This page will be updated regularly with the latest updates on the implemented actions.
Albania
The ALF Network in Albania conducted a research during February and March 2022 to map the Journey of the Albanian Network. They produced a report in Albanian and in English about the Network's history from 2008 until 2022.
The report is based on data gathered via 30 questionnaires and 12 in-depth interviews, including with Mr. Besnik Mustafaj former Minister of Foreign Affairs and the first HoN; Ms. Admira Jorgji, Director of Europe, at the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs; and members of Albanian Network of the Anna Lindh Foundation.
The research highlights that members still believe in the importance of strengthening the Network in Albania, as it generates new opportunities, enhances cooperation and promotes dialogue across the Mediterranean.
Austria
The ALF Network in Austria conducted a research, policy brief, and a workshop report on the theme of inclusive democracy. The recording of the event on March 29, 2022 on "Inclusive Democracy" Migrant communities and their participation in democratic processes in Austria is available here (Check for English subtitles).
Bosnia and Herzegovina
The ALF Network in Bosnia & Herzegovina organised the first Tuzla Freedom Festival from 10 to 13 March.
The festival brought together 76 young artists from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina with the aim of encouraging the involvement of young people in actively solving youth problems, but also to provide creative contribution to awareness and research and proposing ideas and solutions for future projects.
During the festival, several workshops, film, theatre, and artistic performances were presented by the participants. On the last day, a three-member jury selected the three best works and awarded them first, second and third prizes.
Bulgaria
The ALF Network in Bulgaria organised a 5-module training course aiming to train "Dialogators", a series of 3 webinars on Intercultural Dialogue – challenges and success stories, as well as recording 3 podcasts in Bulgarian and English involving different stakeholders and tackling the concept of intercultural dialogue from various perspectives.
Belgium
The ALF Network in Belgium organised a road trip in February to meet all the Network members with the aim of revitalising the Network after 2 years of pandemic. They organised face-to-face meetings to discuss the expectations of each member, to identify themes to be developed for future projects, to get to know each other, and to present the Foundation's projects.
In the course of March 2022, they organised breakfast meetings in different regions of the country, taking place in member associations. These festive and convivial gatherings aimed also at dynamising the Belgian Network and enabling face-to-face encounters among its members.
Cyprus
The ALF Network in Cyprus organised an online workshop on 31 March titled "From presentation to representation: Interrogating gender in the media" to provide the space for an exchange of knowledge, expertise and practices between civil society and media representatives, policy makers and members of the general public across the Euro-Med region on the challenges deriving from unequal practices in the media regarding gender, and particularly the representation of women.
Czech Republic
The ALF Network in the Czech Republic organised the "Discover the Arab World Exhibition" and a lecture about ancient civilisations and intercultural dialogue based on the award winning book "Precious stones of ancient civilizations"; produced a research article on "How gender defines path to success" and an e-book on "Graffiti as a Form of Self Expression: A True Art or Vandalism?" including Graffitis selected from street art across continents; as well as a policy brief on "The Czech Position to the Euromed region" to bring an overview of the current position of the Czech government toward the EuroMed region.
Denmark
The ALF Network in Denmark organised "Food for Thought" which is a series of discussions that provides an exciting space for people from different backgrounds to share their life stories through storytelling in a safe, stimulating, and inclusive social environment, with delicious dinners.
The first session was organised on 10 February on Migration: Life Stories, Experiences, Culture and Politics. The second session took place on 3 March on how to achieve genuine youth inclusion in their societies' development. The third session was dedicated to women's voices and it took place on 8 March on the occasion of the International Women's day.
Egypt
The ALF Network in Egypt launched a region-wide, open campaign titled "Awareness online campaign to combat hate speech” aiming to share experiences and insights about hate speech in the Euro-Med region.
They also organised a multinational virtual youth debate within the framework of the campaign to combat hate speech in the Euro-Mediterranean region to shed light on cultural differences and the importance of taking them into account when enacting laws and legislation to confront hate speech. The argument of the debate was that “Regulations for combating hate speech should be the same for all countries in the Euro-Mediterranean region.”
Estonia
The ALF Network in Estonia organised a Moderator’s Training to build the capacities of Network members to successfully moderate debates and difficult public conversations and Intercultural Dialogue Workshops using the methodology of presenting proverbs from different cultures and languages to discuss similarities and differences within the EuroMed region. On 24 March, the Estonian Network organised a creative writing workshop encouraging people to get together to write.
Finland
The ALF Network in Finland organised a Seminar on gender equality on 30 March, with the aim of activating the network members to work against genderist attitudes among their communities, and discussing methodologies for engaging the youth in gender equality. The seminar revolved around the question of how different actors of society can help in challenging and undermining genderist attitudes. On 3 and 10 March, the Finnish Network organised Gender equality workshops for Arabic speaking youth residing in Finland in addition to the upgrade of an existing mobile application to be used by youth to participate in intercultural and interfaith dialogue.
Recommendations for gender equality work with Arab-speaking youth
France
The ALF Network in France organised the meeting of the COPIL (Steering Committee) in order to promote inter-knowledge and rethink together the methods of leading the network, a Networking activity between different Mediterranean organisations and networks and identification of synergies, and peer-to-peer capacity building trainings. The activities focused on the relationship between civil society and local authorities in the framework of intercultural dialogue.
Greece
The ALF Network in Greece organised a Forum on the function and actors of the Intercultural Cities in Greece and Policy recommendations on models of CSO - Local authorities - Academics cooperation and application of intercultural dialogue at a city level (the model of "intercultural cities").
Hungary
The ALF Network in Hungary organised roundtables and online follow-up on actions that promote SDGs with a specific focus on climate change, actions that promote and contribute to inclusion as a way to avoid inequalities and actions that promote any aspects of culture and creativity as common heritage across the Euro-Med region. They also developed an online Social Media Campaign involving 10 organisations.
Ireland
The ALF Network in Ireland organised a project that consists of a series of 6 podcasts answering 4 questions from the six major world religions forming a core part of a broader suite of interfaith education resources.
Israel
The ALF Network in Israel organised a one-day youth conference on 'Observing the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination'. This hybrid conference engaged youth, teachers, pre-service teachers, and other community members by exploring the phenomenon of racial discrimination and coincided with the UN declaration stating the need ”to foster a global culture of tolerance, equality, and anti-discrimination and calls on each and every one of us to stand up against racial prejudice and intolerant attitudes”.
Italy
The ALF Network in Italy organised a hybrid conference in Ponza Island, including a technical visit at Turtledoves Villa’s Garden, an online consultation with ALF Heads of Network from Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Turkey, Germany, and Italy, and their respective civil society national networks in order to update them and to request their feedback about the Turtledoves Villa’s renovation project, an online consultation with the same HoNs a and presentation of the “Geopolitical Mediterranean Atlas 2022”, published by a member of RIDE.
Jordan
The ALF Network in Jordan organised an Artist Residency where two artists met in Jordan for a 10-day stay to play music, voice and piano/buzuq, jam with other Jordanian artists and produced a musical project related to EuroMed heritage from the different cultures and backgrounds they represent. The Artist Residency also included a Master class of piano performance, a final concert and a documentation video. This project will build up on a previous project “Artists in Residency: Exploration of Arts, Humanity and Dialogue”.
Lithuania
The ALF Network in Lithuania organised a conference focusing on Diversity & Inclusion, based on the issues of intercultural dialogue, addressing and contributing to gender equality, inclusion as a way to avoid inequalities, stereotypes and promoting differences as a value in cultural and personal level as well.
Further information on the activity will be added shortly.
Lebanon
The ALF Network in Lebanon organised a training on Hate Speech, a training on Media Information Literacy targeting teachers and students that focused on enhancing the critical thinking of these two target groups and enabling them to analyse media messages, detect and respond to hate speech. They also organised a Greening events workshop that introduced the participants to the concept of green events and to how to organise environment-friendly and ecologically responsible activities, in addition to a Capacity building on Intercultural dialogue that initiate Lebanese youth to intercultural and enhance their intercultural skills.
Luxembourg
The ALF Network in Luxembourg organised the 'Migration without discrimination' citizen’s debate, which was followed by a training on how to write a policy paper. They also continued to pursue the project "Letter to a Friend", an initiative that invites everybody to write a letter to an unknown friend in an ALF country to build bridges and to strengthen the intercultural exchanges between citizens around the Mediterranean.
Mauritania
The ALF Network in Mauritania organised a public lecture on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focusing on climate change, as well as a dinner debate on hate speech and social cohesion for the benefit of anti-slavery activists and local government officials.
Further information on the activities will be added shortly.
Montenegro
The ALF Network in Montenegro organised a two-day seminar titled "Intercultural Dialogue and Youth" composed of 4 workshops: Public communications, Personal PR, The importance of media literacy and How to recognise fake news.
Further information on the activities will be added shortly.
Morocco
The ALF Network in Morocco organised a training on mobility and living together, a National seminar "Contractual volunteering, a lever for the development of participation and professional integration of young people"; a Workshop on environmental petitions and their role in community participatory management; a training day on the theme: “My 2022 city development petition”; Anti-rumours campaign, actions against hate speech and hate crimes; a Seminar on “Intercultural strategy within the framework of the 2030 Cities Development Strategy”; a production of artistic creations – such as drawings, paintings, sculptures or collages – on the theme of the values of intercultural dialogue and its positive impact on integration into Euro-Mediterranean societies; skills building workshops “toolbox: gender, equality and sexism”; and an awareness-raising and training workshops on “Gender-based violence and access to rights”.
Palestine
The ALF Network in Palestine organised a series of workshops and trainings targeting youth, dialogue and combating hate speech during February 2022, which were concluded on March 8th, the International Women's Day. This program aimed to train youth on how to better express themselves, give back to the community, allow for room for creativity and acceptance of the Other by combating hate speech and stereotyping.
Portugal
The ALF Network in Portugal organised an online module on Moodle (open source learning platform) that consists of watching videos, reading, digital and interactive tasks and workshops with working groups. The aim of the module is to strengthen participants’ competences in working with young people in non-formal education settings with young people from disadvantaged neighborhoods facing discrimination and lack of inclusion.
Romania
The ALF Network in Romania organised the “2021 in a Nutshell. Key Events and Trends and Prospects for 2022 Intercultural Dialogue” to present a report on the main events in Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, Tunisia and Jordan, as well as possible opportunities for collaboration and dialogue in 2022. They also organised In-person and livestreamed debate on "New perspectives for Lebanon and Turkey in the reconstruction of regional stability" and "An index of religious tolerance – Romania and in-person presentation of results".
Slovak Republic
The ALF Network in Slovak Republic organised a training and a publication on how to empower kids from socially disadvantaged background through class management and social inclusion; an online seminar on "Hate Speech Online - Why don't we understand each other in the discussions about Covid"; and an online seminar on "Conflict and Climate Change: Interactive online training on the topic of social conflict related to climate change and the environment among others".
Slovenia
The ALF Network in Slovenia organised the Intercultural Exchanges for Sustainable Living event on 28 and 29 March. Prior to the event, they carried out a a desk research on intercultural learning-dialogue for sustainable development in the geographical scope of Slovenia within its Mediterranean context and a toolkit was developed based on the outcomes of this research.
On 28 March, an interactive seminar gathered participants from diverse backgrounds in Slovenia to exchange, share and brainstorm together on how varied intercultural knowledge and experiences can contribute to sustainable ways of living and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the Agenda 2030.
The results of this exchange were shared in a public conference on 29 March with several interactive sessions, where hands-on intercultural practices for sustainable living were presented and documented.
Spain
The ALF Network in Spain organised two conferences titled “Climate change policies and migrations: a sociological interpretation” and “Choke, push-back and disperse: displacement as political technology of migration governmentality”; an intercultural reflection meeting with the members of the Executive Committee of Spanish Network; and a digital publication of “A Sea of Words 2019-2021” which includes a selection of stories from the last three editions of: 2019: Youth involvement in social change; 2020: Youth facing climate change in the Mediterranean and the 2030 agenda for sustainable development; and 2021: Youth and mobility: towards Euro-Mediterranean citizenship. They also supported 3 projects from the Spanish Network, namely: Azahara Awards: Women and diversity in Catalonia: Recognition for their career to 5 migrant women, COCO: Against the quotidian racism, and They call us street: Street Art as Youth's Voice.
Sweden
The ALF Network in Sweden organised the online workshop Cultural Programme Evaluation on 16 and 21 February, aimed at exploring how power structures related to evaluation, as well as presenting the methods used to conduct evaluation, enabling new forms of knowledge to come forward or be held back.
On 9 and 10 March, they organised the Conflict Management and Non-violent Communication workshop, which represented an introduction into conflict management, helping the participants to understand and prevent conflicts.
The Network organised as well the Celebrating our Diversity Festival with a new edition in collaboration with Agora (Egypt) and Basita.Live (International). The Celebrating Our Diversity and Bab El Bahr Festival was hosted at the Jesuit Cultural Center in Alexandria with the participation of artists from Egypt, Finland, Lebanon, Sweden and Tunisia.
Turkey
The ALF Network in Turkey conducted a survey for the Network members to collect Information on youth, women and climate change themed projects carried out with all network members taking into consideration the areas of Gender equality, SDGs in relation to the Euro-Med region from an intercultural dialogue perspective, Inclusion policies, Hate speech trends and Common culture and creativity in the Euro-Med region.
Further information on the activities will be added shortly.