| Date 26-Feb-2013 to 28-Feb-2013 |
Location Menya, Egypt |
Format Institutional |
The TAG workshop held between 26 and 28 February 2013 in Menya, Egypt focused on aspects of initiating social dialogue and reframing words as ‘terrorists’, ‘I know everything’ and ‘Islamite’ – words which cause confrontation in society. It also covered the issue of negotiation and the role of third-siders in conflict management, i.e., negotiation towards containing, resolving and preventing conflicts. The ABC (Attitude, Behaviour and Context) analytical triangle was utilized to understand the attitude and behaviour of the conflicting sides in a given context. The session on conflict management styles debated the various conflict resolving styles such as bridge building, mediator, arbitrator, equalizer, healer, referee and peace keepers and their roles.
Amitabh Bhushan from PRIA presented the process of social dialogue initiated by PRIA in Bihar to strengthen the voices of the urban poor. Presenting on the occasion, he outlined the process of analysis of the local context, and building of capacities and skills among the urban poor to raise their demand with confidence. The role of Slum Improvement Committees to facilitate the role of community based platforms to demand accountability from the system was highlighted along with details of the stakeholders’ dialogue and process. The presentation drew attention to detailed outcomes and the learnings to help participants understand the key aspects in facilitating social dialogues.
Guests from Brazil and Africa made presentations too. Fransico Comaru, Logolink partner from Brazil, made a presentation of the housing project in Brazil in which the university conducted a series of workshops with civil society, political and social activists, academia and other stakeholders which ultimately made an impact on the current structure of tenant–government relationships in the favour of tenants. Ms. Shameela of IBP presented the case of participatory budgeting in the HIV/AIDS programme in the African context. Mr. Behrang Fourgi from the Coady Institute presented ‘Democracy in Trash’, a low cost housing project where the tenants of 160,000 housing units organized together on various issues such as repair and facilities, tuition facilities for children and other initiatives and to get a seat in the management table where they could represent and raise their issues through proper channels. In the session on action plan development, the participants had to propose actions for strengthening accountability with reference to their geographies, strength and resource envelope.
The TAG Forum was organized on 3 March 2013 at Flemenco Hotel in Cairo. The workshop was an attempt to bring together various organizations involved in Egypt working on issues of accountability and transparency with the objective of:
A few reflections which emerged from the participants were on the need to share accountability or mutual accountability between institutions, and the dynamic role CSOs have to play to strengthen accountability – not surrender or confront, but promote space for expression of opinions by people,linkages between key stakeholders, and development of skills and leadership among primary stakeholders.