RESEARCHING AND FRAMING/CONSULTATIONS The purpose of this section is to provide participants with the necessary information and skills to undertake this first activity in initiating a dialogue. Objective To explain and illustrate the key steps in framing a dialogue. This section involves a brief introductory presentation by the facilitator in which the different elements of researching and framing are discussed, as well as a practical case study that can serve as an example of how this knowledge is applied. Theoretical input: Researching and framing the dialogue Researching and framing the dialogue are some of the most important elements of any sustained-dialogue process, the reason being that this activity provides much of the information on which everything else is built. Researching and framing involve the tasks as set out in Figure 5. Figure 5: Steps in researching and framing a dialogue process STEP 1 Information gathering STEP 4 STEP 2 Dialogue strategy Context and conflict analysis STEP 3 Intervention design 44 Community Healing: A training manual for Zimbabwe