Universidad del Sagrado Corazón Universidad del Sagrado Corazón (The University of the Sacred Heart), a higher education institution with the oldest roots on the Island, was established in l880 by the religious order of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. It is a Catholic educational institution, firmly established in the ecumenical spirit of the Second Vatican Council. It is a community which welcomes and integrates persons of all creeds, races and cultures, bringing to life the message of the Gospel. Its mission is: “To educate in intellectual freedom and moral responsibility, men and women willing to participate in building a more authentic Christian society: a community united in its purpose to seek justice and peace.”

In December 2008, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching granted the University the classification of Curricular Engagement and Outreach/Partnering as a result of its unique Service-Learning Model. This is a unique Service Learning Initiative where all regular Senior students serve as expert consultants in their major field to community-based organizations for the development of solutions to identified problems in their organizations or communities. This is done through required capstone courses in the senior year.

Voces Ciudadanas (Citizen Voices) is the main project of the Urban Journalism Graduate Studies (1996) through its Urban Communication Research Group. Voces Ciudadanas has the objective to promote an open and diverse public dialogue about public affairs in which common people are at the center of the process by participating in public deliberation. The media associated to Voces Ciudadanas in Colombia (newspapers, TV news and radio news) promote civic participation through questions to citizens and “conversaciones ciudadanas” (citizen forums) in wich they build what is called citizenship agenda. Voces Ciudadanas has been teaching seminars and promoted public journalism in several Latin American countries such us Panamá, Bolivia, Perú, Mexico, Brazil, and Ecuador. Voces Ciudadanas has published two books: “Voces Ciudadanas por la Seguridad y la Convivencia” (Citizen Voices for Safety and Living Together) and “Voces Ciudadanas Una idea de Periodismo Público” (Citizen Voices – An idea for public journalism), and several articles in political and social sciences reviews.

University of the Andes – Department of Political Science
DECIPOL-UNIANDES was founded in 1968, and since then one of the most important of its goals has been the promotion and strengthening of democracy in Colombia and Latin America. Outside of the university, DECIPOL-UNIANDES is known as an NGO, and it has important links with international networks. DECIPOL is member of the Inter American Network for Democracy, and its principal activities in this network are related to the promotion of deliberation through the work on national issues forums, and through civic journalism. DECIPOL was the promoter and pioneer in the implementation of the deliberative methodology, both in Colombia and in Latin America.

Bolívar Technological University (UTB)
The Program for Civic Action at the Dora Rothlisberger Center for Political and Social Studies (CESPO) is developing research projects about the political and social realm of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. Several low-income neighborhoods (barrios) have been covered like Nelson Mandela, Policarpa-Arroz Barato, el Pozón, and Paraíso II. By means of in depth interviews, focus groups and surveys, the Program, established in 2005, has produced several documents with the political views of the city’s dwellers on local politics and the challenges of Cartagena’s democracy. This work has been the base for a process of public deliberation that is allowing the communities to produce participatory analysis of their situation in order to build up public agendas to solve their problems. In the last 12 months the Program has accompanied a process of sustained dialogue between displaced and demobilized people, who are acting together for the first time after 50 years of arm conflict in the country.

Before the creation of CESPO, UTB hosted the implementation of a Public Policy Institute Program to train community leaders in the deliberative methods. More recently CESPO has been the base for the International Workshop “Active Citizenship for Democratic Strengthening in Latin America and the Caribbean”, which took place in April 2008 in this coastal city. The Center will be publishing a book with the results of this international encounter. A second similar event will take place in May 2009.

Forum For Civil Society is an organization, whose objectives are the development and enhancement of democratic practices, strengthening civil society, supporting electoral processes, contributing to legal development and legal education, supporting transparency, accountability and free access to information by implementing the anti-corruption program of Transparency International Yemen, as well as increasing citizens’ participation in politics.

Arab academics and civil society activists from 7 Arab countries formed in July 2007 the Arab Network for the Study of Democracy.

These 7 Arab countries are: Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco. They were selected because they represent the 4 cultural and geographical subsystems that define the Arab region: the Gulf, the Mashreq or Levant, North Africa, and Egypt.

This network’s activities focus on three tracks:
Research about democracy and its applications in the Arab region;
Practice of democracy including the establishment of an Arab Public Issues Forums Project; and
Measurement of democracy through the launching of an Arab Barometer initiative.

Prensa Comunitaria (Community Press) is a non-profit organization founded in 2003 for and by disadvantaged communities and their leaders. Its efforts have been directed at generating community media enterprises as tools to improve their socio-economic status. Its goals are to revitalize the community and its leadership, develop technology access, and economic development.

Foundation for the Development of Civic Culture (FDCC) is an independent, non-profit institution dedicated to developing a democratic citizenry and promoting the values of an open society through educational, cultural, research and publishing programs. FDCC was established in 1996 at the initiative of a group of Russian scholars from Moscow State Pedagogical University, the Library of Foreign Literature, and the Center for Political Consulting (Moscow) who were interested in working together to promote the growth of civil society and democratic culture in Russia.

For more details please contact Denis Makarov.

Russian Center for Citizenship Education is the outgrowth of the Dartmouth Conference, the long-standing series of off-the-record bilateral talks between Russian and American citizens. The Center is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit public organization dedicated to addressing the needs of the civil society development in Russia through educational, research and publishing programs.

A Dushanbe-based non-governmental organization, PCDP is an outgrowth of the Inter-Tajik Dialogue. The Inter-Tajik Dialogue was initiated in March 1993 as an unofficial dialogue intervention to deal with the ongoing Tajik civil war.

The Tajikistan peace-building initiative was launched in March 2000 in collaboration with (PCDP).

For more information on peace-building efforts in Tajikistan please see http://www.sustaineddialogue.org/programs/tajik_peace-building.htm.