Observation 14 - What is a "region"? - The SBCC Summit - Some Personal Reflections

One significant development around the Summit was the initiation by people in each region of regional Summits.?South Asia?and Africa (Francophone and Anglophone initiatives) led the way, with Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Latin America also growing in strength. Unfortunately, for a lot of reasons (including visa issues for some key people and the invitation to do this panel coming very late in the process), the regional panel probably did not reflect the work that had taken place and the strength emerging. But it did pose another unasked question: What should be our regions? For example, there was neither a "North America" nor a "Western Europe" region present on that panel. It is not enough to say the organisations in those regions are global. We are meant to be decolonising! And many organisations in South Asia, Africa, and Latin America have (or will develop) working relationships with organisations in other regions. They are or will be global. In my view, if we are going regional, then it needs to be all regions. For example, the Western European headquartered organisations should be from a Western European region.?Yes or No? Why or why not?