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and only international organization governed by religious

representatives and the only intergovernmental organiza-

tion dedicated to facilitating dialogue between different

cultures and faiths. The multireligious Board of Directors,

representing five world religions, steers the centre’s course

by determining and overseeing its strategy and work

programme. The member governments (Austria, Saudi

Arabia, Spain and the Holy See as Founding Observer)

approve the centre’s budget, government membership

and the leading officials of its secretariat. This innovative

hybrid governance structure fosters international intergov-

ernmental (a mix of secular and religious allegiances) and

transnational interreligious (a transnational mix of repre-

sentatives of transnational religions) collaboration. An

advisory board currently being developed will also make it

possible to collaborate more widely with a variety of inter-

nationally active non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

interested in increasing their knowledge about dialogue, as

well as its various forms of practice, to increase the impact

of their respective work.

Dialogue is at the heart of KAICIID’s very being and

becoming. Dialogue is the central concept that guides

all KAICIID strategies and actions, in both process and

content. Dialogue is thus both a means and an end, from

conception of strategy and delivery of programmes, to

impact assessment. When KAICIID facilitates dialogues

on difficult topics and in sensitive situations, it plays a

third-party mediating role somewhere between track one

and track two diplomacy. In KAICIID’s theory of change,

dialogue is a method for deeper social transformation that

advocacy cannot achieve. Therefore, KAICIID remains

impartial as a convener of dialogue, while supporting

value-based transformative results.

KAICIID promotes the use and institutionalization of

dialogue to support peacebuilding, reconciliation, common

citizenship and social cohesion, as well as to conduct activities

on the relation of interreligious dialogue to human rights and

freedom of religion. KACIID’s programmes incorporate women

and youth in dialogue, evaluate text books on the accurate and

respectful depiction image of the other, teach interreligious

dialogue and train both policymakers and religious leaders in

dialogue skills to be applied in a variety of contexts, including

social media. In addition, KAICIID’s research maps the extent

of interreligious dialogue worldwide through a peace mapping

project, demonstrating how different types of dialogue contrib-

ute to various aspects of peacebuilding.

One planet; one experiment. There is no survival of

humanity on Earth without dialogue. One of today’s

urgent challenges is to increase significantly the practice

of dialogue, in its various forms, to reach a tipping point

beyond which the culture of dialogue becomes the norm

‘glocally’. In collaboration with as many United Nations

agencies, governments, international NGOs, religious

communities and other value-based groups as possible,

KAICIID is committed to find ways to produce widely

available opportunities to practice dialogue in order to

decrease discourse manufacturing fear and contribute to

a world that can eschew weapons in exchange for trust in

others. The KAICIID Dialogue Centre joins many partners

worldwide contributing through dialogue to a global peace

movement whose success is our single best guarantee of

attaining a sustainable future for humanity on Earth.

In Nairobi, religious leaders in intercommunity dialogue participate in KAICIID media training to strengthen their ‘share of voice’ in the media to advocate

tolerance and support diversity

Image: KAICIID

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