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

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If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another. If you wish to
know that you are safe, cause others to know that they are safe. If you wish
to better understand seemingly incomprehensible things, help another to
better understand. If you wish to heal your own sadness or anger, seek to
heal the sadness and anger of another. Those others are waiting for you now.
They are looking to you for guidance, for help, for courage, for strength, for
understanding and for assurance at his hour. Most of all, they are looking for
your love.
A Jew talking about Israel says: “Here too, religion has frequently been abused
to fan the flames of hatred. While voices calling for reconciliation through
dialogue between religions have been few and feeble. Despite decades of
commendable inter-faith activities in the country, to date only an extremely
limited circle of individuals has recognised that religious faith and commitment
without dialogue threatens the stability of society, and thus seriously
engages in dialogue.”
The core programme of 2002 is focused on the contribution of religious
communities to the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) and how
they can bring to it their experiences of grass roots work, their views on
values and the need for holistic development.
In September 2002, a third meeting of religious leaders will be held and
the main issue will be the international Development Targets and how the
faith communities can co-operate and contribute to their fulfilment.
I regret that this very important initiative seems to be relatively unknown.
One reason might be the fact that the dominating development theories of
our time seldom count on religion and realise its importance — both negatively
and positively — for societal development. It is important to create
space for a dialogue where your own belief and traditions encounter, and
are enriched by, the thinking and traditions of other faiths. That can lead to
joint action for a better world.
Dialogue between civil society organisations and governments
Sweden has a long history of discussions and political dialogue between the
government and the civil society organisations. In many developing countries
that kind of dialogue is still very weak or even non-existent, which
undermines the possibilities for a people based and sustainable development.
The concept of popular participation can easily be abused by governments
and be interpreted merely as a question of how to inform people
about their decisions. Civil society sees popular participation as a basic process
where those involved, the poor themselves, are identifying and interpreting
the problems they face and the solutions they want.
Today there are great expectations in the PRSPs, that the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund have introduced. Civil society is supposed
to play an active part in the analysis, the strategizing and the supervision of