Civil Society Dialogue Project in Cyprus
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The Civil Society Dialogue project was envisioned, designed and implemented by Cypriot peace pioneers, mainly members of the Cyprus Conflict Resolution Trainers Group following the negative outcome of the referendum in 2004. The project brought together civil society organisations from both sides of the island to share experiences and work to create a Citizens’ Platform where ideas are discussed and an Action Plan is devised to build the new reunited Cyprus. Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot citizens having years of bi-communal experience will come together with others who are not very experienced in that field but that are young, well educated and motivated individuals to share experiences and ideas and generate their vision of the island.
The project was managed by the Cyprus EU Association, which is headed by Ali Erel, in collaboration with the Cyprus Intercultural Training Initiative (CITI), which is a body of facilitators created by members of the Cyprus Conflict Resolution Trainers Group and the Institute of 21st Century Agoras, the international body of Structured Democratic Dialogue Process scientists and practitioners. The Cyprus EU Association assigned Derya as overall Director for the implementation, Yiannis Laouris and Marios Michaelides from CITI assumed the role as main facilitators together with Aleco Christakis from the Institute of 21st Century Agoras.
A series of Structured Democratic Dialogues, seminars and other public events were implemented.
Structured Dialogues
Structured dialogues o study the reasons of the widening of the gap
The first two dialogues aimed the diagnosis of the problematique. The first Dates: 20th October, 28 November, 28th December 2007 Venue: Cyprus EU Association
Using the Structured Dialogic Design Process as its methodology in the co-laboratories, the participants were asked the following triggering question:
“What Factors contribute to the widening gap between the two sides in Cyprus?”
Different ideas were generated by participants contributing from different backgrounds and perspectives, then clustered and prioritised. Prioritisation took place by voting, then the ideas that received the most votes were selected and explored further and the relationship between the factors was discussed. Finally, the participants came up with a root cause map indicating the underlying causes for the widening gap between the two sides.
Identification of goals and opportunities Dates: 10 -11th March 2007 Venue: Forest Park Hotel, Platres
Using the same process, the participants were asked the following triggering question:
“In the context of the overall objective of bridging the gap between the two communities: What short- to medium term goals in your opinion if achieved would contribute significantly to the above objective?”
Participants met in Forest Park Hotel over the weekend spending 12 hours together for the residential co-laboratory. Once again, idea generation, clustering and prioritisation took place. The ideas that received the most votes were selected and explored further where the relationship between the factors was discussed. Finally, the participants came up with a root cause map portraying the goals and opportunities which can be utilized for bridging the gap between the two sides.
Structured dialogues to study Economic Integration
Dates: 3rd July; 10th July; 27th July, 15th October 2007 Venues: Holiday Inn, Saray Hotel, Fulbright Centre
Using the same process, the participants were asked the three triggering questions in order to idealize the current situation, diagnose the problems and design an action plan:
“With the aim of economic integration, what are the benefits (opportunities) for Cyprus, of free movement of goods and services within Cyprus and the EU?”
“With the aim of economic integration; what are the obstacles including perceived threats in achieving free movement of goods and services within Cyprus and the EU?”
“With the aim of economic integration: what actions should be taken to overcome the obstacles and to reap the benefits in achieving free movement of goods and services?”
Participants had three sessions of 3 hours where they generated ideas, voted and drew a root cause map for each particular triggering question. The results of the final session, which was dedicated for designing an action plan, was then used to develop 5 other project drafts on 15th October. Participants interpreted all the results and with the assistance of the facilitation team prepared a final report.
Structured dialogues aiming Famagusta Revival
Dates: 10th November; 17th November; 4th December; 8 December 2007; 30th January 2008; 13 March 2008 Venue: Venus Beach Hotel, Lordos Beach Hotel, Fulbright Centre
Using the SDD process, the participants were asked the three triggering questions in order to idealize the current situation, diagnose the problems and design an action plan:
“What are descriptors of an ideal model of Famagusta/Varosha, a place of interaction, communication and cooperation of Greek and Turkish Cypriot Famagustians to serve as an example for a future united Cyprus and to act as a catalyst for solving the Cyprus problem?”
“What are obstacles that prevent us from achieving the ideal model of Famagusta/ Varosha?”
“What are action options, which if we adopt and implement, we will overcome the obstacles and achieve the ideal image of Famagusta/Varosha?”
Participants had six sessions of approximately 3-4 hours where they generated ideas, voted and designed root cause and influence maps for each particular triggering question. Participants interpreted all the results and with the assistance of the facilitation team prepared a final report.
Training of local SDDP Facilitators
Facilitator Training Date: April 13-15th, May 7th 2007 Venue: Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institution
The Civil Society Dialogue project organized facilitator trainings for the Structured Dialogic Design Process. The first training session which was held in April was given by Dr. Aleco Christakis, who is one of the founding fathers of the methodology. The second session was organised in May, which mostly focused on using cogniscope software, which is specifically designed software for SDDP. Facilitator trainees simulated a co-laboratory during the first training and played the roles of a participant as well as a facilitator, where in the second training they explored the software and formed their facilitation groups (cohorts).
Wiki Training Date: 4th December 2007 Venue: Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institution
The Civil Society Dialogue project organized a open to public Wiki training for teaching the participants how to set up and utilise free online portals like Wikis efficiently and effectively for different projects.
Public Lectures and Seminars
During his Cyprus visits, Aleco Christakis delivered two public lectures with the title The Technology of Democracy on April 16th and 12th July 2007 at the Fulbright Centre on on the methodology and technology of democracy.
Gary Gumpert and Susan Drucker, two very prominent professors in media communications and technologies offered a seminar at Fulbright Centre on media literacy with the title Reading the News between the lines during their visit to Cyprus on July 16th 2007.
Symposia and Conventions
An Environmental Symposium was organized on the 12th January 2008 at the Colony Hotel in Keryneia. Together with the KTMMOB Chamber of Environmental Engineers, they organised an environmental symposium with the aim of bringing together environmental groups from both communities. This event provided an opportunity for leading non-governmental Cypriot organisations to point out alarming environmental problems Cypriots are facing, raising awareness of environmental issues and calling for action from all Cypriots to work together in facing this global crisis. The selected Cypriot environmental NGOs who participated in the event, presented their papers on specific environmental issues with the objective of building an “environmentally friendly community”.
The Civil Society Dialogue Convention took place 12th April 2008 at the Hilton Park Hotel. The partners of the project and the participants from various events presented results and findings from all the Civil Society Dialogue Project events, trainings and co-laboratories aimed at developing a vision for a common future in a re-united Cyprus.
Links to the SDDPs
