As its name implies, ‘Structured Democratic Dialogue – SDD’ is a scientific and well-tested methodology for large-scale, collaborative discussion, which is effective in:
- resolving multiple conflicts and problems that are more and more complex in a reasonably limited amount of time;
- gathering the collective wisdom of diverse stakeholders who experience a challenge or share a common vision;
- assisting heterogeneous groups with conflicting opinions and interests in collectively developing a common framework of thinking based on consensus building and thus achieving results
Built within the framework of the Interreg Med co-funded project MEDFEST, the ‘Structured Democratic Dialogue – SDD’ methodology was used back in 2018 among stakeholders of Cyprus in their effort to develop the ‘Honey Villages’ in the rural region of Larnaca (Cyprus).
This success story was capitalised on 28-29 June 2022 by the MedBEESinessHubs project partners and their external trainers to support the development of honeybee clusters in the partner regions of Egypt, Italy, Lebanon and Palestine. Twenty eight stakeholders and trainers from these regions gathered in Nicosia (Cyprus) during a 2-day intensive Train-the-Trainer workshop with the purpose of transferring the good practice of the SDD methodology in developing the honeybee clusters in their specific rural regions. After the completion of the Nicosia SDD workshop, trainers, in cooperation with their partner organisations, will organise workshops in their own regions based on the SDD methodology with the aim of identifying potential obstacles and determining the vision of regional honeybee cluster formations in their regions.
During the train-the-trainer workshop, participants were asked to imagine an ideal future in their rural area, where all development is sustainable, responsible, and secures prosperity for all local people. In this context they were asked to describe this visionary future by answering the triggering question: “What are descriptors/characteristics of an ideal sustainable, responsible development in our rural areas that secures prosperity for all local people?” The concept of a triggering question is a crucial ingredient in structuring an effective democratic dialogue, where participants engage in a collaborative dialogue leading to building consensus and shared ownership of ideas and suggestions of how to tackle a common vision and/or challenge.
What’s next? The MedBEESinessHubs project partners and trainers in each of the regions of Egypt, Italy, Lebanon and Palestine will gather their stakeholders and guide them in applying ‘Structured Democratic Dialogue’ helping them as such to build their regional honeybee business clusters, the MedBEESinessHubs, for the benefit of the honeybee and their local people, aligning these with sustainable rural growth.
If you want to learn more on ‘Structured Democratic Dialogue’ click here.
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