The Sri Lanka One-Text Initiative - co-founded by the country's main political parties -- was developed to facilitate dialogue and stimulate the exchange of ideas between the nation's political stakeholder groups in a constructive, inclusive forum, utilizing the "One-Text" procedure, a multi-stakeholder information/communication tool developed and adapted from other peace building efforts around the world.
The main objective of this initiative is to facilitate processes that will enable stakeholders in the Sri Lankan peace process to develop common ground for their often opposing positions through problem-solving interventions and information sharing within common workspaces. The project created and enabled the development of common spaces, mechanisms and opportunities for ALL-track level dialogues, while enabling the political stakeholders in Sri Lanka to generate informed options and proposals that will contribute towards a sustained Track One peacemaking process - meeting the needs of ALL Sri Lankans. This initiative was a significant breakthrough in the country whereby parties - in the absence of a formal peace and negotiations process - joined this inclusive process.
The Sri Lanka One-Text Initiative is a systematic process supporting the national peace and negotiations processes by eliciting the underlying interests and needs of various parties and people, providing the space (physically and virtually) to jointly explore and develop many options for different issues and finally arrive at the `best' one. The process is called `one-text' because literally one text is forged -- drawn from the different `texts' (narratives and positions) of the political stakeholders as well as various citizens' groups.
After eliciting the issues and interests of all the parties, jointly appointed Party Researchers and Technical Committees draft proposals and present it to the parties for their input and criticism. The parties provide additional options and criticize drafts at various stages of the process - until all parties feel they have an inclusive and representative concept paper. The work in this process is offered to the Sri Lanka Track One negotiators as resources, guide and means to explore major issues before it reach the negotiations table. Content developed in this process is confidential and is the intellectual property of the parties involved in the process.
The participants in this process are Authorized Party Members from each of the major political parties, Local and International Technical Experts (appointed by the parties), Policy Advisors, Party Researchers, Technology Support Consultants, nominated members from Civil Society, and individuals associated with the major political stakeholders or parties. All operational, content and policy matters of this initiative are determined by the participating political parties and organizations.
Apart from engaging the political parties and civil society stakeholders in the process, the initiative provides mechanisms and links between track one, two and three processes and initiatives.
It is essential for any sustainable peace process that the voices of ordinary people be heard and that they feel they are involved or considered in the national processes that will impact on their lives. It is also important that the peacebuilding and conflict resolution capacity of local people be built and strengthened. We have seen too many times that if the people are not involved and educated in these developments, they eventually reject the outcomes of negotiations and peace processes and even the best solutions.
Although supporters of the different parties will never literally sit at the negotiations table, it is critical that negotiators keep their supporters 'in the loop' through reportbacks and ongoing briefings to maintain transparency as the negotiations progress. It is no use for negotiators to arrive at an agreement which may be rejected by their supporters because it was revealed to them only at the close of negotiations. One-Text is providing support and to several of the country's main civil society organizations to create this essential component in the peace process to contain violence at local level, prevent incidents from impacting on national negotiations, and engage ordinary people in the peace process.