Deadline: 30 April 2020
Do you have an idea that promotes inter-religious or cross-cultural dialogue? Do you want to work with your community to combat social problems or prejudices that you would like to change? Are you interested in using innovation and digital technologies to achieve this? Are you based in Iraq, Syria, or Lebanon? If yes, then apply for Building a Dialogue Program.
Applications are now open for the Building a Dialogue Program with an aim to support peacebuilding and dialogue initiatives led by Iraqi, Syrian, and Lebanese groups and individuals to gain skills that will help increase their impact.
This program is brought to by a partnership between Danmission and Build Up.
The participants will receive an online training and accompaniment to design a creative or digital innovation that responds to the problem they want to address.
Building a Dialogue is a two part program. 50 participants from Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon will be selected for an online training that will provide digital skills focused on how to use technology to address a social problem. In the online course, participants will develop an idea for a technology-enabled peacebuilding initiative that addresses a problem faced by their communities. Participants are encouraged to design initiatives that initiate dialogue, create connections and bring communities from different faiths, ethnicities and cultures together. After the course, participants will submit their idea for feedback, and a selected number of participants will be invited to join an in-person workshop and join the Danmission partner roster and get the opportunity to network and meet other peace practitioners.
Aims
Initiatives proposed for the Building a Dialogue program should meet one of the following aims:
- Promoting social values (human dignity, tolerance, religious and cultural diversity, solidarity and forgiveness) among communities, and countering inter-communal division and violence.
- Bridging divides between groups, including challenging stereotypes and dominant narratives that contribute to conflict and intolerance.
- Sparking dialogue through action / praxis to encounter with otherness, to engage with prejudice and to open horizons (within and across borders).
Benefits
Selected teams will receive support in three areas:
- Training: Teams come together for joint training that covers a variety of topics including participatory methodologies, user-centered design and conflict sensitivity. Training provides teams with the tools they need to design, implement and manage innovative peacebuilding projects.
- Accompaniment: After the first training, each team works with trainers to identify a plan for support, through information-sharing, organizational support, and fundraising, depending on the initiative and its needs. At times, trainers will engage additional people who have skills or experience relevant to the team’s work. Through ongoing communication and a strategy workshop, the trainers provide technical advice and hands-on problem solving for each team.
- Networking: The program connects teams with one another, and with participants from similar programs in other countries to share experiences and expertise. They also support teams to communicate their work externally including exploring possibilities for public speaking events, conferences, or other opportunities to grow their idea further.
Course Timeline
The program lasts five months: it starts in May 2020 and ends in October 2020 and will proceed as follows.
- Contact selected 50 participants to join the online course by 14 May 2020
- Online course (June 8 – 26, 2020)
- Design and Strategy Workshop (September 2020)
- Final selection for the Peace Innovation Roster (October 2020)
Teams will not be required to work full-time for the course or on their projects. They expect both team members to work at least 30% of their time on the project for five months.
Eligibility Criteria
- Building a Dialogue program is open to teams and individuals in Lebanon, Iraq, or Syria.
- Civil society organizations, NGOs, INGOs, creative enterprises, social enterprises, startups, unregistered groups, and ordinary people with great ideas all qualify! Organizations or initiatives are encouraged to apply with a team of two people.
For more information, visit https://howtobuildup.org/buildingadialogue/