During the recent Finding Ways to Walk Together Dialogue Initiative in South Africa, four regional and a national dialogue event were held. Here is a summary of the key messages, translated into needs and aspirations with regards to dialogue:
- The right thing to do
To engage in dialogue is absolutely necessary for the survival of the nation - Inclusion and participation
To access, convene and participate in relevant dialogues with the right people (especially the youth), about the right issues at the right time - Breaking the silence about conflict
To speak out and get to the root causes of conflict - Language of courage
To speak the truth to those in authority and one another in authentic and constructive ways - Inspiration and vision
To unite behind a vision that inspires citizens to shift from prisoners of the past to pioneers of the future, from passive recipients to active citizens - Leadership
To foster wise, visionary and moral leadership that listens and responds to valid concerns and aspirations - Dignity and Equality
To recognise, affirm and value one another’s human dignity in spaces where people are treated equally - Connectedness and alignment
To know that people are not talking in isolation of one another and that the results of dialogue are shared across the country - Cohesion
To create a society that is free from prejudice, polarization and factionalism which are often linked to tribe, race, political affiliation or class differences - Protection
To be able to meet in safe spaces that are free from domination or coercion especially when uncomfortable discussions take place; and to be free from persistent confrontation, blaming and attacks - Good process
To participate in well-facilitated processes instead of senseless and fruitless talking - Meaning
To be confident that everyone’s contributions are valued - Creation
To contribute in creative ways to ideas and actions towards a better life for all, instead of focusing on problems all the time - A development agenda
To participate in a development agenda for the country - Freedom from poverty
To join hands to overcome the shared problem of poverty, which is the real enemy—not people - Listening and understanding
To access and learn from reliable information; to listen, to understand and to be understood - Healing
To heal relationships and to overcome our common woundedness, shifting from a mentality of victims to that of victors - Non-violent alternative forms of expression
To counter violence, which has become a dominant language - Capacities
To build and support capacities of structures and facilitators to engage and sustain in dialogue - National mechanism for dialogue
To establish a national framework and structure/mechanism, without which dialogue will not automatically happen
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