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.