The last two decades, however, have taught us that the world is increasingly confronted with issues that affect humanity as a whole. Revolutionary changes in world affairs, spurred on by the globalization of markets, have shown that developmental, societal and ecological problems cannot be solved merely by fragmented and sectoral initiatives. During the past two decades, we have increasingly recognized that global peace and security can only be achieved if cooperative efforts are made to deal with the threats that stem from failures in economic and social development. Therefore, each of the conferences of the 1990s has had a strong developmental dimension. We have learned that a choice cannot be made between economic growth and environmental protection.
Development requires a balanced and integrated set of social, economic and ecological policies.
Participatory and community-based, it aims to mobilize all sectors of civil society. Commonality of interests. Rooted, as they were, in the geopolitics of the Cold War, the conferences of the 1970s were dominated by confrontations between the industrialized and developing countries. The issues of the meetings were considered as problems that primarily affected the poor nations. Negotiations, therefore, were targeted on defining what the North should do for the South.