Designing the Future of Peace-Building Efforts in Cyprus using Structured Democratic Dialogue (1995-1995): Difference between revisions

Between fall of 1994 and summer of 1995, a core group of thirty-two Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot conflict resolution trainers and project leaders participated in problem-solving and design sessions focused on peace-building efforts in Cyprus. Groups met on a weekly basis, and occasionally on weekends, both in separate community meetings and in bi-communal settings. A group design process called Interactive Management was used to guide the groups through three phases of problem solving: definition of the situation, vision of the future, and development of a strategic set of projects for promoting peace-building activities in Cyprus. In the first phase of group work, each community worked separately to identify the obstacles to their work and to structure these into a problematique, or system of problems, surrounding the peace-building process. In the second phase, participants again worked in separate community groups to construct A vision statements for their peace-building efforts, and they came together in a bi-communal setting to construct a collective vision statement. In the third phase, during which all sessions were bi-communal, participants proposed a total of 241 possible projects designed to work toward their vision, and they eventually selected 15 of these projects for implementation during the following year. They held an Aagora/bazaar to which they invited others who had expressed interest in joining them in peace-building efforts. <br>