive models of society. This is how we contribute, with commitment and rigour, to the major transformative agendas of our time: MDGs yesterday, SDGs today.
The 2030 Agenda is now our compass. Today, a plural ecosystem gathering public, private, academic, media and associative sectors, but also citizen dynamics and youth movements, has been able to amalgamate around Convergences; it now constitutes the spearhead of all our activities. Our main mission has thus been affirmed, moving from the convergence of actors to the co-construction of a future whose main challenges are based on three major pillars – the end of inequalities and discrimination, the urgent fight against climate change, and the eradication of extreme poverty. These imperatives are reflected in the 3Zero message – Zero Exclusion, Zero Carbon, Zero Poverty. It is both a modest and ambitious contribution, proposing a reading of the SDGs that is accessible to all, and a unifying message calling for collective and individual action.
In 2021, our activities embodied this transition. Firstly, internationally, where for the first time a 3Zero Forum was organised. The Philippines was chosen to inaugurate this new chapter because of its investment in the issues of inclusion and the fight against poverty in the country.
In France, the Convergences World Forum gave way to the 3Zero World Forum. More than a change of identity, it is a real change of ambition that we are inviting the participants to make, by calling for a global and effective mobilisation to achieve the 2030 Agenda. We are convinced that the 3Zero, through its complementarity with the SDGs, will be a powerful lever for mobilisation in the coming decade of action.
We wanted the organisation of the 3Zero World Forum to be both the continuation of a tradition and the confirmation of a rupture.
Tradition first of all, because despite the sanitary conditions, we wanted to maintain the organisation of events where collective intelligence can find its place of expression. It is also a rupture with tradition, because for the first time since the launch of Convergences, we have decided to give way to the 3Zero identity, which we believe to be unifying. The 3Zero World Forum, as a large-scale rallying event, was also a way to put this message to the test. It allowed us to observe whether the participants were able to take ownership of the issues that this ambition covers. The results show that 87.8% of the Forum’s participants claim to have a better understanding of 3Zero following this meeting.
These results encourage us to redouble our efforts so that the message continues to permeate our environment, both near and far. If we want to create a real leverage effect, the public, young people, and vulnerable populations must take part in the discussions. The operationalisation of the 3Zero objectives will only be possible with their active participation.
Because if young people are indeed part of these social spaces that it seems necessary to reclaim and enhance with a view to a fair and inclusive transformation of our societies, as well as local geographical spaces, real laboratories for social and ecological experimentation in which a number of inspiring initiatives are being expressed. One of the challenges that we had encountered during the preparation of our Forum then resided in the search for harmony between the different spaces represented: professional, generational, and geographical. This ability to articulate the issues at the heart of 3Zero, we wanted it to be illustrated in our work themes, which are both distinct and complementary.
At a time when the environmental and economic crises are pushing many people into precariousness and tending to exclude them from the social sphere, we invite you to seize this opportunity to reinvent a society on a human scale, a society in which the values of inclusion and solidarity will be paramount and will guide us towards the necessary change in our modes of consumption and production.
The message of 3Zero will continue to be strongly asserted. We are the last generation to be able to act: if we wish to honour our collective commitments to the 2030 Agenda, we have only 8 years left to achieve the SDGs. We would like to remind each and every one of you, collaborators, observers and friends of Convergences, of the importance of multiactor partnerships. Alongside ACTED and our Filipino partner Gawad Kalinga, we hope to see the creation of a global movement that will bring together those who wish to imagine the world of tomorrow. Time is short: it is urgent and necessary to act together to bring about change in our societies and push back the limits of our respective commitments.