On March 29, the Barrow Cadbury Trust and The Foreign Policy Centre hosted a Global Exchange Forum conference on 'Social Capital: A Policy Tool for North and South?'. The conference brought together some of the luminaries on social capital and related debates from the North and the South, including: Professor Anthony Giddens; Matilde Ribeiro, Minister for Race Equality (Brazil); Maxine Molyneux, Institute of Latin American Studies; Anthony Heath, Oxford University; Jean Pierre Voyer, Policy Research Initiative (Canada); Michael Woolcock, World Bank; Raja Dharmapala, Dharmavedi Institute (Sri Lanka); David Halpern, Prime Minister's Strategy Unit.
The aim of the conference was to improve channels of communications and create networks between Northern and Southern policymaking communities, both inside and outside of government. It explored ways in which social capital has been understood in different contexts and how it has been applied in key areas of policy. In particular, it focused on three areas: the empowerment of women, managing communities under stress and improving race relations.