Nansen Dialogue Network

The idea of creating Nansen Dialogue started in Norway in 1994, when the city of Lillehammer, host of the Winter Olympics, connected with a former Olympic City, Sarajevo, at that time a city under siege. The wars in the Western Balkans in the 1990s left many societies divided and segregated, with little hope for a better future. With the aim of bringing hope through dialogue and reconciliation several Nansen Dialogue Centres were established in Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia. These centres are the core of the Nansen Dialogue Network (NDN), a network which shares its know-how and experience with local, national and international actors and partners to jointly support dialogue and peacebuilding processes around the world. Our experience has shown us that dialogue can be an effective tool in reconciliation and peacebuilding. The Nansen Dialogue Network gathers politicians, journalists, teachers, parents, and pupils for dialogue about their own conflict, exploring potential solutions and opening possibilities for institutional change, where the situation is no longer seen through ethnic or mono-cultural lenses, but with a view to joint understanding that benefit all. The Nansen Dialogue Network believes that dialogue and work for reconciliation should be given higher priority when dealing with conflicts around the world.