The international organising committee of the Forum meets in Nairobi this weekend to deliberate on a range of upcoming issues, including the venue of the next Forum.

Venues mentioned informally so far include Barcelona in Spain, Baia in Brazil, a yet-to-be-decided Italian venue and a city in Francophone Africa.

Professor Edward Oyugi of Kenya said he believed that the WSF was destined for South America in 2009: "I’m predicting that there is a likelihood that it will come back to its birthplace in Brazil and go outside Latin America the following year.

He said that he believed that this year’s event had been successful and that many lessons had been learned but urged caution on returning to Africa too soon.

"Africa needs one or two years to reflect and to evaluate it (the WSF) before we can ask it to come back. That is being very honest and I’m not saying that we do not wish other African countries to have it. When another African country wants to host it we can benefit from the experiences we have had in Nairobi," he said.

Tunisian Taoufik Ben Abdallah said the next event in 2009 was not as important as what needed to happen in the run-up to it.

"The important thing is not 2009; the important thing is that - between the two forums - a new process will be set up. We must build on the spirit of the innovations of this forum. This year we had a fourth day and we brought together different coalitions and new collective actions. I hope this will increase over the next few years."

He urged for more actions over the next two years to respond quickly to world events.

"The idea behind that is to transform the forum from an event to a permanent process and make people more active in between. Events are happening every day all over the world and if we are not proactive with the reality of the world, we are missing something. It’s an evolution. In the past we have extended the movement through different world social forums – now it’s time to get closer to the reality," he said.

Flavio Lotti, an Italian organising committee member, disagreed with his two colleagues, saying he believed that it was important that the next Forum was held in Africa.

"I think that we should come back to Africa – we should remain in Africa. I agree that the process is important but it needs a sense of direction. The event has to be part of the process.

"Africa is the most neglected continent. Here the WSF brought us not only near the poor people but it allowed us to work together with the poor. The original spirit of the forum started with a peace march in one slum and will finish with a marathon in another slum. This has been organised by the slum dwellers not the organising committee.

"It is up to Africa to decide where in Africa the next forum could be held. Going to a French-speaking part would be good or maybe Portuguese-speaking. But Africa must decide.”