'demo-sofia: wisdom of the people’. This is the methodology which the MedBEESinessHubs project has chosen to build the honeybee cluster in the regions of Cyprus, Egypt, Italy, Lebanon and Palestine. 

This methodology, also known as Structured Democratic Dialogue (SDD), has already been successfully tested under the MEDFEST Interreg Med financed project, while it is the first output to be capitalised on by the MedBEESinessHubs project partners. 

The Structured Democratic Dialogue (SDD) is a tool for reaching suitable solutions on burning issues of concern raised by civic groups. The SDD methodology is structured as far as the process is concerned, and democratic as far as the content is concerned. The methodology is unique in truly engaging participants. It utilizes the latest developments in complexity and systems science to harness the collective intelligence and the collective wisdom of those participating. It helps citizens’ representatives develop a common language, a shared understanding of the problematic situation in which they are embedded, and equips them with knowledge to formulate their ideas, suggestions, and strategies with clarity. The interactions empower the participants to take follow-up actions and thus ensuring their strong commitment to global sustainable change.

Democratic dialogue is always a process of cooperation and teamwork and may include one or more meetings of participants in the dialogue. A dialogue has a systemic approach to the problem and therefore seeks to include a diverse group of actors related to such problem, and not just parties seeking to negotiate something tangible. In this respect, a total of 15 stakeholders associated with the MedBEESinessHubs project will be trained in the SDD process through a series of 4 webinars and a physical 2-day interactive session taking place in Nicosia, Cyprus end of June 2022. Upon returning to their countries, they will then transfer this acquired knowledge to their local communities. All of this in an effort to assist them teaming up with individual stakeholders and local authorities in order to establish five bee-economy regions comprised of micro, small and medium sized enterprises active in the bee-business, which can also become destinations of sustainable tourism.

The final aim of the capitalisation process of the Structured Democratic Dialogue methodology is the very essence of our project leading to the building of the MedBEESinessHubs hive, one cross-border alliance of Bee-economy clusters with a strong international visibility which can support the marketing potential of the associated bee-businesses, while giving them voice at the same time in policy making centres at the regional as well as the European level.

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