Supporting New Coalitions for D&D    

Although NCDD has over 100 members from outside the U.S. and welcomes more, we recognize that we are not equipped to adequately meet many of the needs of D&D practitioners, researchers, activists and others from outside the U.S. For this reason, we are committed to supporting non-U.S. D&D coalitions and networks that others initiate.

Our programs and offerings have inspired a similar Coalition to form in Canada, and an African coalition is starting to develop. Others from Germany and England have approached us about possible D&D Coalitions in those countries.

We have supported the Canadian Community for Dialogue & Deliberation by sharing our Canadian contacts, our conference materials and planning strategies, and our time with them, and by promoting their efforts in various ways. We are supporting the developing African Coalition for Dialogue & Celiberation similarly. And we offer our support to other networks or coalitions that emerge.

If you are interested in starting a coalition or network for dialogue and deliberation in your country or region, contact NCDD Director Sandy Heierbacher at so we can talk about how NCDD can help.

Should there be an International Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation?

Although an International Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation, or ICDD, does not yet exist, NCDD and our sister organizations hope there will be a need for us to create such an entity in the not-so-distant future. Our vision of ICDD is that it would be a collaborative body that would allow all “coalitions for dialogue and deliberation” to work together more smoothly and build on one another’s work. It would not replace all or any of the coalitions.

Learn more about NCDD’s sister organizations:

The Canadian Community for Dialogue & Deliberation (C2D2)

In October 2005, more than 300 people came together for the first-ever Canadian Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation (C2D2). Participants included leaders in this new and emerging field, practitioners, community and business leaders, policy makers, scholars and students, researchers, elected officials, activists, artists and citizens from across Canada and abroad. This provided a diversity of perspectives and contributed to the strong sense of inclusion as people from different parts of the world gathered to dialogue. C2D2 held its second conference in November 2007.

C2D2’s vision is a democratic society in which institutions, practices and culture foster constructive dialogue and deliberation in which all people, regardless of income, position, background or education, are able to engage regularly in thoughtful and challenging conversations about what really matters to them in ways that have a positive impact on their lives, their communities and their world. Learn more at www.c2d2.ca.

The African Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation

Formed in 2005 after the first Canadian Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation, the ACDD is an African-led network of practitioners, researchers, students, and organizations interested in connecting African practitioners to each other, assuring access to the full benefit of African experience and expertise for the larger dialogue and deliberation community, and gaining financial and collegial support for African initiatives.

The ACDD seeks to support the rapidly growing numbers of facilitators, mediators and trainers working in Africa to connect with each other on an ongoing basis for collegial support and for the exchange of knowledge. The ACDD also seeks to become a “go to” resource for the growing interest worldwide in African practices regarding participatory democracy, both indigenous and emergent, and conflict resolution and reconciliation in the African experience.

To continue this initiative, a database of dialogue and deliberation practitioners living and/or working in Africa is being developed. If you or your organization is based in an African country or works at least in part in Africa, please send your contact info to Tokunbo Awoshakin at Civic Life International. Tokumbo’s email address is . Civic Life International’s mailing address is 1618 Briedweng Avenue, Kettering, OH 45420.