populations. Public support is central to any successful national dialogue and without it the process may suffer a crisis of legitimacy. Hence, the government may need to formally promote inclusive processes that solicit views from diverse socio-economic and political structures.  Scope -the government’s national dialogue facilitation conceptualised the Zimbabwean crises in the context of post-election negotiation rather than a popular national crisis requiring broadbased consultative content. While the government of Zimbabwe called for interparty dialogues based on the 2018 elections conflict, urgent national issues requiring urgent redress include the obtaining economic crisis, unemployment, constitutional reforms and the continuing human rights violations . More broadly, there is lack of clarity on the mandate of the national dialogue designed, hence the need to spell out what this intended dialogue seeks to achieve.  Regional and national level consultations –following local level consultations, regional and national consultation summits should be conducted to solidify the grassroots views towards specific policy directions. However, these are less likely going to take effect given that the dialogues commenced with an electoral political agenda engagements as opposed to a public agenda.  Pre-conditions– Political parties and civic organisations already have lists of positions with legitimacy being the key top agenda issue. It is unthinkable that the parties going to the dialogues have put forward pre-conditions for engaging into a dialogue without giving room to meet and deliberate on what would be primary conditions and key agenda issues.  Political will –the high levels of mistrust among rival political groups could hinder positive political will which affects the implementation of the dialogue resolutions.  Facilitators – the current Zimbabwean government supported national dialogue is being facilitated by the Office of the President and Cabinet. Their convening credibility could be compromised given that the President is a stakeholder to the National Dialogue process. The opposition leaders have already scoffed the notion while demanding mediation by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) or any other respected persons. Facilitators are typically persons with a high degree of political legitimacy within the country or internationally. However, given Zimbabwe’s current political context, success rate of the national dialogue depends on President Mnangagwa as the facilitator-participant in the process. Recommendations: Towards a Promising National Dialogue Design  Mandate of the National Dialogue –national dialogues must have formal mandates. As such, the scope and goal of the national dialogue must be specified and have all Zimbabweans empathetic to its ideals. The national dialogue practices must reflect a ‘national character’ rather than symptomatic contexts that do not mirror national problems affecting the country. While 7