Bangkok Civil Society Declaration: From Inclusive to Just Development

In August 2013, civil society groups from across Asia and the Pacific met in Bangkok and proposed a framework for development justice. They placed the distribution of wealth and power at the centre of development. Inviting people into a programme and giving them authority over its resources are distinct changes.

Who decides how resources are shared?

The declaration sets out redistributive, economic, social and environmental justice and accountability to peoples. It connects access to land, fisheries and productive resources with the position of women, Indigenous peoples and small producers. Labour rights, public services and social protection also shape whether people can withstand changes to markets or ecosystems.

Putting labour and ecological demands together makes it possible to test each against the other. Green investment can increase the risk of losing land where a few institutions control resources. An employment programme built on low-paid hazardous work can constrain participation in governing those resources. Budgets, ownership and accountability mechanisms offer concrete measures against which to read the demands.

Accountability before the terms are set

The declaration puts accountability beside redistribution. Imagine a coastal protection project that restricts access to existing fishing grounds. A consultation report can tell us how many people attended. To see what participation changed, ask who could define the losses, reject a proposal or negotiate compensation before the design was settled. Work in selling and processing fish or supplying households may be absent from a formal register. Making a permit the test of eligibility can therefore exclude a livelihood from the accounting.

Read economic and environmental justice together. A project might create jobs and improve an environmental indicator while leaving another group at greater risk of losing land. The declaration invites questions about rights and distribution at the start of an assessment, before counting aggregate gains. Following decisions about land use, labour protections and remedies reveals whether people affected by the project can shape what happens next. This is a civil-society proposal for governing development; it gives readers criteria for examining the exercise of power.

Compare Indigenous Women in Latin America for a regional account of demographic evidence and rights. The combination keeps the declaration’s claims and a geographically distinct set of experiences in view.

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