ObamaVision Webscope

Our international team of practioners of the science of Structured Dialogic Design (SDD), who wish to work together towards discovering the roadblocks facing President Barack Obama in realizing his vision of a bottom-up democracy for the people and with the people of the United States of America is engaging in the ObamaVision Webscope.

The group work of the team of stakeholders focuses on diagnosing the inhibitors to the actualization of a bottom-up democracy as visualized by the President-elect:

The "disciplined dialogue" of the team will be conducted asynchronously (different places at different times from December 1 to 12), and synchronously (different places at the same time on December 13) employing this Websope wiki. The group will be engaged for approximately six hours during the period of December 1 to December 13, 2008.

We are hosting an observers's party at the FWC offices on 13 December so that any of our associates can witness this event.

Please see http://obamavision.wikispaces.com for more info or feel free to contact Larry for questions / comments


See you on the wiki,

Global Connections – Interactive workshop on Development Education for Teachers from across Europe

25 teachers and teacher trainers from Cyprus, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Scotland and Ireland participated in a workshop on Development Education in Kaunas/ Lithuania from the 19 until the 23 of October, 2008. The workshop was part of the EuropeAid funded project ‘Accessing Development Education’, coordinated by Future Worlds Center (Cyprus) in partnership with Youth Career and Advising Centre (Lithuania), ScotDec (Scotland), KADE (Ireland) and C.E.G.A. (Bulgaria). The project’s main aim is to engage educators and schools in Development Education activities and equip them with relevant training and materials, thus making them promoters and multipliers of national campaigns that aim to create awareness about Development and about global interdependencies.
A Teachers Advisory Group (TAG) has been established in each partner country. The TAG members act as experts on the ground; they are actively involved in assessing, reviewing and modifying existing Development Education material, ensuring that it relates to the local teaching context.
The Global Connections workshop in Kaunas brought teachers and teacher trainers of all five national TAGs together. Throughout the four days, the participants explored a wide range of Global/ Development Education topics, such as Human Rights, Fair Trade, Refugees, Sustainable Development, and the Millennium Development Goals. The workshop sessions were led by the partner NGOs, as well as by teachers and teacher trainers themselves, sharing successful resources and approaches. A diversity of methodologies, teaching material, games and group activities ensured not only the active participation of all participants, but also offered the teachers a pool of good practices to utilise for their own classroom.
The project is currently developing an online depository of best practices of DE teaching material. The website with the depository will be launched in December and will be accessible at www.developmenteducation.info. Additionally, a wiki-portal has been set up as a tool to connect teachers across Europe at http://globalconnections.wetpaint.com. Any teacher or educator can register and participate in discussions or share interesting and successful teaching material, links and other success stories.
For more information, please contact the project coordinator.

Global Education Week

Future Worlds Center announces its participation in the Europe-wide Global Education Week. The Global Education Week takes place every third week of November in all member states of the Council of Europe. The Global Education Week offers a common frame for actions on Global Citizenship, Human Rights and Intercultural Dialogue.

The Future Worlds Center has facilitated an interactive structured dialogue workshop with teachers of the 3rd Elementary School of Deryneia and is organising a 2-day workshop about Global Education for teachers from across Cyprus.
For more information on the Global Education Week and the actions organised by FWC, please contact the Development Education Unit.

Serving the Citizen: Promoting NGO-Public Sector Partnership

“Serving the Citizen: Promoting NGO-Public Sector Partnership”

Organised in the framework of the Legal and Regulatory Framework Reform of Civil Society in Cyprus on 27-28 November 2008 at the Holiday Inn, in Nicosia.

The conference aims:

¨ To share international / European best practice experiences between new EU member states and the Western Balkans with local stakeholders.

¨ To promote learning from best practice in such areas as NGO registration, public benefit status, public financing of NGOs, government-NGO relations, and forms of supporting NGOs.

¨ To increase the capacity of all stakeholders involved – government, NGOs, lawyers, and other decision-makers – to support the reform of the institutional framework in which civil society functions in Cyprus.

¨ To showcase case studies from Cyprus for a regional audience.

¨ To increase dialogue and enhance relations between civil society and the Cyprus government services through a knowledge-sharing experience.

Participants will have the opportunity to participate in plenary sessions, roundtable discussions and workshops with prominent experts: Mr. Jeremy McBride, Expert Council on NGO Law, Council of Europe, Professionals on the NGO legal reform from Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Croatia, Mr. Ninos Savvides, Planning Bureau, Mr. Jaco Cilliers, UNDP-ACT, Members from the NGO Working Group.

For further information contact: Isabelle Ioannides, PhD