Conversations for Trust

Trust in governments has faced a worrying decline across the world. Conversations for Trust are structured round-table dialogue sessions between citizens and their local bureaucrats, leaders, business leaders, and NGOs. Organized by the local government, the sessions will be held every three months in a community space. Youth Facilitators aged 16-25, selected on the basis of a motivation statement and independent of their education level, will mediate the conversations. The citizen participants will consist of 70% voluntary and 30% randomly invited, up to 5% of the city’s population, to ensure representation. Citizens will submit topics beforehand, and the Youth Facilitator will curate them to determine the focus of each session with the aim of incorporating the greatest variety of concerns expressed by the community. The citizen participants and the Youth Facilitators will be compensated for their time, with the program being funded by the government.

Each session will begin with a presentation from government officials about what actions they have taken in response to the preceding discussion. This allows citizens to hold them accountable for translating these discussions into tangible change. Next, the Youth Facilitators will transition discussion into the topic selected for the session. The dialogue will be open to the public and shared online through a live stream.