Community Dialogue Processes

Dialogue remains one of the most used methods in peacebuilding. It is versatile and can be adapted to almost any purpose. Dialogue plays a central role in conflict transformation. It can help people respond creatively to social and political conflict and lay the foundations for alternative futures. The basic assumption underpinning dialogue is that under appropriate conditions interpersonal contact is one of the most effective ways to improve communication, understanding and interaction between opposing groups.

Community dialogue plays a pivotal role in fostering understanding, reconciliation, and sustainable peace within societies. It provides a platform for diverse voices to be heard, grievances to be addressed, and common ground to be found. Through open and respectful communication, communities can bridge divides, build trust, and collectively navigate towards peaceful resolutions to conflicts. Understanding how dialogue works, the ability to convene and facilitate dialogue, to design a dialogue process or to manage a dialogue project, are some of the core competences for peace work.

Training peace workers in dialogue skills and competences is therefore an important task for advancing their work in peacebuilding.

- Understanding principles of different dialogue approaches and terms
- Being able to design inclusive dialogue projects that take different needs, privilege and power differences
- into account and implement appropriate dialogue formats and facilitation methods, tools and skills
- Understanding group dynamics and the role and expectations on a dialogue facilitator
- Discern the complexity of different contexts and have come up with personal methods in dealing with complexity and difficulties
- Being aware of opportunities, but also limits of dialogue processes (within the participant's own contexts)

The course is designed for practitioners who want to expand and deepen their knowledge in the field of Dialogue, whether working as peacebuilders, development or aid workers, or human rights activists. This training is designed to allow participation alongside a regular job and from a variety of locations around the world.

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