1. Narrative

1.1 Background

In response to a Request for Proposal made available in October 2003, Mixed Media Limited presented the Bioethics Council a proposal to "design and implement the facilitation process for a range of dialogue initiatives on the use of human genes in other organisms, for the Bioethics Council". Those initiatives were to take the form of a series of dialogue events within the community in general and the Maori community in particular from February to May 2004.

In December, after some discussion, the Bioethics Council contracted a separate provider to deliver facilitation services within the Maori community and Mixed Media Limited to provide these services to the general community.

The Council had already determined the key audiences and general approaches. Mixed Media's role was to design the detailed methodology for facilitation of dialogue with these pre-selected audiences and events in such a way as to:

• reflect the Bioethic Council's understanding of dialogue, and the social processes it wishes to encourage
• support participants to feedback to the Council their thinking on the topic

1.2 Development

In response Mixed Media developed a generic methodology for effective dialogue with flexibility to allow for:

• effective engagement with the range of cultures and demographics of the identified audiences
• variations in style, size and duration of meeting.

In doing so Mixed Media proactively collaborated with the Maori Facilitation Provider.

In discussion with the Council's secretariat, Mixed Media identified the value of providing interim reports on each event as soon as possible after the event. These reports were to be made available to both the secretariat (and through them Council members) and to participants in the events themselves as an act of accountability to them. These reports also provided data for reflection and distillation in this report. These reports are provided with this document as Appendices 1-16.

During the development phase a deliberate process of clarifying roles and responsibilities for different participants who were to be present at events was undertaken. These participants included:

• Facilitators
• Council members
• Secretariat members
• Administrative support.

This process proved to be extremely valuable.

1.3 Implementation

From the beginning the dialogue events proceeded extremely positively. Logistic support was delivered from the Bioethics Secretariat offices in Christchurch and Wellington.

Halfway through the series, for a range of reasons including the difficulty of attracting sufficient numbers to open public events, four of the proposed 20 events were withdrawn from the initial schedule. The full schedule of events, including cancellations, appears below.

Confirmed Schedule

1.4 Participants

A total of 182 people attended the events across 17 meetings held in seven centres across New Zealand. 90 females and 92 males attended, 87 people attended in the South Island, 95 in the North Island.

The dialogue events provided rich opportunities for intercultural exchange. Individuals of a fairly homogeneous background, understanding and language populated some events (e.g. the Ethicists event in Wellington). People with very different backgrounds attended other events (e.g. Faith Traditions and the Cross-Cultural Asian Community). It is a credit to the patience of the participants of many of these groups - and something of a tribute to the dialogue process - that these events were distinguished by the respect, tolerance and good humour shown by individuals toward each other.

[ Next Page ]