As part of the Joint Council of Europe-European Union programme “Towards Strengthened Democratic Governance in the Southern Mediterranean” (South Programme II), a CoE delegation visited the city of Haifa on August 3-6. This first visit was intended to assess needs and opportunities for the expansion of the Council of Europe intercultural cities network in the Southern Mediterranean. Next leg of CoE experts will be Jordan and Morocco with the objective of identifying new cities willing to become part of the intercultural cities’ network and discuss city governance and policies from an intercultural perspective together with the other 59 participating cities.
Intercultural Cities’ project supports cities in developing, implementing and evaluating local diversity and inclusion strategies. In the southern Mediterranean the project intends to reinforce the capacity of local actors – municipalities and civil society – to deal effectively with growing population diversity and to establish a community of practice in the region capable of localising European approaches and develop specific know-how responding to the migration and diversity challenges on the ground.
Cities participating in the Intercultural cities programme undergo expert and peer reviews of their policies, governance and practice. The project has namely established an Intercultural Cities Index as a complementary tool to illustrate visually the level of achievement of each city, progress over time, and to enable comparison with other cities. This tool contains a limited number of strong indicators which make it easier to identify and communicate where a city stands in relation to intercultural integration, where effort should be focused in the future and which other cities could be a source of good practice in these particular areas.
In Haifa, CoE experts met various groups of local and international partners: city planners, religious leaders, academics as well as cultural operators. Two workshops were carried out for the staff of Beit Hagefen Jewish-Arab Cultural Centre and of the Municipality of Haifa. The workshops focused on Intercultural strategy, as well as on Community Based Results Accountability approach.
Key issues were discussed with the partners such as, the way diversity is perceived in the community, main governance issues as well as the level of involvement of the various cultural communities in the local debates and the decision-making process.
Council of Europe project: Intercultural cities
Council of Europe: Intercultural cities index
Building intercultural strategies with citizens: the Community based results accountability approach
