Background information and related resources

This project was initiated and developed in the framework of the partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth and the partners involved in Euro-Mediterranean activities: the Anna Lindh Foundation, the League of Arab States, the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe, the European Youth Forum and SALTO Euro-Med Resource Centre. Many other institutions and individuals have contributed over the years in bringing the project to where it stands today, including the SALTO Cultural Diversity Resource Centre, the INGO Conference of the Council of Europe, the European Federation for Intercultural Learning, the Centre for Cross-Cultural Learning, Morocco, the Intercultural Institute of Timisoara, Romania, the International Center for Intercultural Research, Learning and Dialogue, Armenia.

Realising the urgency and importance of furthering intercultural dialogue at all levels, several other initiatives have be taken in this regard:

  • Council of Europe’s Education Department has launched an Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters that is becoming increasingly used and adapted and more recently the Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters through Visual Media;
  • INGO conference produced the Toolkit for Conducting Intercultural Dialogue;
  • SALTO Diversity Resource Centre has been working on defining the intercultural competence and published an Intercultural Competence Research Report;
  • North-South Centre of the Council of Europe is organising regularly an online training course entitled Global Education: The Intercultural Dimension.

There are also a number of publications that have contributed substantially to both the development of thinking around key topics, as well as to their dissemination and application across Europe:

  • Compass – A Manual for Human Right Education with Young People, available in 33 languages and with an updated version published in 2012, by the Council of Europe;
  • Compasito – Manual for Human Rights Education for Children, by the Council of Europe;
  • Training kits like Mosaic - The training kit for Euro-Mediterranean youth and the T-Kit  on  Intercultural Learning (currently under revision) , by the EU-CoE youth partnership;
  • Global Education Guidelines – A Handbook for Educators to Understand and Implement Global Education, by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe;
  • Development of a set of competences for trainers, by Salto-Youth Training and Cooperation Resource Centre.

The field of intercultural dialogue in non-formal education is evolving continuously. The approaches, the methods and the context in which it is taking place are changing and adapting to new realities. Intercultural dialogue is not a fixed framework in which the reality needs to fit, but a set a principles that can be used in order to contribute to the development of our societies, the respect and understanding between people from all walks of life.