Opening the space for dialogue‌

Donors can provide the stakeholders with a platform to host the dialogue by making use of their convening power, which is a very important asset in polarised political environments, where opposed factions appear reluctant to meet and their interaction is often confrontational. In those circumstances, the intervention of a foreign actor that is perceived as an honest broker – if not neutral at least impartial – can convey the key stakeholders to discuss the policy issues at stake. However, for the sake of local ownership, donors should refrain from moderating or facilitating the dialogue by themselves and delegate those tasks to a local actor, i.e. a Dialogue Host.

In Bolivia, the Participatory Policy Assessment drafted in 2018 by civil society representatives in a participatory manner has encouraged a common understanding of the Bolivian policy context by jointly identifying institutional gaps in the implementation of the relevant ILO and UN conventions and ensure that capacity building will be both demand-driven and needs-based. The Participatory Policy Assessment also informed the peer-to-peer (P2P) mechanism, helping the stakeholders to identify which experiences are the most suitable to the Bolivian context while ensuring that the facility remains demand-driven and that peers engage in a constructive and horizontal collective learning exercise framed around specific objectives and measurable results.