The A Spot

So I wish I had those 12 steps laid out so I could plot out my moves based on those steps. While unfortunately I may not have a clear road map just yet, thanks to Lara Birnback at Public Agenda , I do have some great new resources. Lara has pointed me to LogoLink - Learning Initiative on Citizen Participation and Local Governance - (from their site) LogoLink is a global network of practitioners from civil society organisations, research institutions and governments working to deepen democracy through greater citizen participation in local governance. LogoLink encourages learning from field-based innovations and expressions of democracy which contribute to social justice.

There are some great reports, resources, conference proceedings here from all over the world. I am definitely going to spend some more time on this site. One paper that jumped out at me was Triumph, Deficit or Contestation? Deepening the ‘Deepening Democracy’ Debate

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So along with the blogs and e-mail newsletters which flood my in box every day I am also subscribed to updates from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. They have a great project on leadership and building state capacity which has had a number of interesting meetings over the years and whose staff conduct trainings and programs around the world. Recently the Dir of the project - Howard Wolpe - former Congressman and expert on Africa co wrote an article called Democracy and Peace-building: Rethinking the Conventional Wisdom. The lessons he and Steve McDonald cite underpin much of the work I have been doing with ISC. Working in communities which have been divided by ethnic, religious, political, cultural issues requires a focus on building trust, collaborative capacity and a focus on consensus building not political competition. I think we take on one particular piece of the puzzle - helping divided communities achieve results on issues of shared mutual interest in a collaborative way builds their capacity to work together on other more intractable issues.

Unfortunately it is in a Journal which is only available for purchase so I cannot cite the entire article. I have written Mr. Wolpe and asked for permission to post in its entirety. Click here for an excerpt from the paper. (more…)