[bestbits] Draft joint letter on deliberative democratic processes for the Brazil meeting

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On 04/02/14 22:02, Marilia Maciel wrote:
> My own feeling about it is that we should either focus on pushing for
> on-site deliberative mechanisms that would facilitate consensus during
> the Sao Paulo or on pushing for an online platform. My impression is
> that the organization of the meeting would lack experience to identify
> the best model of on-site deliberation for this particular meeting and
> setting. If we want on-site deliberative mechanisms in place, we would
> need to offer assistance with that, and this would consume us. But I
> think it would be worthy.
>
> Regarding the platform, it is not clear to me what is the expected
> timeframe for us (how to make a meaningful consultation fit our
> schedule) and which document (if any) should be the base of our
> consultation. Remember, for instance, that the synthesis paper that
> will be produced by the Secretariat will only be available on March 7.
> Should the synthesis be the base of our online debate?  In my view,
> comments on a synthesis doc are likely to produce just another
> syntheses. It is not clear at the present moment that we will have an
> actual draft proposal on principles or frameworks prior to the meeting
> and, if so, who should produce it.

Surely there will have to be a synthesis of contributions as the basis
for discussions in Brazil, and either the community will have to develop
it, or the Brazil committees will have to do so; and in my opinion it
would be better to give the community that opportunity to the extent
possible.  This points to the need for an online deliberative process,
actively facilitated by the appropriate Brazil committee/s.  The
facilitation will be hard enough work in itself, and involve a degree of
judgment as to how to present the inputs in a useful and neutral way. 
I'm not understating the difficulty of the exercise, but surely nobody
expected getting tangible outcomes from the Brazil meeting would be easy...

-- 

*Dr Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Policy Officer
Consumers International | the global campaigning voice for consumers*
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