Dialogue in Pursuit of Development - Are you looking for one of ...

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posed it of course with the argument that they did not need it since they
were already so aware. Afterwards the same people confessed that they
had not understood how unaware they actually were. Without going into
details these new insights, no doubt made a tremendous difference in the
way staff then discussed and acted. When area secretaries came home from
their regular partner visits their reports were very different and they had
consulted other people than they did earlier, which was mainly a male
leadership, and new issues were brought to their attention. Our own internal
dialogue created a new external dialogue. But we had to start at
home and together form a common approach and attitude that create a
collective vision accepted and internalised by everybody. However, the
dialogue has to be continuous.
Dialogue with partners for a common strategy
In all forms of development co-operation dialogue is absolutely crucial. Partnership
is unthinkable without a genuine dialogue, but that is difficult to
establish since the relationship is usually very asymmetric due to the fact
that one party has the power of money and the final decision making.
For some years my organisation made a serious attempt to investigate
what mutuality and partnership could be like if money was not involved.
Together with a rural grassroots-oriented organisation in Zimbabwe we made
a mutual agreement to try to find out if true partnership is possible.
We agreed that our relationship had to be built on common concerns,
visions, goals and values as well as respect, honesty, transparency and mutual
accountability. We agreed to disengage from the power of money and that
we wanted to accompany each other in the growth of people on both sides.
We had to ask ourselves what we wanted from them and if we had anything
to offer except money.
We made exchange visits to sit down and discuss, to have a dialogue about
our common experiment. The visits were made on equal conditions. We
paid for our own trips to Zimbabwe and Sweden respectively, but the local
costs, including pocket money, were taken care of by the hosting organisation.
We discussed our two organisations, who we are, what we want to
achieve, how and with what we could contribute and what we expected
from each other.
We agreed to be transparent about our policies, our budgets and our personnel
policy, to look upon differences as richness, to be true to our own
convictions, but at the same time be open for questioning and criticism. We
decided to show each other mutual respect and look upon each other as
both givers and receivers, to try to be each other’s mirror and to try to
develop together as you do in personal relationships and not avoid creating
a mutual dependency. We used the terminology of being each other’s mentors.
We agreed to be open about our self-interests on both sides and that