Center of Encounters and Intercultural Dialogues

The CEDI is an autonomous space for reflection and action that makes dialogue and harmonious interaction of the different a way of being. Created informally in 1998, since then it has been dedicated to exploring areas of intercultural communion between the different and to delimiting its own paths of transformation, as well as to carrying out the corresponding technical, social, economic and political initiatives. Since 2004 it has been a Non-Governmental Organisation with the legal status of a Civil Association.

In its more than 25 years of existence, CEDI has hosted people and groups from all five continents, with many of whom it still maintains collaborative relationships. Within the country and in particular in Oaxaca it has participated in a very wide range of transformative initiatives in all fields. It has taken part in the political endeavours of indigenous peoples and peasants, has contributed directly to the articulation and consolidation of civil society, and has promoted numerous initiatives for technological and social transformation.

Among the actions carried out, promoted or supported by CEDI are the cultural regeneration programme, which was carried out with 400 communities in Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca; the Oaxacan Water Forum; the construction and dissemination of dry toilets, solar fires and other alternative technologies; the "agendas" of civil society in Oaxaca and Mexico; the account and analysis of civil organisations in Oaxaca; the creation of the Unitierra and the programme "Without corn there is no country".

At the international level, he supports projects of great impact such as the Global Weaving of Alternatives and the ACERVUS Project. He has also participated in the organisation of INCAD meetings in Montreal, Canada, and Bangalore, India; the Oakland Roundtable in Oakland, USA; the International Group for Grassroots Initiatives in New Delhi and Helsinki; and other seminars and forums in Canada, the United States and various European countries. CEDI organised the International Youth Forum in Oaxaca on two occasions, and participated in the organisation of the International Indigenous Ecotourism Forum, Ecoplanet and other events. In Mexico City, it participated in the organisation of an International Congress on Alternatives to Sanitation, meetings of the Habitat International Coalition and other events, and organised, together with other national and foreign organisations, the América Profunda meeting.

CEDI regularly organises study and research programmes for students, professors, researchers and civil organisations from other countries. Among the groups attended so far are the International Honors Program and Berea College, and universities such as Iowa, Georgia, New York, Plattsburgh and Vermont, and Jeunesse Canada Monde, among others.