note Note générale

The Lanaudière Table of Partners for Social Development: A Case Study

Introduction

The World Summit for Social Development was held in Copenhagen in March 1995 under the auspices of the United Nations. As pointed out in the final Declaration, this was the first time in history that heads of state and government had gathered to “recognize the significance of social development and human well-being for all and to give to these goals the highest priority [and] address profound social problems, especially poverty, unemployment and social exclusion, that affect every country.”1 The Summit concluded with an invitation to all people in all countries and in all walks of life, as well as the international community, to “join us in our common cause.”

The Québec government responded to this call by organizing an event that brought together hundreds of people from all parts of the province around the theme of social development. The following account tells how the actors in one region used preparations for participating in this event, the Forum national sur le développement social (National Forum on Social Development), as a lever for regional and local mobilization around social development.

It is, of course, the dream of anyone who organizes conferences, symposia and large meetings of all kinds, that such efforts will help participants move forward in their thinking and action. The National Forum was a success in this regard, because social development committees have now sprouted up in nearly all of Québec’s administrative regions. But nowhere did the National Forum spark such phenomenal mobilization as in the Lanaudière region. Indeed, the effects of the process of preparing for the National Forum are still being felt in this region through a vast range of local and regional structures and initiatives sustained by an original mechanism of dialogue, concerted action and partnership dedicated specifically to social development: the Table des partenaires du développement social de Lanaudière, or the Lanaudière Table of Partners for Social Development. This is its story.