In 2012 the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust enterred into a programme partnership with the UNDP Dialogue Financing Facility (DFF) on the “My Zimbabwe Story” project. The project aimed to incorporate the cultural sphere into a broad-based framework of UNDP (DFF) partners by creating an interactive platform for creation, presentation and dialoguing on Zimbabwean experiences and aspirations.
While the entry point for Culture Fund engagement with the DFF initiated activities that aimed at improving international perceptions of Zimbabwe in phase 1 of the programme, Phase 2 was designed to focus on broader national development through the My Zimbabwe Story Enabling National Development through Constructive Dialogue.
With a population of over 12 million and with each Zimbabwean and friends to the country yearning to share their own Zimbabwe story, dialogue platforms will provide insight into previously unexplored and untold possibilities. Further development of an online dialogue platform was done and involved finalising the back-end functionality of the My Zimbabwe Dialogue Site. The Culture Fund and UNDP will assist in bringing offline dialogue sessions and Zimbabwean stories to a wider audience through this platform. Individual components of dialogues are currently scattered, dispersed, and disconnected.
The website is officially online and functioning. Available at www.myzimdialogue.com
The platform will be used to take offline dialogue processes and put them online and seeks to achieve the following outcomes;
- improved international perceptions of Zimbabwe
- new avenues of dialogue between Zimbabwe and the international community such as international cultural diplomacy
- use of multi-media platforms as dissemination and dialoguing tools by ordinary Zimbabwe, some of whom may later engage in citizen journalism
To read the full media release, see the external link below.