The World Assembly is committed to change, globally and at home and provides an opportunity to exchange ideas on a truly global scale to bring justice, peace and democracy to the world.

Under the theme of 'Acting Together for a Just World', the programme included discussions on some of the world's biggest humanitarian problems - poverty reduction, human rights, employment, disease and freedom of association. Learning themes in over 90 workshops featured funding, gender issues, youth and learning itself.

Volkhart Finnn Heinrich the CIVICUS World Assembly programme coordinator said 'The World Assembly has a very strong participatory feel, there are lots of workshops, and even in the many plenaries a lot of people will be involved. So it's not the high-profile nature of it that makes it worthwhile, but the fact that there's so much room for engagement for people who are working on the same issues'. It is also the only place where NGO's can meet leading donors and funders such as the World Bank, the EU and government ministers.

We have met an extraordinary variety of inspiring, committed and energetic people working at the coalface of many of the world's most intractable social problems. We have visited practical social projects and gathered some fascinating ideas for practical action. We will be sharing these and telling the stories of some of the people we have met in the coming weeks. We were able to extend our knowledge of what is going on in civil society around the world but above all it was the chance to meet face to face and to talk with the 'doers' from so many different countries that was the real excitement and benefit of attending this remarkable gathering. 

As CIVICUS Chief Executive, Kumi Naidoo expressed ' The 2006 CIVICUS World Assembly is a golden opportunity for networking at every level of civil society and our pledge to have 50% women and 30% youth delegates reflects our commitment to participatory activism.'