This initiative was launched in the context of the heated debate on globalization, marked by the Seattle demonstrations, the emergence of international NGO movements critical of the international institutions and the creation of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre.

Article Z (France) Director Patrice Barrat and InterAct (U.S.A.) Director Evelyn Messinger first initiated this process whereby individuals and institutional representatives participate in meetings and debates centered around targeted issues, without necessarily committing their mandates or organizations.This initiative has not only increased the level of trust and willingness to cooperate among actors who previously had no common space to even meet, it also demonstrated the importance of involving all concerned stakeholders in addressing issues of common concern and the capacity of such interaction to create new opportunities for future cooperation.

Through this preliminary effort, Bridge Initiative International has gained the respect and trust of major actors both in the UN system, the International Financial Institutions, and the alter-globalist movement. Beyond this role as a channel of communication, Bridge Initiative has also worked on the establishment of a specific framework for the holding of informal meetings, public debates, and discussions on key concerns: international security, global governance, trade regulation and subsidies, debt, and sustainable development.

Beyond the neutral space it has created for all players, a key outcome of this initiative is the softening of barriers between what were formerly rigidly-defined organizations. Where there was once only black and white - insiders or outsiders, friends or enemies - we have succeeded in fostering a spectrum of opinions within the structures themselves. The conflicting actors that we have gathered over the years did not know each other at the outset of the process, but now they reflect privately and debate publicly on a regular basis, having recognized a shared goal-that of contributing to the creation of a more just and fair world. This can be most clearly seen in the slow acceptance of both the World Social Forum and the IFIs to include the other's perspectives in their internal discussions, a process to which Bridge Initiative has contributed a great deal. We have been invited to arrange meetings for these groups with increasing frequency as the benefits of increased understanding and fundamental trust have come to influence the dialogue on all sides.

The need for mediation emerged following a January 2001 satellite television dialogue between the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, produced by the Article Z multimedia press agency.

Mediation was required not only between these two forums but also, and more importantly, between multilateral institutions such as the UN, IMF, World Bank, WTO, as well as governments, corporations, and NGOs representing a civil society force that emerged after Seattle and Porto Alegre.

Every year, Bridge Initiative organizes plenary meetings that areopportunities to exchange collectively on its thematics and reflect thepreoccupations of the actors.