JUST TALK? EVALUATING FIVE YEARS OF POLITICAL DIALOGUE 2015 – 2020

At NIMD, we believe that democracy starts with dialogue. But do we have evidence to support that belief?

This report highlights our successes, failures, and lessons learned about the political dialogues we facilitate. It is built on all the evaluations done by external evaluators between 2015 and 2020. It shows that our dialogue interventions are not just talk. They contribute directly to improving the quality of democracies around the world.

However, it also shows that making that contribution is difficult, and increasingly so. More repression, more single-party-dominance, and a continued weakening of (opposition) parties have forced us to innovate.

We designed new approaches to be able to continue our work despite the significant backslide in democratic freedoms. We are targeting new actors, developing new dialogue interventions, and, unfortunately, lowering our expectations and harnessing our patience. All to make sure that, in the long run, democracy can still start with dialogue.