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Goodwill Cooperation Service

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Geographic scope:	International
Country of activity:	Switzerland Republic of Korea
Millennium Development Goals:	Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Achieve universal primary education Promote gender equality and empower women
Mission statement:	The GCS Movement is a non-governmental social movement directed towards constructing a spiritually beautiful, materially affluent and humanly rewarding society. It is a global movement which is focused on five major activities: a movement for actualizing a healthy society, improving standards of living, protecting nature and the environment, restoring human dignity, and promoting world peace with the spirit of GCS: Goodwill, Cooperation, and Service. The GCS Movement was first proclaimed, in 1975, at the fourth IAUP triennial conference held in Boston, U.S. The Boston Declaration was adopted by 600 presidents from prestigious universities around the world, officially launching the GCS Movement. In 1978, under the leadership of Dr. Young Seek Choue, 77 world leaders, including the former President of the Philippines H.E. Diosdado Macapagal, the former Korean President H.E. Bo-Sun Yun, Nobel prize recipient Dr. Charles B. Huggins, President of International Red Cross Hon. E. De La Mata, and the former UN Under-Secretary General Hon. Bohdan Lewandowski, joined the campaign as co-initiators. Prior to reaching international prominence, the GCS Movement originated in Korea through an illiteracy eradication program and the rural enlightenment movement in the 1950's, developed through the Movement for Material Well-being in the 1960's, and continued to evolve into the 1970's. The GCS Movement is also believed to have directly influenced the development of the Korean government-led New Village Movement. The GCS Movement spread world-wide in the 1980's, as club members strove to build a global cooperative society in order to establish world peace. The GCS International was particularly active in 1981, playing a key role in the UN's establishment of the International Day of Peace and the Year of Peace, which contributed to build momentum towards ending the Cold War. In 1998, the GCS International adopted the Magna Carta of Global Common Society to promote world citizenship, and in 1999, the GCS International hosted the 1999 Seoul International Conference of NGOs. The Conference represented the first major NGO gathering dedicated to primarily to the question of how NGOs themselves might become better organized and empowered on a global level to address issues across the whole spectrum of human progress. In this era of great transformation in human history, the GCS Movement has a millennium vision to build a Global Common Society transcending race, religion, ideology and nationality. As an alternative to nationalism, patriotism, and exclusivism, the new human society will foster co-prosperity through the global community, human family and global village.
Year established:	1979
Year of registration:	1979
Organizational structure:	Since the establishment of the GCS International Headquarters in Seoul as a center of the GCS Movement in 1979, the GCS Movement began to be spread all over the world with the role model of the GCS Korean Chapter in its operation, assimilating to distinct nature of each country. Beginning with the establishment of the GCS Indian Chapter in February, 1980, GCS National Chapters were organized in Asia-Pacific countries in the 1980s including Australia, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, and China. With this momentum, the GCS Movement spread to both North and South America in early 1990s, with the establishment of GCS National Chapters in the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico. The movement spread to parts of the CIS including Russia, Ukraine, and Sakha Republic. In late 1990s, and further through the European Continent with the establishment of National Chapters in Sweden, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
Number and type of members:	the movement has now spread to over 35 countries (over 50,000 members), consolidating its international network under the central control of its International Headquarters in Seoul.
Affiliation with NGO networks:	DPI and ECOSOC
Funding structure:	Membership fees or dues Fundraising campaigns Donations and grants from domestic sources Foreign and international grants

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