#Civic Dialogue

Democracy is at the heart of sustainable rural development

"Civic Dialogue" is a new concept of how to approach the broad topic of democracy. Our intention is to deal with the topic of dialogue between different stakeholders when it aims at:

• influencing policies which have a strong impact on territories with regard to agriculture, food, environment and social cohesion
• contributing to the solution of local or regional issues of sustainable rural development

Topics we will tackle: Our frame is Europe in general, our focus will be mainly rural and ideally persons/groups who have experience in leading or analysing civic dialogue. We will concentrate our work on the following topics:

• democracy within societies, states, the EU (dialogue between citizens and authorities to build or influence public policies)
• civic engagement (cooperation between actors to build local projects ; territorial dialogue)
• dialogue and relationship building (environmental mediation; conflicts resolution in rural spaces)

We realised a series of 3 webinars on the "potential of dialogue to help local communities face current challenges" in 2021-2022 whose main elements are collected in the following infograph.

Infograph: Dialogue with local communities

Read our Action sheet for more information.

Read our Ten examples of processes and practices in Europe : "When citizens, stakeholders and decision makers work together"

Documents related to this topic

Success stories:

• Rural community development in Shirak region, Armenia.
• [EXP] A participative approach to preserving agricultural activities in the Saclay plateau: the Terre et Cité initiative in the Paris region
• [EXP] Local rural development committees in Wallonia (Belgium): a local space for consultation and forming proposals, integrating inhabitants and elected officials.
• [EXP] Macroregional Alpine strategy: an example of an institutional initiative involving States, Regions and organisations (CIPRA International)
• [EXP] Master project: a research-action platform on mobility, welcoming new inhabitants and sustainable rural development in France. (The Ville Campagne collective)
• [EXP] Mediation to manage a local dispute around the landfill site at Góra Kalwaria near Warsaw in Poland.
• [EXP] Mountain forest forums; dialogue between stakeholders and institutions for the conservation of mountain forests. The example of Bavaria in Germany.
• [EXP] Open Space on food and local development: a multi-stakeholder meeting initiated by the Ceinture Aliment-Terre Liègeoise (Belgium).
• [EXP] The Agricultural and Rural Convention (ARC 2020): a platform of European organisations working together to develop the Common Agricultural Policy.
• [EXP] The participatory budget of Odemira in Portugal: an example of inhabitants managing part of the public budget.
• [EXP] The Sacca di Goro lagoon in Italy: involving a citizens’ panel in a consultation on sustainable water management (the Aware project).

Documents:

• Civic Dialogue: « When citizens, stakeholders and decision makers work together »
• Current practices in solving multiple use issues of Natura 2000 sites: Conflict management strategies and participatory approaches.
• Document of the Workshop « Cooperative decision-making and conflict management in public planning and environment
• Learning together to manage together
• New forms of decision-making
• Promoting environmental mediation as a tool for public participation and conflict resolution
• Report on Civic Dialogue Gathering 2015
• Report on Civic Dialogue Gathering 2016, Bialystok (Poland)
• Report on Civic Dialogue Workshop 2014
• Report on the national meeting 2016 « Dialogue and consultation in the territories in the service of the environment »
• Report on Workshop 2013: " How can local people make Democracy work?»
• Rural parliaments: emerging participative democracy

Proposals:

• Savoie County Council of Territorial Dialogue,