The 2011 Caux summer conferences closed today with the end of the ‘Trust and Integrity in the Global Economy’ session at the Initiatives of Change centre this morning. It is the third consecutive year that there has been an increase in participation in the Caux conferences: over 1200 people from all over the world have participated in the series of four conferences that started on 3 July.

The final evening programme of the International Caux Conferences 2011 marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Frank Buchman, the founder of Initiatives of Change. Buchman died in Freudenstadt, in the Black Forest, in Germany, in 1961. A church service in the Protestant chapel in Caux in the morning also marked this anniversary. The Buchman anniversary was on the last full day of the ‘Trust and Integrity in the Global Economy’ conference in the Initiatives of Change centre in Caux, Switzerland.

Creating a sustainable future is the leadership challenge of our time, for Göran Carstedt, the Chairman of the Natural Step International. With the experience of senior positions in IKEA and Volvo, he is one of Europe’s most prominent business leaders and a leading advocate of sustainability. He was giving a ‘Caux Lecture’ at the ‘Trust and Integrity in the Global Economy’ conference in the Initiatives of Change centre in Caux, Switzerland, this evening. ‘A sustainable future has to be seen as desirable,’ the good news is that all the necessary ingredients to succeed are within our grasp, the Swedish business leader suggested.

‘Vested interests and the power of the financial lobby seem to have won the day, and nothing seems to have really changed,’ said Paul Moore, the former head of group regulatory risk at Halifax Bank of Scotland HBOS, internationally known as ‘the HBOS whistle-blower’. He was speaking at the opening of the ‘Trust and Integrity in the Global Economy’ conference in the Initiatives of Change centre in Caux, Switzerland, this evening. A far-reaching reform agenda of the financial system needed to be backed by an ‘Arab Spring’ of public opinion, he said.

The conference ‘Learning to live in a multicultural world: Diaspora and peacemaking in Europe’ closed on Sunday 31 July at the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Caux above Montreux. 250 Participants from all parts of Europe, among them many representatives from different diaspora communities, gathered for 5 days at the conference centre and discussed new ways of living together in a multicultural society.

The third of the summer conferences, ‘Learning to live in a multicultural world’ opened on Tuesday 26 July 2011 at the Initiatives of Change Caux conference centre in Switzerland. The conference will run until 31 July and has brought together 250 Europeans and representatives from diaspora communities, from Sri Lanka, Somalia, Eritrea, Burundi, Afghanistan, Serbia or Bosnia, to reflect on the multicultural future of the European continent.

The 4th Caux Forum for Human Security ended on Sunday 17 July in the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Caux above Montreux. 350 Participants from all over the world – Diplomats, scientists, NGO-representatives and grassroots activists – discussed during 7 days about ways to advance human security.

The Caux Forum for Human Security today examined the urgent challenge of erosion and soil degradation, which is destroying the equivalent of three Switzerlands of productive land every year. Luc Gnacadja, the Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification which has the job of mobilizing organizations and people to turn back the world’s man-made deserts was the main speaker.

Monseigneur Henri Teissier introduced a showing of the award-winning film ‘Of Gods and Men’ at the Caux Forum for Human Security last night.

Swiss human rights fighter and feminist Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold presented to participants of the Caux Forum for Human Security the ‘No Women – No Peace’ temporary exhibition in the IofC conference centre on Tuesday, 12 July.