Examples Of Community Dialogue

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A community dialogue is an interactive participatory communication process of sharing information between groups or individuals aimed at reaching a common understanding and workable solution. Central to this is to create a space or forum for voices to be heard, generate a deeper understanding of the issues at hand, the development of a common perspectives on the issue, the raising of common issues and barriers facing the groups and the generation of joint solutions for the problem at hand. In this case, the aim of the community dialogue will be to bring together two local communities which have experiences communal violence related to cattle theft, revenge killings and competition over resources. For the community dialogue to be effective,…show more content…
The communities must themselves be at the forefront of identifying the areas of tension and potential areas of collaboration. If the dialogue does not have buy-in and local ownership, there will be no long term sustainability. The first step in planning and organizing a community dialogue will be to undertake a process of identifying the following through a thorough issue, context and stakeholder analysis: - What are the key issues the local communities are facing and what are the areas of tension? - What are the underlying issues behind these issues (what are the root causes of the cattle theft, revenge killing and competition over resources)? - Who is affected by this conflict? Who is suffering the most? - What is the history of the conflict? - What are the potential areas of collaboration between the groups? What are the potential options for or solutions for the challenges? Are there areas of common ground which can be drawn upon? - Which two communities are being targeted for this dialogue? - Who are the key actors to have on board in order to get buy in for the dialogue? Who are the secondary actors? - Who has influence over events? - What are the public demands of the actors? What are their interests and…show more content…
The action decided should be implemented together by both sides with support from the UN and progress evaluated at regular points. The community dialogue process should not be a ‘once-off’ initiative but rather be regular interactions between the two communities to ensure that the root issues are addressed. Intrinsic to the success of the community dialogue will be to include an aspect of participatory evaluation, which involves a collective reflection of achievements, identifying what went well and why particular actions did not go well. This form of reflection will be important after each dialogue and promotes ownership of the process and the will to do better next
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