Partners for Democratic Change International

Partners for Democratic Change International (PDCI) is a global partnership of Partners for Democratic Change (Partners)

Partners for Democratic Change

Partners for Democratic Change, also sometimes called simply Partners, was a non-government organization founded in 1989. The goal of the organization is to recruit leading social entrepreneurs to establish independent Centers for Conflict Resolution and Change Management around the world...

and the eighteen independent, local organizations Partners founded in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa that work to advance civil society

Civil society

Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...

, good governance

Good governance

Good governance is an indeterminate term used in development literature to describe how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources in order to guarantee the realization of human rights. Governance describes "the process of decision-making and the process by which...

and a culture of change and conflict management

Conflict management

Conflict management involves implementing strategies to limit the negative aspects of conflict and to increase the positive aspects of conflict at a level equal to or higher than where the conflict is taking place. Furthermore, the aim of conflict management is to enhance learning and group outcomes...

worldwide.

PDCI's history

Partners for Democratic Change was established in 1989. Responding initially to the monumental changes in Central and Eastern Europe, Partners established Centers across Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa in this way generating and supporting sustainable capacity and local competences to address governmental, business, and civil society disputes, conflicts, and change issues through mediating processes and programs.

Now independent NGOs with unique specializations, the organizations share common core competencies, enabling them to train citizens, government officials, non-government activists, and business leaders through in-country and regional training initiatives, and to apply their mediating and collaborative expertise and methodologies to public disputes and issues.

As early as 1998, a next-generation network of the strong and well-established organizations founded by Partners for Democratic Change came into view. PDCI’s early incarnations included coordination mechanisms and intra-network exchanges. In 2001, the members signed the PDCI Charter, began a tradition of meeting thrice a year and extorting contributions for a “PDCI Fund”.

The network secretariat in Brussels

In 2006 the members founded PDCI, a non-profit association under Belgian law, with a commitment to sharing their knowledge, expertise, and skills to strengthen one another, advancing their national, regional and international work, and forming an alliance that will enable others to be enriched by their peace, justice and civil society work locally.

A secretariat was established in Brussels in mid-2007.

Vision and common values

PDCI envisions a global partnership that promotes a culture of peace worldwide and societies in which citizen participation is ensured at all levels. Our member organizations are independent and interrelated, sustainable and growing, and seek to ensure a high standard of work. We are committed to making a contribution to long-term impact on social development, and to the following common values:

Peaceful conflict resolution: we are committed to a culture of peace and promoting alternative methods of managing disputes and differences.
Participation: we believe in democratic change based on public participation and participatory decision-making.
Diversity: we appreciate difference as a resource and we value a culture of tolerance.
Mutual understanding: we seek to build strong bridges between individuals, communities and cultures.
Innovation: we believe in the importance of exploration and sharing.
Respectful human relations: we appreciate the humanity of others and commit ourselves to empowering them to recognize they have choices and to realize their potential.

Albania

Partners-Albania: Center for Change & Conflict Management was established as an Albanian foundation in 2001. It is an independent Albanian NGO whose mission is to advance civil society and a culture of change and conflict management in Albania. Partners Albania provides training to community and civil society organisations, local government and the private sector in such areas as networking and coalition building, women and youth leadership, conflict management, negotiation and effective communication, community social change, cooperative advocacy, and financial management. Partners Albania works on issues such as corruption and governance in Albania and has promoted a Code of Ethics for Albanian NGOs.

Argentina

Partners-Argentina: Fundacion Cambio Democrático was established in 1998, Fundación Cambio Democrático (FCD) is an Argentine non-governmental and non-profit organization. Its mission is to stimulate communities' abilities through consensus building collaborative processes, for prevention and transformation of public disputes, promoting human development. In such areas as environmental, social, youth and local development, FCD seeks to promote the development of transparent and participative democratic practices in order to transform political decision making processes, and to create a sense of community by generating sustainable channels for dialogue. To this end, FCD develops consensus-building methodologies and processes (mediation, facilitation, collaborative planning) and trains diverse stakeholders (government,NGOs, private sector) in communication, consensus-building and conflict resolution and transformation.

Bulgaria

Partners-Bulgaria: Partners Bulgaria Foundation is an independently governed local NGO registered under Bulgarian law. Its mission is to support the process of democratic change taking place in Bulgaria, and to collaborate with institutions, non-governmental organisations and specialists to develop the institutional capabilities necessary to promote the development of civil society. Through research and analysis, training, mediation, cooperative planning, facilitation and other activities, PBF aims to encourage the participation of various organizations, groups and ethnic entities at all levels of the decision-making process; to develop strategies for the more effective management of social and economic processes; to improve communication between civil society, government and business; and to promote a culture of democratic conflict resolution.

Czech Republic

Partners-Czech Republic: Partners Czech is a non-profit NGO founded in 1992 with a mission to support the development of civic society and democracy, predominantly through education and training activities. It organises a number of training programs for the NGO sector, as well as for government institutions, private firms and schools of all levels (from kindergartens to universities). It collaborates with the mass media and helps to implement community projects of regional and local impact. Partners Czechs’ activities further include consulting services in the area of human resource development, and in setting up conciliation commissions, attached to local and regional authorities, which help to settle complicated civil, professional and property disputes.

Georgia

Partners-Georgia: Center for Change and Conflict Management is a non-governmental, non-profit organization established in October 1996. Partners-Georgia is dedicated to promoting civil society and advancing a culture of conflict and change management in Georgia and the South Caucasus region. They provide training forNGOs , local government, corporations and others, as well as services in meeting facilitation, dispute mediation, teambuilding, and human resources and other consultancy areas. They have also published books and manuals on conflict management for youth, gender equality, anticorruption, mediation, public relations for local government, and effective customer service for businesses.

Hungary

Partners-Hungary: Partners Hungary Foundation was established in 1994 to prevent and manage conflicts related to Hungary’s democratisation process. Since then, Partners Hungary has tried to spread a culture of cooperation and a new method of conflict management, with a view to changing attitudes and disseminating this different culture. How can we be more constructive in conflict situations? How can we reconcile the different interests of all stakeholders? How can we find solutions to local problems in a cooperative manner? While it originally focused on preventing conflicts stemming from the co-existence of Roma and non Roma populations, today Partners Hungary works to plant the seeds of cooperation in many different sectors of society.

Jordan

Partners-Jordan: Center for Civic Collaboration was established in 2005 as a local not-for-profit organization committed to advancing civil society, promoting mediation, conflict management and a culture of change, and encouraging citizen participation in Jordan’s social and political development.Partners-Jordan focuses on strengthening ongoing government reform efforts by facilitating government-civil society dialogue and cooperation. It offers a range of skills and services designed to strengthen democracy and citizen participation, including training in citizen participation, consensus-building, and management of disputes; services such as mediation, dialogue facilitation, conciliation and cooperative planning for communities, government and business leaders; “bottom up” public policy reform; and other democratic development programmes.

Kosovo

Partners-Kosovo: Center for Conflict Management works within communities to facilitate the resolution of disputes, and build consensus on neighborhood, business, majority-minority, and citizen-government issues. To achieve its mission to broadly promote change and conflict management skills, Partners-Kosovo and its staff concentrate on four program objectives: the rule of law, including smooth and transparent dispute resolution mechanisms; the capacity of municipal leaders to govern and respond to multiple roles in Kosovo's transition; the leadership, management, and networking capacity of Kosovar woman and youth leaders; and minority return and integration. Their four closely integrated programmes in these areas focus on disseminating Partners Kosovo's core expertise to multiple constituencies and sectors.

Mexico

Partners-México: Socios México/Centro de Colaboración Cívica, A.C. is a non-governmental and non-profit association. Its vision is to reinforce democratic change in Mexico by using consensus methodologies such as dialogue, collaboration and conflict management within the different sectors of society. CCC’s principal objective is to design and provide participative processes by taking the part of the subject and showing effectiveness and transparency; to design and carry out different courses focused on the development of abilities; and to mediate the resolution of disputes between different sectors (private, governmental and civil society).

Peru

Partners-Perú: Socios Perú/Centro de Colaboración Cívica was founded in Lima in 2006 as a neutral organization to address the challenges of a highly polarized Peruvian society and institutions that lack the capacity to forge consensus around critical development issues. Dedicated to managing conflict and forging consensus around a broad range of political, social, and economic development issues, Socios Perú seeks to increase the effectiveness of Peruvian development initiatives by building trust between sectors and increasing institutional capacity. The independent and locally-staffed not-for-profit organization specializes in three core program areas: Resolving Contentious Issues through Multi-Stakeholder Consensus-Building ; Promoting Good Governance at the Municipal Level; and Building an Institutional Culture of Cooperative Change and Conflict Management.

Poland

Partners-Poland: Fundacja Partners Polska has been committed to building sustainable local capacity to advance civil society and a culture of change and conflict management, for nearly 2 decades. The organisation trains local activists to foster their development as emerging leaders of emerging communities; prepares young politicians for professional participation in democratic political life; provides guidance to local governments in their development of effective communication channels with local citizens; organizes study visits for partners from emerging democracies in Southern and Eastern Europe; provides public administration with skills for building new democratic relationships within institutions; mediates in local, business and family conflicts, and more.

Romania

Partners-Romania: Partners Romania Foundation for Local Development (FPDL) was established in 1994, Partners Foundation for Local Development (FPDL) has as its mission to enhance, mainly through Capacity Building Programs, democratic processes of governance, the development of Civil Society, and the generation of a new culture of change & conflict management in Romania and CEE/SEE Countries. FPDL has extensive operational experience in Training of Trainers, Training Programs, Consulting and Facilitation, Research and Studies, Training Manuals Development, Networking, Information dissemination and Experience exchange and Grants and Donations. To date, more than 14000 participants from 50 countries and 4 continents have benefited from over 740 learning events held by Partners-Romania.

Slovakia

Partners-Slovakia: Partners for Democratic Change Slovakia (PDCS) is an independent Slovak NGOs whose mission is to promote a culture of democracy by spreading participatory approaches and mechanisms for dialogue and conflict prevention. PDCS provides assistance through social development programmes and arranges dialogue among various interest groups. Operational since 1991, PDCS offers both short-term and long-term training courses on such topics as organisational development and change, conflict prevention and transformation, public participation and community development, learning about learning, and much more. They offer consultation and advisory services such as strategic planning processes, facilitation of meetings and dialogues, evaluations, etc. They perform research and publish books and educational materials.

External links

PDCI network

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