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Dialogue as a Method for Development Assistance:
International IDEA’s Experience with Democracy
Assistance
Patrick Molutsi and Martin Ängeby 1
Introduction
Dialogue and partnership have become pertinent tenets of the philosophy
and methodology of development assistance agencies since the beginning of
the 1990s. Currently both bilateral and multi-lateral agencies/organizations
describe dialogue as the main tenet of their development assistance
approach. Dialogue as a method assumes that there is a partner to work
with. The language and approach of dialogue and partnership however has
fundamental implications on the traditional approach of development assistance.
It requires a significant paradigm shift from defining the needs, the
objectives and implementation of a development assistance project/
programme on behalf of the target group to working with the latter in
defining their needs, project design and implementation. In this context,
dialogue and partnership have empowerment of the target group and
sustainability of the project/programme activity as the main philosophy and
goals of development assistance. The challenge however, is that of translating
the dialogue philosophy and methodology into practice.
This essay shares the experience of International IDEA2 in promoting
sustainable democracy in developing countries. The experiences are based
on practical exposure trying to apply a dialogue and participatory methodology
in the field. From the beginning IDEA recognized that democracy is
a value-laden concept. The definition, challenges, choice of institutions, the
reform process and practice of democracy will differ from one country to
another and within each country actors will have different views, goals and
1 Patrick Molutsi (Botswana) is currently the director of IDEAS’ (International Institute for
Democratic and Electoral Assistance, Stockholm) methodology and political participation
programmes. At IDEA Patrick has been project manager of a global Project on the State of Democracy
which developed IDEA’s Democracy Assessment toolkit available on www.idea.int. A sociologist
and historian by training, he has taught and written widely about elections, civil society and
democracy both in relation to Botswana, Southern Africa and Africa in general.
Martin Ängeby (Sweden), a sociologist and political scientist by training, has been closely involved
in the elaboration of International IDEA’s dialogue for democratic development programmes
since 1998.
2 International IDEA, hereafter IDEA, stands for International Institute for Democracy and Electoral
Assistance. It is an intergovernmental organisation of 20 countries and was established in
1995.