This project establishes a very concrete and dynamic mechanism through which the facilitator, organizers, and participants can achieve success and significance, for the benefit of the community. The project is significant precisely because it is intended to promote common good, addressing effectively the most pressing social needs, resorting to a shared and principle-centered leadership, which CALI so vehemently proposes and so effectively promotes.
Name of Project:
SOCIOS (the acronym for Sociedad Civil Organizada y Solidaria).
What will it do?
Raise consciousness about the importance of increasing the participation, both quantitatively and qualitatively, of civil society in the country’s various pressing issues and debates, in a more coordinated and effective fashion. This objective will be pursued through activities aimed at raising civil society’s self esteem and awareness of its potential. SOCIOS will promote human and social development in Panama, a country with tremendous economic growth, but also with alarming levels of poverty and facing one of the worst inequalities in the world. SOCIOS will not only push for equitable economic growth and prosperity for all, but also, by the same token, will combat indifference and, most importantly, indolence.
Who/what will it benefit?
It will benefit and strengthen democracy, as it will help us make a reality the benefits of the democratic system, beyond any particular administration, with all that it entails, good and not so good, keeping us away from messianic leaders, populism and totalitarian regimes. Panama’s society, as a whole, will benefit from this project. Increasing social self-esteem by enhancing civil society participation in national decision making, in a constructive, not antagonistic, way, will not only improve the quality of policy outcomes. The project will also contribute to improve the quality of decision-making processes. Both developments will have a positive impact on the quality of democracy, enhancing it to the benefit of Panama’s people.
How will it be implemented?
Conceptually, initial activities will focus on recovering the country’s collective history and developing a participatory leadership style (as opposed to an individualistic, caudillo-type leadership style).
Subsequent activities will aim at identifying the obstacles to integral human and social development in Panama, together with those factors that prevent an improvement in the quality of democracy. Broad consciousness raising about these obstacles and the means to surmount them will follow the identification exercise. These activities will increase in scope and frequency leading to the 2009 general elections. On the basis of past experiences, such as the 2006 canal referendum (in which the genesis of the project successfully helped promote a “yes” vote with a social commitment), SOCIOS seeks to promote responsible voting practices, participating and involvement (even in political parties) and socially-committed candidacies.
In practice, we will first gather the most representative players in Panama´s civil society, with the purpose of getting them on-board in sharing the idea, its urgency, and commitment to move on forward (THIS STEP HAS ALREADY BEEN TAKEN, SUCCESSFULLY, JUST AFTER OUR LAST SEMINAR IN COSTA RICA). We have taken further, related although more individual, steps, after that, and are getting ready for further collective steps in the right direction, especially to structure the mechanism in all aspects.
What is my role?
I will act as the group’s facilitator. This role includes facilitating the creation of a new leadership style based on broad, coordinated, participation, avoiding the personalistic domination and social exclusion which predominate in Panama’s political society and which have a negative impact on the country’s prospects for integral human and social development.
How it will be measured?
Right now, there is no mechanism in Panama which reunites civil society, or which allows for an effective call of civil society, with a legitimate non-elitist representation thereof, from the bottom up, with a shared and rotating leadership and an effective coordination among civil society groups and organizations. So, it will be measured by monitoring the growing participation, and acceptance by civil society representatives and society as a whole (SO FAR SO GOOD).
Does it meet the criteria for projects laid out in the project descriptor?
YES, it does.
This project:
1. Engages my personal passion (civic call, solidarity, common good)
2. Addresses a pressing need (effective measures to combat poverty, inequality, indifference, indolence)
3. Is innovative and distinctive (from the bottom up, really representative, effective and rotating coordination mechanism, shared leadership)
4. Makes a real difference
5. Is ambitious, a stretch (APEDE, ASI-SI, ASI, SOCIOS)
6. Will show measurable results in 12-18 months
7. Leverages the energy, skills and resources of others
8. Will take on a life of its own
9. Promotes the values we hold most dear
10. Will be a source of pride for the Leadership Initiative
This particular project, is building on some things I’ve already been doing …it is an addition, extension, enhancement, expansion and acceleration of several activities.
Why is this project worthy of ALI/ILI?
It is worthy of The Aspen Institute, its partners, founders and mentors, and it is worthy of CALI, because this project establishes a very concrete and dynamic mechanism through which the facilitator, organizers, and participants can achieve success and significance, for the benefit of the community. The project is significant precisely because it is intended to promote common good, addressing effectively the most pressing social needs, resorting to a shared and principle-centered leadership, which CALI so vehemently proposes and so effectively promotes.