2003 "Alternative Nobelpreise"

2003 Right Livelihood Awards (RLA) to Pioneers for a Saner World.

(RLA Press Release, Stockholm 2.10.2003 )

The 2003 Right Livelihood Awards go to individuals and organisations from New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea and Egypt working for disarmament, justice, partnership and environmental sustainability.

The 2003 Right Livelihood Honorary Award honours New Zealand's former Prime Minister David Lange, whom the Jury recognises "for his steadfast work over many years for a world free of nuclear weapons".

Four recipients share the 2003 Right Livelihood cash Award of SEK 2 million:

Walden Bello and Nicanor Perlas from the Philippines play crucial and complementary roles in developing the theoretical and practical bases for a world order that benefits all people. The Jury honours Bello and Perlas "for their outstanding efforts in educating civil society about the effects of corporate globalisation, and how alternatives to it can be implemented".

The Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (South Korea) has since 1989 worked successfully to make Korean economic development more just, inclusive and democratic. The Jury commends "the rigour with which it has developed and disseminated its wide-ranging reform programme, based on social justice and accountability and the skill with which it is now applying the same values to promoting reconciliation with North Korea".

SEKEM (Egypt) shows how a modern business can combine profitability and engagement in world markets with a humane and spiritual approach to people and respect for the natural environment. The Jury sees in SEKEM "a business model for the 21st century in which commercial success is integrated with and promotes the social and cultural development of society through the
"economics of love'".

Further details about the work of these recipients is given on a separate datafile.

Founded in 1980, the Right Livelihood Awards are presented annually in the Swedish Parliament and are often referred to as "Alternative Nobel Prizes". They were introduced "to honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today". Jakob von Uexkull, a Swedish-German philatelic expert, sold his valuable postage stamps to provide the original endowment. Alfred Nobel wanted to honour those whose work "brought the greatest benefit to humanity". Von Uexkull felt that the Nobel Prizes today ignore much work and knowledge vital for our world and future.

* * *

A Press Conference with the recipients will be held in Stockholm on Thursday, December 4th. The award presentation ceremony in the Swedish Parliament will be held on December 8th. .

NB. German Press: All recipients will be in Berlin December 9th to 12th.
Contact: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Rosenthaler Str. 40-41, D-10178 Berlin,
Tel. 0049-30-28534-0, Fax -108, e-mail: [email protected]

For further information and photos of the 2003 Award recipients, including contact addresses:

Kerstin Bennett, Administrative Director
Right Livelihood Award, Stockholm
Telephone: +46 (0)8-702 03 40
Fax: +46 (0)8-702 03 38
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet: www.rightlivelihood.org

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The RLA-laureates 2003 - detailled portraits:

DAVID LANGE (Honorary Award) -- New Zealand

David Lange was born in 1942 and practised as a lawyer before being elected
to the New Zealand Parliament. He is known as the New Zealand Prime
Minister whose government, in 1984, passed legislation which banned
nuclear-powered and armed vessels (including aircraft) from New Zealand
(NZ) territory, and promoted the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty.
The US reacted to this policy against weapons of mass destruction by
cancelling all defence exercises, cutting intelligence sharing and demoting
NZ from ally to "friend", effectively making the ANZUS security alliance
inoperable.

David Lange personally defended the policy and promoted nuclear disarmament
nationally and internationally. He spoke extensively around the world,
including an address to the Conference on Disarmament and the UN General
Assembly. In 1985 he won a debate at the Oxford Union against the US
fundamentalist Christian Rev. Jerry Falwell, arguing in the affirmative
that "nuclear weapons are morally indefensible". This was televised
throughout the US along with other interviews for various TV programmes. He
became the champion of peace groups around the world and spoke at many
peace conferences. He joined Parliamentarians for Global Action delegations
to world leaders to discuss key disarmament issues. To their credit,
subsequent New Zealand Governments have persevered with the anti-nuclear
policy, which remains in place today. Lange told his story about the policy
in his book, "Nuclear Free: The New Zealand Way", published in 1990.

The nuclear-free policy was not a one-off for Lange. Back in 1975 he
defended peace activists in the courts, after they were arrested for
protesting against the visits of nuclear powered and armed warships
entering Auckland. As Prime Minister he also negotiated a settlement with
France, brokered by the UN Secretary General, as compensation after the
French government admitted that its secret service agents had detonated a
bomb which sank the Greenpeace Flagship "Rainbow Warrior" in Auckland
harbour in 1985, killing one person. In 1991 he sent a statement about the
importance of "demonstration as an instrument of international political
betterment" to be read at the trial of New Zealander Moana Cole during her
trial in the US for action taken against US bombers during the Gulf War. He
travelled to Iraq in 1999 negotiated and gained the release of NZ hostages.
He was an advocate for the World Court Project and wrote the foreword for
the booklet outlining the case. The Project resulted in the qualified
judgement of the World Court in 1996 that the threat or use of nuclear
weapons is against international law. Most recently Lange was emphatic in
his support for the current NZ Prime Minister, Helen Clark, when she
criticised the US over the Iraq War.

Contact Details:
Rt Hon David Lange
PO Box 59120
Mangere Bridge
Auckland,
NEW ZEALAND
Tel work: +64 9 622 0382
Fax: +64 9 622 0382
E-mail: [email protected]

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WALDEN BELLO -- Philippines

Walden Bello is one of the leading critics of the current model of economic
globalisation, combining the roles of intellectual and activist. As a
human rights and peace campaigner, academic, environmentalist and
journalist, and through a combination of courage as a dissident, with an
extraordinary breadth of published output and personal charisma, he has
made a major contribution to the international case against
corporate-driven globalisation.

Bello was born in Manila in the Philippines in 1945. He was studying in
Princeton for a sociology Ph.D in 1972 when Ferdinand Marcos took power,
and plunged into political activism, collecting his Ph.D, but not returning
to the university for another 20 years. Over the next two decades, he
became a key figure in the international movement to restore democracy in
the Philippines, co-ordinating the Anti-Martial Law Coalition and
establishing the Philippines Human Rights Lobby in Washington.

He was arrested repeatedly and finally jailed by the US authorities in 1978
for leading the non-violent takeover of the Philippine consulate in San
Francisco. He was released a week later after a hunger strike to publicise
human rights abuses in his home country.

While campaigning on human rights he saw how the World Bank and IMF loans
and grants were supporting the Marcos regime in power. These provided the
material for his book "Development Debacle" (1982), which became an
underground bestseller in the Philippines and helped create the citizen's
movement that eventually deposed Marcos in 1986.

After the fall of Marcos, Bello joined the NGO Food First in the USA, and
began to expand his coverage of the Bretton Woods institutions, in
particular studying the "newly industrialised countries" of Asia. His
critique of the Asian economic "miracle", "Dragons in Distress", was
written six years before the financial collapse that swept through the region.

His recent work has been criticising the financial subjugation of
developing countries and promoting alternative models of development that
would make countries less dependent on foreign capital.

In 1995, he was co-founder of "Focus on the Global South", of which he is
now executive director. Focus seeks to build grassroots capacity to tackle
wider regional issues of development and capital flows. When the Asian
Financial Crisis struck two years later, Focus played a major role
advocating a different way forward.

Bello argues that "what developing countries and international civil
society should aim at is not to reform the WTO but, through a combination
of passive and active measures, to radically reduce its power and make it
simply another international institution co-existing with and being checked
by other international organisations, agreements and regional
groupings'. It is in such a more fluid, less structured, more pluralistic
world with multiple checks and balances that the nations and communities of
the South will be able to carve out the space to develop based on their
values, their rhythms, and the strategies of their choice."

At the abortive WTO meeting in Seattle in 1999, Bello played a leading role
in the teach-ins around the protest events and was later beaten up by the
Seattle police. He was detained again by the Italian police at the 2001
G-8 summit in Genoa. Bello played a leading role in elaborating the
strategy of the South at the recent Cancun WTO summit - which derailed
the meeting in the face of US/EU intransigence.

He has also played a leading role as an environmentalist, and is former
chairman of the board of Greenpeace Southeast Asia. His 1998 book "A
Siamese Tragedy", documenting the environmental destruction of Thailand,
became a bestseller there and won praise from former Thai Prime Minister
Anand Oanyarachun. It received the Chancellor's Award for best book from
the University of the Philippines (2000).

Bello has campaigned for years for the withdrawal of US military bases in
the Philippines, Okinawa and Korea, and was instrumental in setting up the
Council for Alternative Security in the Asia-Pacific in 1997 and the South
Asian Peace Coalition in 2000 - both dedicated to denuclearisation and
demilitarisation, and a new kind of security plan based on meeting people's
needs.

After September 11 2001, he was a leading voice from the South urging the
USA not to resort to military intervention - which he believed would
exacerbate the problem - but to tackle the root causes of terrorism in
poverty, inequality, injustice and oppression. In March 2002, he led the
peace mission to the southern Philippine island of Basilan. He also led the
peace mission of parliamentarians and civil society leaders to Baghdad in
March 2003 in a last-ditch effort to prevent the US invasion.

Bello's current roles include:

National Chair Emeritus of Akbayan, one of the fastest growing parties in
the Philippines.
Professor of sociology and public administration at the University of the
Philippines.

Executive director of Focus on the Global South.

Visiting Professor in Southeast Asian Studies at the University of
California at Los Angeles.

Board member of Food First, the International Forum on Globalisation, the
Transnational Institute and the Nautilus Institute.

Bello has won praise for his writing, as the author or editor of 11 books
on Asian issues and a range of articles, notably "American Lake: The
nuclear peril in the Pacific" (1984) (co-authored with Peter Hayes and
Lyuba Zarsky), "People and Power in the Pacific" (1992), "Dark Victory: The
United States and Global Poverty" (1999), "Global Finance: Thinking on
regulating speculative capital markets" (2000) and "The Future in the
Balance: Essays on globalisation and resistance" (2001). He won the New
California Media Award for Best International Reporting in 1998. The
Belgian newspaper "Le Soir" recently called Bello "the most respected
anti-globalisation thinker in Asia".

Contact details:
Walden Bello
Focus on the Global South (FOCUS)
c/o CUSRI,
Chulalongkorn University
Bangkok 10330
THAILAND
Tel: 662 218 7363/7364/7365/7383
Fax: 662 255 9976
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet: www.focusweb.org

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NICANOR PERLAS -- Philippines

Nicanor Perlas was born in 1950, and graduated with highest honours in
agriculture from Xavier University. He gave up his masterís degree after
being drawn into the struggle against the Marcos-promoted Baataan nuclear
plant in 1978 and had to leave the Philippines after organising a
conference to expose its dangers.

After the fall of Marcos Perlas was able to return to the Philippines,
founding the Centre for Alternative Development Initiatives (CADI).

He became a consultant to the Aquino Government on the troubled nuclear
power plant, and contributed to the decision to mothball it, despite it
being very near completion, and having cost $2.1 billion.

At the same time he engaged in a campaign against the abuse of pesticides,
founding the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. This (and very often Perlas
personally) gave training and technical assistance in 23 provinces in the
Philippines. Perlas also became a member of the government's Pesticides
Technical Advisory Committee, which eventually banned 32 of the most
damaging pesticides and caused the government to invest $ 760 million in
integrated pest management, which trained more than 100,000 farmers. For
this work Perlas won the Global 500 Award from UNEP, and one of the TOFIL
Awards to outstanding Filipinos, both in 1994. In the substantial press
coverage that accompanied these awards, Perlas was often referred to as "a
farmer" and his work with CADI still helps farmers to shift away from
chemical-intensive agriculture.

By this time Perlas was already one of the Philippines' environmental
leaders. He had set up student environmental groups and his work on nuclear
power and sustainable agriculture had given him a national profile. He was
one of the Philippines' NGO delegation to the 1992 Earth Summit. He later
became heavily involved in the post-Rio process in the Philippines, not
least through the Philippine Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), of
which he has been Civil Society Co-Chair, and helped to formulate and
implement at the local level Philippine Agenda 21 (PA21). Later in the
1990s he became Co-Chair of the Green Forum of environmental groups, and he
has been a member of Mikael Gorbachovís Commission on Globalisation.

Perlas explicitly sought to use PA 21 as a counter-weight to the trade
liberalisation that was being pushed through the Uruguay Road of the GATT,
in what he described as a "creative response to the challenge of Èlite
globalisation." A major practical expression of the PA 21 approach is the
micro-credit initiative Lifebank, of which Perlas is a Board member.
Lifebank has so far reached 15,000 families.

Perlas has evolved a "tri-sector" approach to policy-making, which he calls
"threefolding": "In social threefolding the three global powers -
government, representing political concerns, business, representing
economic concerns, and civil society, representing cultural concerns, can
come together, where appropriate and feasible, to join efforts in solving
major world problems." This is the subject of Perlas' most recent book,
"Shaping Globalisation: Cultural Power and Threefolding", (2000). These
ideas are said to have been important in the process that led to the
toppling of President Estrada in 2000. Perlas took the book to the "State
of the World Forum 2000", and has co-founded two networks to take the ideas
forward globally: "GlobeNet 3" and the "Global Institute for Responsible
Leadership", which seeks to promote innovative thinking and collaboration
across traditional boundaries - departments, organizations, sectors, and
cultures.

For the past five years Perlas' focus has almost exclusively been on social
movements and their power to change the world. He counts as one of his
major achievements that, with Walden Bello, he convinced the Philippine NGO
scene in 1996, through major talks, the formation of networks and a big
civil society conference that the issue for the future of the Philippines,
is the value system underpinning globalisation. Perlas warns that the
developments we are facing demand a deeper, ethical and spiritual response:
we face a system not just a management crisis. Thus he asks how our sense
of identity and humanity will be affected by current technological advances
(in genetic engineering, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence) which
could lead to the proliferation of half-human half-machine "silicone
beings" in the near future.

Contact details:
Nicanor Perlas
Center for Alternative Development Initiatives
Unit 718 Cityland Megaplaza
Garnet rd cor. ADB Avenue
Ortigas Center, Pasig City,
1605 Metro Manila
PHILIPPINES
Tel work: +63 2 687 7481
Fax: +63 2 687 7482
Email: cadi @info.com.ph
Internet: www.cadi.ph

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CITIZENS' COALITION FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE (CCEJ) -- South Korea

The CCEJ is a Korean citizens' movement working for economic justice,
environmental protection, democratic and social development and
reunification of the divided Korean peninsula. Founded in 1989, it was
Korea's first fully-fledged citizens' organization and is now one of its
most influential. It has 35,000 members and 35 local branches, and its work
is carried out by about 50 staff nationwide, with the guidance and support
of about 150 specialists who serve on the 17 subcommittees of the Policy
Research Committee. The subcommittees cover subjects such as Banking, Local
Autonomy, Finance and Taxation and Welfare.

The founding principles of CCEJ were that it should 1) be led by ordinary
citizens, 2) use legal and non-violent methods, 3) seek workable
alternatives, 4) speak for the interests of all people regardless of
economic standing, and 5) work to overcome greed and egoism in order to
build a sharing society. Its methods consist of research and development of
policy alternatives, and lobbying for their enactment into law; public
education and consensus-building through seminars, conferences, public
hearings and discussion meetings; keeping the media informed about
citizens' concerns through press conferences, interviews and constant
information-sharing; signature campaigns and rallies; publications; and
organization of members for special activities. The most recent development
is the establishment of CCEJ Inernational to work for the realization of
economic justice on the global level.

Despite the broad scope of this citizens' movement, it has been able to
accomplish significant results in a relatively short time. Among other
achievements it has:

Successfully got a law enacted to prevent rampant real estate speculation
and promote housing stability for renters and urban poor people (1989-90);

Led a successful campaign for establishment of the 'real-name system' for
all financial transactions and property registration (overturning the
practice of using false names to avoid taxation) (1993);

Proposed the following additional legislation for political and economic
reform and got it passed by parliament:

· a law to democratize government administration and make it
more transparent;

· a freedom of information act;

· amendment of election laws related to political funds and political
party operations.

Organized a nationwide 'People's Coalition to Protect Agriculture', a
network of 190 organizations, which pressured the government to slow its
agricultural market opening in order to protect farmers' minimum survival
(1993-94);

Inaugurated and continuously leads a Citizens' Legislative Movement to
monitor parliament and lobby for reform legislation;

Successfully mediated civil society conflicts (for example, one between
Korean traditional medicine practitioners and western-medicine pharmacists
in 1993);

Established the Right Farming Cooperative, a network of organic farmers,
which aims to promote wider production and use of organic produce, by
linking producers and consumers, compiling textbooks and other
publications, launching a 'Save our soil and water' campaign and holding
various special events;

Established the Urban Reform Centre, which carries out a public education
program for the purpose of creating sustainable cities;

Worked continuously for economic reforms, especially for reform of the
chaebol (giant family-owned business groups which dominate the Korean
economy), tax reform, establishment of corporate ethics and improvement of
labour rights;

Played a key role in the establishment of the local autonomy system, i.e.
the restoration of local democratic structures;

Organized the Asia-Pacific Civil Society Forum...for the purpose of
identifying problems in the region...and in particular to challenge the
dominant development model and work to replace it with 'people-centered,
community-centered and life-centered' development.

In addition it:

Was the first organization to call public attention to the situation of
foreign migrant workers in Korea and propose legislation for their protection;

Operates the Anti-Corruption Center, which investigates citizens' reports
on business and government irregularities and has worked to clean up
corruption in the judicial system;

Carries out a broad and active environmental protection movement through
the local CCEJ branches and in cooperation with other Korean and
international environmental organizations;

Works to educate the public for reunification of divided Korea, especially
through the 'Reconciliation Academy', a lecture series on North Korean
realities and desirable reunification policies;

In 1999 CCEJ also spun off its "Center for Environment and Development" to
become the independent "Citizen's Movement for Environment Justice". The
CMEJ aims to bridge the gap between social and environmental groups in the
Korean NGO movement; its rationale is that social and environmental
problems must be treated as one continuum if real solutions are to be
found. It is also setting up an 'Environmental Justice Forum' to conduct
research, to work to get its findings adopted and to hold monthly meetings
with other Korean environmental organisations.

In 2001 CCEJ established the 'Best Foreign Corporation Award', to be
awarded to the trans-national corporation which scored highest on criteria
of law observance, ethics and achievement.

On the Korean reunification, CCEJ's Position is as follows:

North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons must not be allowed to be a
reason for war.
All peaceful means are required to solve the nuclear issue, but no military
sanctions should be allowed.

Humanitarian aid should go on.

South Korea should maintain its policy of reconciliation and co-operation
with the North and seek to persuade the North without abandoning talks.

Contact details:
Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice
Soh Kyung-suk
Pierson Bldg. 2nd Fl., 89-27,
Shinmoonro 2-ga
Jongro-gu,
Seoul 110-761
KOREA REP.
Tel work: +82 2 757 7380
Fax: +82 2 757 7382/3
Email: [email protected]
Internet: www.ccej.or.kr

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SEKEM / DR. IBRAHIM ABOULEISH -- Egypt

Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish was born in Egypt in 1937. In the year 1956, at the
age of 19, he began his studies in chemistry, medicine at the University of
Graz, Austria, receiving his Ph.D. in Pharmacology in 1969. Thereafter he
then engaged in pharmaceutical research, taking on the position as Head of
Division for pharmaceutical research until 1977.

In 1975, on a visit to Egypt together with his family, he was overwhelmed
by the country's pressing problems in education, overpopulation and
pollution. His admiration for his country led him to establish in 1977 a
comprehensive development initiative, which he called SEKEM.

The Innovation:

SEKEM is establishing the blueprint for the healthy corporation of the 21st
century. Taking its name from the hieroglyphic transcription meaning
'vitality of the sun', SEKEM was the first entity to develop biodynamic
farming methods in Egypt. These methods are based on the premise that
organic cultivation improves agro-biodiversity and does not produce any
unusable waste. All products of the system can be either sold or re-used in
cultivation, thereby creating a sustainable process.

Background:

Egypt's problems are interrelated and include overpopulation, environmental
degradation, inadequate education and health care. Agriculture involves 40%
of the workforce and remains the least developed sector of the economy.
Cost of agricultural production has increased while the resource base has
shrunk. Today, Egypt has become one of the world's largest importers of
food. Because the country's problems are interrelated, SEKEM has built a
thriving social and cultural base to address Egypt's crumbling health,
educational and cultural preservation capacities.

Strategy:

SEKEM is formed by three closely interrelated entities: The SEKEM Holding
Company comprising six companies, each responsible for an aspect of SEKEM's
business value proposition, the Egyptian Society for Cultural Development
(SCD), responsible for all cultural aspects, and the Cooperative of SEKEM
Employees (CSE), responsible for human resource development. Working
together, they have created a modern corporation based on innovative
agricultural products and a responsibility towards society and
environmental sustainability.

The six companies of Sekem Holding Company are: ATOS - produces and markets
phyto-pharmaceuticals and health products; LIBRA - works with farmers to
cultivate fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs; HATOR - produces and packs
fresh fruit and vegetables from Libra; CONYTEX - manufactures and sells
organic textiles to local and export markets; ISIS - production of
processed organic foodstuffs; SEKEM - prepares and pre-processes herbs and
spices.

SEKEM has grown exponentially in the last decade to a nationally renowned
enterprise and market leader of organic products and phyto-pharmaceuticals.
It has established reliable links with European and U.S. customers in the
export trade. Moreover, 55% of its sales are domestic - an essential
element for SEKEM's long-term sustainability. Its strong commitment to
innovative development led to the nation-wide application of biodynamic
methods to control pests and improve crop yields. However, SEKEM's most
important impact on Egyptian society has generally and most probably been
achieved through the Egyptian Biodynamic Association (EBDA), an NGO
established in 1990 as a means of conducting R & D into biodynamic
agriculture in Egypt and training framers in its methods. In collaboration
with the Ministry of Agriculture, SEKEM deployed a new system of plant
protection in cotton, which led to a ban of crop dusting throughout Egypt.
By 2000, according to UN and FAO reports, pesticide use in Egyptian cotton
fields had fallen by over 90%, while prior to the ban 35,000 tons of
chemical pesticides were sprayed yearly. Furthermore nearly 80% of Egyptian
cotton was being grown organically and average annual yields had increased
by nearly 30%.

The SEKEM "mother farm" and processing facilities are located on 300
hectares of land near the town of Belbeis, 60 kms from Cairo. After the
successful implementation of the biodynamic method in this area, other
farmers, stunned by the results, started to cooperate with SEKEM. Today,
approximately 800 farmers from Aswan to Alexandria are applying the
international guidelines for biodynamic agriculture on 8,000 hectares.

In 1990 SEKEM facilitated the establishment of the Center of Organic
Agriculture in Egypt (COAE) as a regulatory and certification body,
according and adhering to DEMETER guidelines and the European Regulations
for Organic Agriculture.

The SCD is SEKEM's way of reaching out beyond its commercial activity in
pursuit of its goal to contribute to ìthe comprehensive development of
Egyptian societyî. It employs approximately 200 people in four main domains
of activity.

A kindergarten, primary and secondary school, and a special needs education
program for the children of employees and the neighboring community.

A work-and-education program for children from poorer families in need of
further income, a vocational training center, literacy classes and a
training institute for adults.

A Medical Center providing modern medical services and an outreach program,
treating 30,000 people yearly from the general vicinity.

An Academy for Applied Arts and Sciences to promote scientific research in
the areas of medicine, pharmacy, biodynamic agriculture, sustainable
economics and arts.

A number of its social initiatives in the arts and other fields contribute
to the development of Egyptians, raising their self-esteem and promoting
mutual respect. In addition, increasingly Egypt's younger generation seeks
to pursue tertiary education. In response, SEKEM is founding a private
University offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in arts, science and
technology.

Today, 2,000 people work in SEKEM. Revenues have grown from 37 million
Egyptian pounds in 2000 to 100 million in 2003. In 1997, Sekem was awarded
ISO 9001 certification, was selected "World Wide Project" of the Hannover
EXPO 2000, and in 2002, it secured a loan from the International Finance
Corporation of the World Bank.

Through cooperation on projects with sister organizations in Germany and
the Netherlands, SEKEM has received support from institutions such as the
European Commission, Ford Foundation, USAID, and the Acumen Fund. SEKEM is
increasingly seeking to share its experience and acquired knowledge with
other countries (including India, Palestine, Senegal and Turkey), and has a
partnership for this purpose with the "Fountain Foundation" in South Africa.

In an article, which appeared in "Business Today Egypt", the Sekem Group
was described as "an economic powerhouse", but the Group differs from most
companies in various aspects:

The training of its employees in social awareness and creative arts, as
well as professional skills "to awaken a person's senses, encourage
creativity, and foster a sense of social responsibility and ethical
awareness." Employees are organized in a 'co-operative of SEKEM employees'.

Its management of the value-adding chain from the farmers to the consumers
based on partnership and transparency, an approach SEKEM calls the
'economics of love'.

There is also a deep aesthetic commitment. In 2000 the "Cairo Times" wrote:
"Aesthetically speaking, it is almost eerily organized and clean for a
farm. The same kind of pastel-colored buildings that comprise the company's
administrative center are strewn around the farm, connected to each other
by neat paths lined with flowerbeds and trees. Beyond the central square
fields of swaying grass and fragrant herbs give the impression that one has
reached the gates of paradise."

Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish is clearly an important leadership figure in SEKEM.
He was elected as one of the distinguished Social Entrepreneurs by the
"Schwab Foundation" to participate within the renowned "World Economic
Forum". Increasingly though leadership seems to be passing to the next
generation. The Managing Director of the SEKEM Group is his son Helmy
Abouleish, born in 1961. Notwithstanding the influence of modern science,
Dr. Abouleish, who has always been a Muslim, is at pains to stress the
consistency of SEKEM's approach with Islam: "All the different aspects of
the company, whether the cultural ones or the economic ones, have been
developed out of Islam. We believe that it is possible to derive guiding
principles for everything from pedagogics, to the arts, to economics from
Islam."

Contact details:
SEKEM Intiative
Ibrahim Abouleish
3, Belbeis Desert Road
POB 2834
El Horreya
Cairo
EGYPT
Tel work: +20 2 656 41 24
Fax: +20 2 656 41 23
Internet: www.sekem.com

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Date of creation or issue: 2003. 10. 02.

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