Dialogue on Democracy and Active Participation

The Civic Education for Participation Program launched its first activity for 2017 by holding a one-week workshop on Democracy and Active Participation, in Aswan, Egypt from 16th to 22^nd February 2017. The camp included 23 participants, coming from 23 different governorates.

For the duration of the workshop, the participants discussed the different ideologies, the historical background of the definition of Democracy and they were enabled to critically reflect on their context. At the final day of the workshop, the participants were given different tools to apply what they learned through the workshop, such as Public Policy Paper writing and social projects planning.

The camp followed a democratic and participatory approach through the designing and the implementation phases.  The participants were viewed as an equal source of knowledge and they were required to share the responsibilities of running the workshop. This approach exposed the participants to the challenges and technicalities of democracy, such as time limitations, information clarity, and accuracy. Through the workshop, the participants were asked to collectively reflect on the quality of their democratic practices and decision-making processes.

In order to develop the participants’ critical thinking skills, the sessions were developed based on divers techniques, such as Drama activities, simulation, creative expressions and case study. Combining the theoretical knowledge of the curriculum with the practical practices at the camp gave the participants a holistic experience of the true meaning of Democracy.