This year, the ECCAR implemented for the first time an online questionnaire to present official reports on the implementation status of the 10 Point Plan of Action of its member cities. A Global Report reporting gathering all the reulsts was published for the first time in 2023. It was a great milestone that will soon be fully accomplished with a new digital tool that allows reporting in different languages.
Exchange Evaluation Meeting about the results of the reports handed in
The new reporting system has also a new feedback format. Last October, a feedback exchange evaluation meeting took place to share between the cities the pertinence of this new feedback format, which was completely accepted. The meeting was hosted by the ECCAR office and the city of Barcelona and counted with the participation of the cities of Bologna, Botkyrka, Cologne, Montpellier, Rosselaire, Sisli and Torino.
The SAC (Scientific Adivosroy Committee) provided a general view of the results of the 18 cities from 8 countries that reported. These results showed clearly that learning from other cities and exchanging with other cities are the main motives and expectations for membership. You can read the global report in the document attached if you want to have all the details.
The reports show the most important challenges, needs and topics of interest for the cities, in which they would like to learn more and exchange with others. Some of the needs expressed were directly addressed to the Action Project, that gives precisely answers to what was asked. Other topics, related to remembrance of the history of slavery, or structural and institutional racism are meant to have an important place during the next General Assembly in 2024 in the city of Heidelberg.
Therewith, the topic that was more often mentioned was data collection and equality data. During the meeting, some actions were agreed about how the ECCAR will give answer to this necessity. First of all, it was announced that a new Toolkit for Equality Chapter on Equality Data Collection will be launched soon. In second place, Barcelona announced that it will call for a meeting to all the cities in the ECCAR that already have or are in the process of construction of an Observatory of Discrimination. This meeting will permit a broader perspective on what is done by the cities on this issue and let them build an exchange network to improve their work.
Finally, it was clear both on the reports and during the meeting that cities are very interested in having peer to peer sessions with other cities to learn and share in a confident way and have the opportunity to know details that can help each other. However, it was still difficult to draw the way it will concretely work, and all the members are now called to imagine how peer to peer sessions can work and help cities.
