Tag: United Nations

UNAOC summer school 2013

The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) is collaborating with Education First (EF) in the context of the first UNAOC-EF Summer School, which will take place in Tarrytown, NY, USA, from 24 to 31 of August 2013.

This UNAOC-EF Summer School will bring together 100 youth from all over the world for a week of discussions on pressing global challenges within the context of cultural and religious diversity. Several skills-building workshops will be offered with a view to strengthen participants’ ability on topics such as peace-building, human rights, advocacy, social entrepreneurship, etc.

This year marks the fourth UNAOC Summer School. Youth (between 18 and 35) who are interested in attending this year’s summer school can apply on or before 31 May 2013.

Selected participants will be provided with flight, accommodation, meals and full event access.

Note: The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and Education First (EF) expect to officially launch UNAOC-EF Summer School in Spring 2013. However, UNAOC and EF reserve the right to not select any applicants, or to cancel the Summer School for any reason. UNAOC and EF accept no liability for cancelling the Summer School or for anyone’s failure to receive actual notification of cancellation.

405 Lexington Ave 5th Floor (UNAOC) | New York, NY 10174 US

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Intercultural Innovation Award finalists 2013

2013 Intercultural Innovation Award

Marking the second year of a historic partnership, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the BMW Group have announced the 2013 finalists for the Intercultural Innovation Award.

Since 2011, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the BMW Group have engaged in a historic partnership geared towards creating a new model for collaboration between the private sector and the UN system.  To that end, the two organizations have established the Intercultural Innovation Award whose mandate is to select highly innovative grassroots projects that promote dialogue and inter-cultural understanding and make vital contributions to prosperity and peace in global societies. The most outstanding projects receive award money as well as consulting services from the BMW Group and the UNAOC.  Ten finalists will present their projects at the Viennese Volkstheatre on Tuesday, February 26th, 2013.  President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, Incoming United Nations High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations and Mr. Bill McAndrews, Vice President, Corporate Communications Strategy, Corporate and Market Communications, BMW Group will chair the ceremony, in the presence of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. High-level representatives of the UNAOC and the BMW Group will give the award to the five top organizations.

In addition to offering a monetary prize, the UNAOC and the BMW Group are committed to helping these projects expand and replicate in other settings where they may be useful. Winners will become members of the World Intercultural Facility for Innovation (WIFI). WIFI is a platform for winners to connect with potential donors and mentors and to enter into a dialogue with other awardees. Under the coordination of the WIFI team, the winners of the Award will:
Participate in conferences, trainings and workshops;
Be connected to policy-makers and funders;
Become active members of the WIFI community of practitioners and experts who help each other in achieving their particular goals;
Receive customized project support based on the individual and specific needs.

This year’s finalists include:

Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group – Recycling as Bridge and Binder (India)
Through recycling, Chintan’s project promotes understanding between poor migrants and the middle class and wealthy residents of New Delhi.

Cultural Infusion – Sound Infusion (Australia)
Cultural Infusion is an innovative digital learning platform which utilizes music from all over the world to build intercultural understanding.

FilmAid – Filmmaker Training and Screening Program for Refugees and Host Communities (Kenya)
FilmAid is screening series and filmmaker training project creates opportunities for refugees and their host communities in refugee camps and urban areas across Kenya to share their stories.

IDResearch Kft. – Immigropoly (Hungary)
Immigropoly is a unique Internet-based character-game to increase the understanding of migration and integration in our global world, and targeted towards youth communities.

KI Volunteers – Muslim Youth Volunteering for interfaith dialogue and understanding (Philippines)
Local young Muslims are mobilized to work as volunteers in non-Muslim organizations to promote dialogue, understanding and development to non-Muslim and Muslim communities in Mindanao.

Plain Ink – When change reads like a book (Italy)
Plain Ink is a pioneering, non-profit social venture harnessing the power of stories, comics and children’s books to help children and communities overcome the stumbling blocks of poverty and social exclusion.

Puerta Joven – Languages of Youth (Mexico)
Lenguas Jóvenes is a project that fosters indigenous migrant youth cultural expressions through mobile phones for intercultural dialogue. Puerta Joven, a youth-led organization teaches the use of arts and new technologies as a way to promote cultural interaction and appreciation of cultural diversity.

Search for Common Ground Morocco – Multimedia & Intercultural relations in Morocco
SFCG-Morocco brings together young Moroccans and sub-Saharan migrants in Rabat and Casablanca to learn about video & multimedia and break down cultural stereotypes and prejudices.

TakingITGlobal – TakingITGlobal Online Community (Canada)
TakingITGlobal works to empower youth to understand and act on the world’s greatest challenges. It serves youth worldwide through a multilingual online learning community and innovative education programs geared towards fostering active global citizenship.

The Parents Circle – Crack in the Wall (Israel/Palestine)
The Crack in the Wall is a neutral social network platform on Facebook with more than 10,000 active users. CITW allows Palestinians and Israelis to communicate with one another and express themselves on various topics through video, pictures, and posts with provided translation to the other language.

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BMW UNAOC Innovation Awards 2012

The Intercultural Innovation Award enters its second chapter in 2012

Building on the great success of the Intercultural Innovation Award in 2011, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the BMW Group are continuing their solid partnership in 2012. At the first Partners Forum of the UNAOC in Istanbul, Bill McAndrews, Vice President Communications Strategy, Corporate Communications BMW Group, has officially announced the second edition of the Award which will start accepting applications on June 15th, 2012.

Also in Istanbul, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, highlighted the significance of the partnership between the UNAOC and the BMW Group. Ban was the co-chair of the UNAOC Partners Forum which was hosted by Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Forum aimed at bringing together governments, intergovernmental organizations, businesses, private foundations and individuals with a strong commitment to intercultural understanding, cooperation and cultural diversity. A dozen Heads of State and Government and more than 70 senior representatives from countries and international organizations attended the event. Ban referred to the Intercultural Innovation Award as a great example of the “support that the Alliance provides to innovative grassroots initiatives in collaboration with corporate partners such as the BMW Group.”

Representing a new kind of partnership between the private sector and the UN system, the Intercultural Innovation Award honors and supports innovative projects that promote cross-cultural understanding and cooperation, and hence make a vital contribution to security and peace in societies around the world. Non-profit organizations that are innovating in the promotion of intercultural understanding, with a track record in managing intercultural projects and willingness to expand their range of action, are eligible to apply.

More than 400 applications from 70 different countries competed in the first year of the Award – with ten ground-breaking winner projects that were honored at the end of 2011 and are being supported throughout 2012. “These results confirm our belief in the impact of intercultural understanding and underscore our commitment to the partnership with the UNAOC,” Bill McAndrews commented about the success of the Award for Intercultural Innovation in 2011. “We are looking forward to many outstanding applications in 2012 – and hopefully in many more years to come.”

 

Intercultural Dialogue and Television

“On November 24, 25 and 26, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, in collaboration with the Chile’s Consejo Nacional de Television (CNTV) and the Universal Forum of Cultures 2010 of Valparaiso, organized a series of panel discussions focusing on “Television and Intercultural Dialogue.”

The opening ceremony was presided by the Mayor of Valparaiso, Honorable Mr. Jorge Castro and CNTV’s President, Mr. Herman Chadwick. Participants from Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Spain, South Africa, USA, Canada, Korea and UNESCO presented educational television programs from their respective countries and organizations where the emphasis is the creative use of television as a platform for addressing complex intercultural topics. Successful TV programming examples, such as the ones produced by South Korea’s Educational Broadcasting System; Argentina’s Ministry of Education Canal Encuentro; Mexico’s TV Educativa; South Africa Public Broadcaster; and Chile’s Novasur, were presented and discussed by an active and engaged audience. The closing ceremony of the 3-day seminar included the presentation of the PLURAL + 2010 Foundation Universal Forum of Cultures Award for the video “Mr. President”, produced by Press Pass TV of Boston, USA.”

For more information, see the conference website.

Mediterranean Intercultural Dialogue

“In a unique demonstration of commitment at the highest level to enhance regional cooperation aimed at strengthening bridges between peoples and communities around and across the Mediterranean by promoting intercultural dialogue, countries of this region will come together under the banner of the UN Alliance of Civilisations to discuss and agree on a Regional Strategy on Intercultural Dialogue and Cooperation for the Mediterranean.

Ministers, secretaries of states of foreign affairs and representatives from governments of around 40 countries, as well as representatives of international and regional organisations – such as UNESCO, the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Council of Europe, the European Union, the League of Arab States and the Anna Lindh Foundation – will meet in Valletta today [November 11, 2010] to agree on an Alliance of Civilisations Regional Strategy on Intercultural Dialogue and Cooperation for the Mediterranean and on its action plan.”

For more information, see the original article in the Malta Independent.

Rapprochement of Cultures

2010 was declared to be the International  Year of Rapprochement of Cultures by the United Nations. The following themes were identified:

1. promoting reciprocal knowledge of cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity;
2. building a framework for commonly shared values;
3.strengthening quality education and the building of intercultural competences; and
4. fostering dialogue for sustainable development.

800 activities have been developed to support these goals.

See the UNESCO website created for the Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures for further details.