The European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) has launched its Operating Model for Inclusive and Participatory Policy Dialogue and Integrated Democracy Support.
The Model addresses the operational divide between democracy support and the array of existing tools and instruments aimed at promoting good governance. It builds on the democratic principles of inclusiveness and participation, which provide the red lines that should guide any multi-stakeholder dialogue process.
A key finding of the INSPIRED project is that international actors should focus on opening new spaces for dialogue, promoting trust amongst confronted actors and, last but not least, building strong linkages between the programming of international cooperation and locally-owned agendas for reform rather than getting carried away by idealistic – and often narrow – pre-conceptions of what democracy is or should be.
The new operating model presents a series of tools and techniques that dialogue hosts and facilitators can use to make policy debate more inclusive and participatory, while keeping it oriented towards concrete results.
The full INSPIRED Handbook can be downloaded for free here. You can also download an Executive Summary of the Operating Model here.
The European Partnership for Democracy is a community of democracy support practitioners with Demo Finland as one of its founding members.