An Intercultural Cities Milestone Event Making Diversity work for Cities

Dublin – Ireland

In 2008 the Council of Europe and the European Commission, together with a group of pioneer cities, took a challenge: to develop and test a culturally competent approach to integrating diverse communities. The Intercultural cities initiative was born www.coe.int/interculturalcities. At the heart of this novel approach to integration lies the concept of Diversity advantage: regarding migrants and minorities as a resource for local economic, social and cultural development, and not only as vulnerable groups in need of welfare support and services, or as a threat to social cohesion. The policy paradigm which can help cities realise the diversity advantage is Intercultural integration. It implies a strategic reorientation of urban governance and policies to encourage adequate representation, positive intercultural mixing and interaction, and institutional capacity to deal with cultural conflict. The Intercultural cities programme offers a comprehensive methodology for helping cities develop their diversity strategies, and a range of analytical and assessment tools, including the very successful Intercultural cities INDEX. The model is now being implemented by over 60 cities in Europe, as well as in Japan, Korea, Mexico and Canada. The Dublin milestone event will be an opportunity to take stock of what cities have achieved, what works and what does not, and under which conditions, how do we measure success, what challenges remain and how they can be addressed together with partners from other networks and organisations. This international conference will explore the results and achievements of the intercultural Cities initiative and cities involved in it, and examine implications for adopting a diversity-based approach in national and international integration policy and practice. The conference in Dublin will discuss the following questions: • What does diversity advantage mean in practice and how can different kinds of urban policies be shaped through the intercultural lens? • What intercultural strategies have cities adopted? How have they managed to build broad local partnerships to ensure grassroots involvement, transversality and sustainability? What challenges are they facing and how are they dealing with them? • How can cities demonstrate the reality of diversity advantage? Is the concept supported by research evidence? How can the results be assessed? • How are they supporting each other and learning from each other nationally and internationally? Participants will be Mayors and elected officials, professionals and experts from cities members of the ICC coalition and cities wishing to be involved in the future or to learn about the tools which have been created to support cities in implementing the intercultural integration approach: a Step-By-Step guide enables a structured approach to policy audit, citizen involvement in strategy development and an Intercultural Cities Index helps cities make evidence-based judgments about the impact and outcomes of their policies and resource investment. Draft Programme Tuesday 5th February 2013 Mansion House Dublin 2 19.00- 21.00: Reception for Mayors, Ministers and Ambassadors hosted by Lord Mayor (upon special invitation only) Wednesday 6th February 2013 Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin 8 09.00 - 09.30 Registration Refreshments 09.30 - 09.50 Welcome to Royal Hospital Kilmainham Plenary Room English & French Formal Opening: Lord Mayor of Dublin Naoisi Ó Muirí Key Note Address: Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter TD 09.50 - 11.00: • Snežana Samardžić-Marković, Director General of Democracy, Council of Europe • Jan Truszczyński, Director General for Education, Training, Culture and Youth, European Commission • Albert Esteve Garcia, Minister of Culture of Andorra • Ms Ludmila Sfirloaga, Vice President, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe • Antonio Costa, Mayor of Lisbon, President of the Commission for Citizenship, Governance, Institutional & External Affairs of the Committee of the Regions 11.00 - Refreshments 11.15 – 13.00 Panel discussion: Leaders in the intercultural sectors respond Moderator: Nigel Smith • Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe • Jean-Paul Makengo, Deputy Mayor of Toulouse and President of ECCAR • Korrie Louwes, Deputy Mayor of Rotterdam • Hallstein Bjercke, Deputy Mayor of Oslo • Géorges Képénékian, Deputy Mayor of Lyon Q & A with the audience 13.00-14.30 Lunch Royal Hospital Kilmainham 14.30- 17.00 Break Out Sessions Overall introduction Plenary Room English & French How real is policy change: an overview of the adoption of the intercultural integration approach by cities around Europe (and beyond?) By Phil Wood Phil Wood has been a partner in COMEDIA since 2000. He is the author of the ground-breaking publication The Intercultural City: Planning for Diversity Advantage which laid the foundation for the Intercultural cities initiative. He will review the reality of intercultural policies and governance in cities across-Europe, and beyond, in particular based on the example of cities involved in the Intercultural cities programme. How many have achieved to move from commitment to policy? How successfully have they applied a strategic, multi-stakeholder approach? What are the key challenges they have met? What have been the keys to success, what can we learn from failure? How transferable is their example? The Intercultural integration approach and its translation into local strategies: what are they about, what approaches work and what don’t, what are the keys for success In order to mobilise people and resources towards the diversity advantage, there is a need for a change in mindset of local leaders – both elected and in civil society. This means encouraging leaders to asking ‘If our aim were to create a society which was not only free, egalitarian and harmonious but also one in which there was productive interaction and co-operation between communities, organisations and institutions, what would we need to do more of or do differently?’ And in particular, ‘what kind of leaders (political and communal) and citizens will this require? What changes in institutions, networks and physical infrastructure would it suggest?’ We call this building the city’s intercultural vision or looking at the city afresh ‘through an intercultural lens’. According to the Intercultural city approach, the development of a cultural sensitivity, the encouragement of intercultural interaction and mixing is at the core of a local intercultural strategy, it is seen not as the responsibility of a special department or officer but as a strategic objective and an essential aspect of the functioning of all city departments and services. The Intercultural city approach is not about ADDING new policies, structures or initiatives (indeed, many of the urban problems are due to an excess of rules, structures and controls) but revisiting what the city already does through “the intercultural lens”. Thus, the intercultural city does not need new expenditure – and could well lead to savings and more efficiency by focusing efforts on clearly defined and shared goals, eliminating duplication, rivalry, turf thinking and clientelism. During the workshops, panel discussions will involve representatives of cities members of the Intercultural cities network and other city representatives or experts in a debate about the complexities, strategies, methods to be used in the process of intercultural strategy development. A panel of observers will intervene with questions about challenges and lessons learnt. At the end of the discussion the whole group together will underline key advantages to adopting the intercultural approach; key critical steps in the process and the main complexities that might be encountered with regards to maintaining momentum in relation to intercultural strategies. Workshop one: Moderator Bruno Ciancio Venue: Royal Hospital Kilmainham – Workshop Space TBC English only Presentations of local intercultural strategies: • Paul Chapman, European Project manager, London Borough of Lewisham, United Kingdom • Neophytos Charalampides and Aristos Aristidou, Municipal Councillors, Limassol, Cyprus • Helena Rojas, Head of Development, Municipal Head Office, Botkyrka, Sweden • Tone Skodvin, Chief Adviser, Department of Cultural Affairs and Business Development, Oslo, Norway Workshop two: Moderator Phil Wood Venue: Royal Hospital Kilmainham – Workshop Space TBC English only Presentations of local intercultural strategies: • Catarina Vaz Pinto, Councillor, Lisbon, Portugal • Franziska Giffey, Councillor, Berlin Neukölln, Germany • Alexandre Ushakov, Mayor of Izhevsk and Iuliia Arekeeva, Deputy Head of the Department for international relations and protocol, Izhevsk City Council, Russian Federation • Christina Rassmussen, International co-ordinator, Intercultural cities, Copenhagen, Denmark Workshop three: Moderator Oliver Freeman Venue: Plenary room English and French Presentations of local intercultural strategies: • Jean-Charles Rielle, président du Conseil municipal, Geneva and Chiara Barberis, Cheffe de service « Agenda 21/ville durable », Geneva, Switzerland • Katarzyna Mieczkowska-Czerniak, Mayor for Culture, Sports and External Relations, Lublin, Poland • Thomas Facchinetti, Deputy Mayor for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Neuchâtel, Switzerland • Franco Corradini, Deputy Mayor of Reggio Emilia, Italy Workshop four: Moderator: Robin Wilson Venue: Royal Hospital Kilmainham – Workshop Space TBC English only Presentations of local intercultural strategies: • János Girán, Mayor’s Cabinet, Pécs, Hungary • Auke Blaauwbroek, Alderman, Tilburg, the Netherlands • Larisa Inic, Cultural Co-ordinator, Mayors’ Cabinet and Marta Dobo, City Council for international and regional relations, Member in charge of international and regional cooperation, Subotica, Serbia • Chrysoula Geraga, Head of Programming-Networking & International Affairs Department, Patras, Greece 19.30- 22.00 Evening reception State Reception at Trinity College Dublin, Banqueting hall.

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