On June 8, 2022, during the II International Congress on Humanitarian Action and Development Cooperation, the idea of universal solidarity was put forward, echoing the Manifesto and Appeal for Co-responsibility. It consists of organizing forms of solidarity that transcend the borders of countries and continents to support isolated populations with few resources or support and facing basic needs, especially in the countries of the South. A webinar was organized on Saturday, July 30th from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm (French time) to allow people from Latin America and Africa to participate.

Objective

The objective of this first meeting was to define the bases of Universal Solidarity, considering the following points

1. The well-being of all while preserving natural resources and the ecological balance of the planet is the ultimate goal towards which humanity must strive
2. This objective can only be achieved through collective approaches, starting at the local level between people sharing the same neighborhood or village.
3. Each local territorial unit (neighborhood or village, or even more) must, as far as possible, have sufficient autonomy to ensure the well-being of all its inhabitants in solidarity. To do this, each unit must build a collective strategy that defines its support needs, if any.
4. Universal Solidarity will consist of finding partners who can provide this support, whether they are individuals or groups or other types of donors - Partnerships will then be organized between each community with needs and the respective donor.
5. On the basis of the experiences made, operational rules will be progressively refined to maintain a common line of orientation, particularly with regard to the identification of needs, the elaboration of strategies, partnerships and the monitoring and evaluation of results. Partnership agreements may be made with NGOs and organizations already working in crowdfunding.
6. The experience of Cape Verde with Associations of inhabitants of each village, grouped in platforms of dialogue with public and private entities at the micro-regional level and a national federation will serve as a pilot example to start the process and then extend it to other countries.

Procedure

The meeting went as follows:

1. Presentation of the Universal Solidarity project in its main lines.
2. Presentation of the case of Cape Verde by the National Federation.
3. Open debate on the functioning of Universal Solidarity.
4. Conclusions and programming of the next steps, particularly in terms of contacts to be made and dissemination.

Follow-up to the meeting

Following this first meeting, a work of formatting on wikispiral.org pages of solidarity communities was done, especially on communities in Cape Verde and Brazil. This will be done in order to analyze at the next meeting on September 3rd the best way to communicate local solidarity and thus have a basis to launch global solidarity relationships (see minutes of the second meeting).