The Ring alliance

Founded in 1991, in the build-up to the Rio Summit on Environment and Development, the Ring alliance developed as an informal space in which a community of like-minded organisations worked together to achieve shared objectives.

In June 2007, the Ring alliance produced the Ring Statement: Realising Sustainable Development. The statement called for a radical new approach to global policymaking, arguing that since the Rio Summit – with its ambitious goals for sustainable development – not enough had been done.

Two decades on, there was little evidence that for action on the scale equal to the magnitude of the problems. This needed a major shift in the way root causes were tackled, by building sustainability from the bottom up. The statement was launched at a meeting of government officials and civil society organisations.

Members of the Ring were based in five continents, the majority in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The network's goal was to improve environmental and developmental policy processes, and increase the regional and local impact of organisations working on sustainable development issues.

The Ring aimed to further increase its impact on international decision-making forums, particularly in three broad areas: climate change, trade, and the future of sustainability as an influential concept.

Vision

The vision of the Ring was to promote and develop collaborative working in support of sustainable development through:

• Linking grassroots communities and policymakers
• Linking civil society and research agendas, and
• Sharing and disseminating knowledge and experience between the North and South, and between regions.

The added value of the Ring was gained from joint research and information sharing and lesson learning between Ring partners. This gave the Ring a unique inter-regional and regional perspective on major sustainable development issues.