Principles and ethics
Stepwise Heritage and Tourism associates endorse the following principles and recognise the need for their professional practice to:
- create appropriate space/s for productive discussion amongst people involved in processes. This includes attention to appropriate settings for gender, age, language, literacy and different knowledge traditions;
- recognise participants as the authors of the content which the process generates;
- actively use the principles of participatory planning and group leadership;
- include action learning formats in programs to enable ‘learning through doing’ capacity building;
- facilitate access to information to enable informed decision making;
- promote self reliance and initiative along action pathways;
- demonstrate a high level of flexibility in adapting processes to different settings, formats and participants;
- strive for sustainable outcomes for land, culture, community, families and businesses;
- strive for balance in representing complex dynamics and promote realistic self assessment based on the information provided; and
- encourage responsibility, respect and reciprocity between visitors and local communities.
In addition, we endorse the Statement of Values and Code of Ethics of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF).