Community dialogue practitioners play a vital role in developing practical solutions to local issues. They act as effective conduits for elevating these proposals to the national level, advocating for policy reform and implementation.
This toolkit—developed as part of IFIT’s Bottom-Up Dialogue work in Zimbabwe—is intended to support dialogue practitioners in promoting successful and sustainable outcomes for community dialogues across the country. It draws on insights from 13 cases of community dialogue conducted nationwide between 2018 and 2023, all examined in IFIT’s report Promoting Bottom-Up Dialogue: A Study of Community-Level Dialogue Experiences in Zimbabwe.
These findings are further enriched by contributions from Zimbabwean experts and community-based and civil society organisations engaged in convening dialogues across the country. These include the Institute for Local Governance (ILC), Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT), Community Youth in Development Trust (CYDT), Youth in Peace Building Initiative Trust (YIPIT), and Zimbabwe Women Against Corruption Trust (ZWACT).
The DOI registration ID for this publication is: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15119773
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Calls for dialogue to address Zimbabwe’s multi-layered political, social and economic crises have been numerous, repeated and diverse. Yet, the attempts to date have consistently failed to sustain long-term activity and results. At the community level, by contrast, there is a rich culture of dialogue to engage and resolve disputes. Though varying in scope and subject, these dialogues represent a bottom-up approach where local constituents are not just participants but drivers of conversation and change.
This publication contains findings from an investigation of 13 diverse community dialogues in Zimbabwe that took place between 2017 and 2023 at the ward, village, or district level. It seeks to 1) identify successful positive strategies for non-partisan, community-level dialogue and 2) consider their potential replication at the national level to help catalyse meaningful issue-based dialogue among different actors, including political ones.
By delving into the nuances of these local dialogues, the study offers insights into the mechanisms that foster agreement and resolution, the challenges and barriers encountered, and the strategies that drive long-term success.
The DOI registration ID for this publication is: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14021451