About

The CETRI is ...

The Tricontinental Centre (CETRI), is a Non-Governmental Organisation founded in 1976 and based in Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium). CETRI is committed to study, publications and training in issues of development and North-South relations. Its main aim is to provide a transmission channel for the voices of the South and contribute to a critical examination of the dominant conceptions and practices of development in the era of neo-liberal globalisation. Emphasis is on understanding and discussing the role of social and political actors in the South in their struggle for social, political, cultural and ecological rights.
CETRI is active in five fields : research, publications, training, coaching, and documentation. Some of the main themes we have covered recently relate to ‘new North-South issues in globalisation’, dynamics of social actors in the South, relations between protest movements and political power in Asia, Africa and Latin America, the scope of social and political alternatives in the South, and the rationale and consequences of structural adjustment and development aid.

Ongoing activities

• Alternatives Sud (Southern alternatives) is a three-monthly publication created in 1994 with the aim of making the points of view known of researchers, activists and intellectuals in the South concerning development and globalisation.
• “Etats des résistances dans le Sud” (State of resistance in the South) is an annual worldwide overview of the diversity and strength of social struggle for democracy and against neoliberal globalisation.
• To keep abreast of news about social actors and movements in the South almost daily recent articles on and by social movements in the South are posted on our website (www.cetri.be). Thus the website provides a multilingual online service of news and background articles about mobilisation for democratisation in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
• The documentation centre Revues du Sud (journals of the South) consists of a large selection of print as well as digital journals from the South and is respectively located in Louvain-la-Neuve and on our website. Here the visitor has access to up-to-date magazines from Asia, Africa and Latin America focusing on issues of development, Nord-South relations and globalisation.

In addition CETRI conducts studies and research on various topics, compiles teaching materials and educational books, organises training courses and gives public lectures on their core areas of interest.

Networks

Most of CETRI’s activities seek to work broadly with a network of research institutions, study centres, NGO’s and other partner organisations in Latin America, Africa and Asia. In this context it must be noted that CETRI plays an active role on the International Council of the World Social Forum.

In Belgium CETRI is a member of the National Centre of Cooperation and Development (CNCD-11.11.11) and Acodev, the federation of French and German language organisations for cooperation and development. We also collaborate with our ‘Northern Partners’ through active membership of management boards (CNCD-11.11.11), political commissions, and action platforms or groups.