The association -
Missions
Think global, act local
GERES applies the principles of Sustainable Development to reinforce its approach. Sustainable development, as defined at the Rio Conference in 1992, aims to translate a set of principles into policies and practices:
- Ensure consistency between social, environmental, economic and cultural aspects;
- Promote stakeholder participation and democracy as a cross-cutting theme;
- Introduce the concepts of accountability, solidarity, participation, precaution and subsidiarity into all activities.
As a player on the development and co-operation scenes, GERES takes all these principles on board in order to be true to its values and work more effectively in the field.
When applied to international solidarity and co-operation, the sustainable development approach strives to integrate and achieve three priority aims that concern both North and South:
- Taking account of the ecological situation and its limitations at the local and global level;
- Investment in infrastructure and sustainable production and consumption patterns: transport, town planning, waste, agriculture, energy efficiency, etc.
- Awareness-raising and environmental education, international solidarity and sustainable development, major levers for changing individual and collective behaviour.
With its particular operational focus on environment and energy, applied in different fields, GERES seeks to take up a number of major challenges, both global and local.
These challenges cannot be separated from each other: the fight against poverty and inequality, promoting gender equality, controlling the impacts of urbanization, promoting sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty, ensuring health and education for all, implementing climate solidarity, conserving natural resources, biodiversity and ecosystems.
