The Global Progressive Forum (GPF) has been involved in the World Social Forum since the first edition and, in 2006, the GPF was elected as a member of the International Council (the decision-making arm of the World Social Forum). This year, the World Social Forum took place in Dakar, which enabled us not only to meet our international partners, but also to strengthen our relations with our Senegalese counterparts. By organising the S&D delegation and also jointly organising workshops as part of the activities of the WSF, which was held this year in Dakar (6-11 February), the GPF has gone a step further in its commitment to the WSF and its cooperation with its civil society partners.           
 
In collaboration with the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), SOLIDAR and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the GPF organised four workshops in Dakar. The delegation of MEPs from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, consisting of Kader Arif, Head of Delegation, Jo Leinen, Zita Gurmai, Corina Cretu and Kristian Vigenin (together with three members of the secretariat: Javier Moreno Sánchez, Cecília Gondard and Alexandra Salmon-Bobek), was, therefore, part of a larger delegation which included, amongst others, the President of SOLIDAR, Josef Weidenholzer, Massimo D'Alema, President of FEPS, Conny Reuter, Secretary General of SOLIDAR, Philip Cordery, PES Secretary Genera, Ernst Stetter, Secretary General of FEPS, and Erich Fenninger, SOLIDAR Board member. Members were also able to take part in the Foundation and Trade union meetings that were held throughout the Forum. Other MEPs, such as Pervenche Berès, Henri Weber and Harlem Désir, were also in attendance as part of other delegations. To view the programme, please click here: http://www.globalprogressiveforum.org/node/174
 
In short, the WSF is made up of civil society representatives and political decision-makers and is first and foremost a place to meet and exchange ideas. The staging of the Forum of Parliamentarians, at the invitation of the National Assembly of Senegal, enabled open and constructive discussions to take place with numerous African members of parliament. 
 
Field trips, the opening march, the demonstration alongside Senegalese students and meetings with the Senegalese opposition and other African sister parties gave participants a deeper understanding of the prevailing atmosphere in Senegal and greater insight into what is at stake in the presidential election in 2012. Given that the World Social Forum brings progressives from around the world together every year in a different country, it also gives participants the opportunity to improve their understanding of the social and political situation in that particular country and also to reach out to its citizens. In fact, the World Social Forum in Senegal took place amidst a climate of social tension, which was apparent from the outset in the reaction of the crowds at the opening of the Forum. Our meetings with the Senegalese people and the Senegalese Left, and the difficulties experienced in organising the Forum due to a lack of political will on the part of Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade and his government, also enabled us to grasp the extent of the damage he and his government have caused and the Senegalese people’s mounting anger. 
 
Despite these difficulties, the 11th Forum went ahead as planned, with more than 1 200 self-organised activities on offer and 132 countries in attendance. A total of 70 000 people took part in the World Social Forum. The Forum also drew numerous political figures from every continent, including Brazilian President Evo Morales, former Brazilian President Lula da Silva, the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party, Martine Aubry, Alpha Condé, the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, and also Susan George, Franco-American political and social scientist, activist and writer, Federico Mayor Zaragoza, former Director General of UNESCO, and Aminata Dramane Traoré, former Minister of Culture and Tourism in Mali.
 
The full activity report will be available here very soon.