The Memorandum has been Heinrich Boell Foundation's contribution to the debate on both the desired outcomes of the Summit and the critical path for the sustainable development agenda in the next decade. We published this Memorandum a few months before the Summit, at a critical juncture of renewed political momentum. The Jo'burg Memo was available as an input for the deliberations of NGOs, experts, and governments preparing for Johannesburg. With such a thought piece, the foundation hoped to foment self-reflection within the NGO community and to promote the dialogue between non-governmental activists, open-minded managers and political representatives. Last not least, the foundation wanted to offer a visible contribution to the formation of an informed and critical world public around the World Summit 2002.

The Memorandum raises the central but oft-forgotten question "Development yes, but what kind of development and for whom?" Its recommendations are grounded firmly in the principles of ecological sustainability and equity. The text concentrates on elaborating on the mutual and intricate relationship of ecology and equity, while not pretending that it deals exhaustively with poverty eradication in all its manifold dimensions. It combines a critical account of the post-Rio decade with a rich set of proposals how to change the paradigms of unsustainable development and to promote civic, social and environmental rights. In spite of different views on the ongoing process of globalisation the authors agree about the urgent need to re-integrate markets in a framework of social and environmental regulations and limitations on a local, regional, national and global level. The demand for a redistribution of rights and resources stands in the very centre of the memorandum.

The composition of the Memorandum’s authorship reflects the diversity of our international network, from North and South, from East and West, from NGOs, science, politics, and business. The meetings of the authors were convened in both the venues of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio and the forthcoming Johannesburg Summit, as well as Berlin, the capital of an EU Member State whose government has started to take serious steps towards translating sustainability into concrete policy. The work of the Group has resulted in the 84 page memorandum and has been presented to the international public at the PrepComm III in New York. Subsequently, the memorandum has been disseminated in several languages. In the months prior to the World Summit and during the Summit itself, the foundation used the memorandum as an instrument for launching debates in various places and contexts.