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Today, the world is more and more interconnected but it does not mean that individuals and societies really live together – as reveal the exclusions suffered by millions of poor, women, youth, migrants and disenfranchised minorities. None of the multifaceted and complex challenges of our times can be tackled effectively without inclusion. Global challenges like COVID-19 and the Climate Crisis require innovative and collaborative solutions. This is the resounding message of Agenda 2030 and its pledge to “Leave no one behind”. Peaceful coexistence within and among societies has become imperative today, in light of the global rise of intolerance, violence, discrimination, inequality, extremism and xenophobia. Achieving peaceful coexistence will depend upon everyone’s ability – notably that of youth and women - to gain and demonstrate intercultural competencies.

Intercultural dialogue is an excellent tool in the implementation of the UNESCO Roadmap Against Racism and Discrimination[1], and the associated Global Forum Against Racism and Discrimination (Mexico, Nov 2022)[2] calls for actions on prioritizing the fight against racism and discrimination to directory address the adverse impact on the most vulnerable populations.

The UNESCO Initiative for Enabling Intercultural Dialogue was launched in 2018 to leverage the power of intercultural dialogue as a tool for addressing global challenges and supporting sustainable peace, conflict prevention and human rights promotion. Recognizing the potential of intercultural dialogue and identifying the knowledge gap on what conditions need to be in place to enable dialogue to work effectively, UNESCO launched this initiative in partnership with the . A set of two recent knowledge produced by UNESCO propose a to create the enabling environment for intercultural dialogue through policies.

Whereas the 2020 report “Measuring intercultural dialogue: a conceptual and technical framework” explains the concepts, measurements, and indicators to be used to collect and analyse data, the 2022 report on “We Need to Talk: Measuring Intercultural Dialogue for Peace and Inclusion” highlights key policy and intervention opportunities for ICD as an instrument for inclusion and peace and to achieve SDG #16, building upon the data from over 160 countries on 9 domains consisting of 21 indicators. 

The UNESCO Framework identifies two layers of the enabling environment for ICD as follows:

• Structural domains - Stability and Non-violence; Governance and Citizenship; Freedom of Expression; Horizontal Equality; and Social Cohesion;
• Supporting domains - Organisation and Leadership; Inclusion and Representation; Linkages and Coherency; and Skills and Values.

According to the regional analysis, based on the average domain scores, the Inclusion and representation, Governance and Citizenship and Freedom of Expression domains require attention across the Arab states. Across the region, citizens —regardless of ethnicity, faith, wealth, education or status— continue to demand basic elements of governance that states are often unable or unwilling to provide’ (Fakir & Yerkes, 2018). Yet, the Arab states perform strongly in Social Cohesion and Skills and Values, which, in part, explains the economic development many countries in the region have experienced over the last decades.

The proposed activity aims to support Arab ICD stakeholders to reflect on the diversity of possible actions for enabling ICD and their potential impact on conflict prevention and human rights protection in line with global conversations on policy making namely :

MONDIACULT 2022 Declaration (Mexico city, Oct 2022) whereby: States affirmed for the first time that culture is a “global public good” and consequently, call for culture to be included “as a specific objective in its own right” among the next SDGs. It aims to shape a more robust and resilient cultural sector, fully anchored in the perspectives of sustainable development as well as promotion of solidarity, peace and security, in line with the vision enshrined in the UN Secretary-General’s report  (September, 2021), which refers to culture resources as our global commons. It calls for a set of cultural rights, ranging from the social and economic rights of artists to artistic freedom, the right of indigenous communities to safeguard and transmit their ancestral knowledge, and the protection and promotion of cultural and natural heritage, to be taken into account in public policies.  It also calls for substantial regulation of the digital sector, notably of the major platforms, for the benefit of online cultural diversity, artists’ intellectual property rights and fair access to content for all.

The Transforming Education Summit/ Youth Declaration (2022) whereby young people called to be meaningfully engaged as full-fledged partners, and not only beneficiaries, in education policy and decision-making, on one hand, and to promote solidarity across and within generations, genders, nations, cultures, faiths, abilities, and more, on the other. The youth recognize that this intersectional and inclusive approach can ensure true positive transformational change for all people and the planet, leaving no one behind.

The Windhoek+30 Declaration (2021) which takes forward the spirit of the original 1991 Windhoek Declaration, but makes reference to nowadays persistent and new challenges to media freedom such as risk of media extinction amid a “severe economic crisis” and disruption of traditional media business models. The Declaration also contains recommendations to take effective steps to nurture a diversity of viable public, private and community media, while safeguarding their independence.  Furthermore, it calls on mainstreaming Media and Information Literacy, as well as to work on ensuring transparency of technological companies.

[1] https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000380821

[2] Initiated by Mexico in 2019 at the 40th session of the UNESCO General Conference, Member States adopted a decision requesting the Director-General to ‘strengthen UNESCO’s contribution to the  fight  against  racism,  racial  discrimination,  xenophobia  and  related  intolerance  including  incitement to racial hatred and racial hate crimes’ (40 C/Resolution 39). This was followed in 2020 by   the   adoption   by   UNESCO’s   Member   States   of   The   Global   Call   against   Racism   (210 EX/Decision 5.I.B), spearheaded by the Republic of Korea, which mandated the Organization to step up its intersectoral actions to combat the alarming resurgence and pervasiveness of racism and discrimination. The Global Call requested that the Organization develops a new Roadmap Against Racism and Discrimination, serving as a strategic and operational framework to enhance the organisation’s contribution to combatting this critical challenge. Member States took note of the Roadmap at both the 214^th and 215^th sessions of the Executive Board. As an annual organizing platform for the Roadmap, UNESCO organizes the Global Forum Against Racism and Discrimination, the second edition of which took place in Mexico in November 2022, with the support of the Ford Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, the Government of Mexico, and the Government of Korea.

A 2-day meeting will be organized in Beirut, 30-31 May 2023, convened by UNESCO and Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF).

The regional consultation aims to:

1. Launch regionally the UNESCO 2022 report “We Need to Talk: Measuring Intercultural Dialogue for Peace and Inclusion” and share the key findings;
2. Share the e-platform for ICD
3. Develop a roadmap for collaboration in promoting ICD in the Arab region with focus on:

• The role of the media and ICT ;
• Culture and Art

Expected outcome

• A roadmap for collaboration in promoting ICD in the Arab region developed, with due consideration given to gender issues.
• A regional network of ICD stakeholders consolidated.

• Youth researchers/ community leaders
• Civil society, Media and culture
• Policy makers (technical levels)
• City stakeholders
• Academia

Day 1

9h-10h30- Opening Session Aim/ Introduction of participants and Session 1:  Presentation of the UNESCO Framework for Enabling Intercultural Dialogue by .

10h30-11h00 Coffee break

11h00-13h00 - Session 2: From Regional to country trends : priority identification and Group discussions

13h00-13h45 Lunch break

13h45-14h45 Session 3: Youth panel discussion / Creating synergies between the UNESCO Framework for Enabling Intercultural Dialogue and other global instruments in the Arab regional context

• The Mondiacult 2022 declaration & cultural policies
• The Youth Declaration- The Transforming Education Summit (2022) & Skills enhancement for social innovations
• The Windhoek+30 Declaration: Freedom of Expression

14h45-15h Coffee break/ Group Photo

15h00-16h30 Session 4: Promising and innovative practices- Structural domains/ Supporting domains – Replicability/ sustainability

Day 2

9h-10h30 - Recap of the Day 1, Session 5: Comparative Needs analysis/ selected country cases and Facilitated  Group discussions

10h30-11h00 Coffee break

11h00-13h00- Session 6: Identifying priority interventions and Floor discussions

13h00-13h45 Lunch break

13h45-14h45- Session 7: Designing priority interventions and development of proposals

14h45-15h Coffee break/ Group Photo

15h00-16h30- Session 8: Ways forward

• ALF/ Mediterranean Youth Voices
• UNESCO