Sweden

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Celebrating Our Diversity Helsinki

“When 'I' is replaced by 'we', even illness becomes wellness!” Malcolm X

Vision, Membership and Support

The Swedish network promotes the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership at the national and international level through capacity building programmes and organising exchanges between network members. We contribute to the development of the Foundation's priorities and programmes by participating in consultations and annual meetings of the ALF network coordinators. All our activities are open to ALF members and citizens from the Euro-Med region. 

The Network is open to institutions, organisations and other partners who adhere to the principles and the mission of the Anna Lindh Foundation which work on the basis of democratic, pluralistic, and multilateral values. Membership is open to NGOs; Public institutions, including local and regional authorities; public and private “not for profit” Foundations; other "for profit" partners promoting "not for profit" activities and corporate social responsibility policies. The Network is not open to political parties or organizations and projects owned by political parties nor to individuals. Membership in the ALF network is free of charge without any time commitment. 

The Swedish network receives an annual support from the Swedish Foreign Department and is also supported by the Anna Lindh Foundation through the Network Engagement Scheme. 

Flagship Programme

Celebrating Our Diversity is a networking platform for civil society and artists from the Euro-Med region. The civil society forum we host aims at promoting inclusive, sustainable and intercultural cities. And, the intercultural festival aims at celebrating diversity and minority groups. 

Governance

The National Museums of World Culture (Världskulturmuseerna) is the coordinator of the Anna Lindh Foundation Network in Sweden. In March 2022, the Swedish network elected three advisory committee members: 

  1. Bilal Almobarak, Support Groupd Network (Vänersborg)
  2. Denise L. Mellion, River of Light (Gothenburg)
  3. Karin Bruce, LärOlika (Stockholm)

Our network internal rules are available here.

National Museums of World Culture | Statens Museer för Världskultur (Head of Network)

Södra vägen 54
412 54 Göteborg
Sweden

0046702777041
rasha.shaaban@varldskulturmuseerna.se
Historical Background of your Network

In 2009, we hosted the annual ALF networks coordinators meeting in Gothenburg during the Swedish Presidency of the European Council.

In 2010, we hosted the Euro-Med Dialogue Award Ceremony in Stockholm.

We used to organise the annual peace day celebration with our network members.

In 2015, we co-organised a Baltic civil society forum in Tallin in collaboration with the Finnish and Estonian networks.

In 2016, we hosted the Nordic-Baltic Dialogue Forum in Stockholm. The Forum gathered nearly 80 civil society practitioners in a unique opportunity to network, exchange good practices and lessons learned and share project ideas. The Stockholm Forum addressed the regional challenges in youth, gender and migration, nurturing a culture of dialogue and promoting regional collaboration and knowledge mobility among the members of the Anna Lindh Foundation in the Nordic-Baltic region.

In 2017, we hosted a training on Countering Hate Space in collaboration with the Council of Europe and the German, Finnish, and Danish networks.

In 2017, we organised a regional seminar on Migration and Working with Newcomers in collaboration with the Finnish and Danish networks.

We organise an annual forum called Celebrating Our Diversity for our civil society network members to showcase their good practices. 

In February 2022, we hosted an online workshop on Evaluation of Cultural projects delivered by Tialt (Porto). The workshop explored how power structures related to evaluation, as well as the methods used to conduct evaluation, enable new forms of knowledge to come forward or be held back. 

In March 2022, we hosted an online training on Conflict Management and Non-violent Communication delivered by MitOst Horizontal School (Berlin). The training was an introduction into conflict management, helping individuals to understand and prevent conflicts.

In 2022-2023, we hosted a series of online webinars called Intercultural Morning Coffees in collaboration with our network member River of Light. We bring together researchers, civil society members and Euro-Med citizens to discuss up-to-date issues over a cup of coffee in the morning. We bring forward discussions about interesting topics around inclusion, youth engagement, migration, gender equality, climate action, etc. How can we enhance EuroMed cultural cooperation within the current social and regional context?

In 2022-2023, we hosted Intercultural Book Circles in collaboration with our network member LärOlika. The meetings are highly interactive and all participants are involved in conversations across countries and across literature genres. Each book circle becomes an opportunity for intercultural learning and networking. 

In January 2023, we hosted an online training on Deconstructing Gender Norms in collaboration with our network member PeaceWorks Sweden. The workshop included two sessions and its main goal was to enable participants to increase their abilities to question, reflect on and critically examine matters of gender related power structures. 

In March 2023, the Swedish network hosted a regional network meeting on 9-10 March at the World Culture Museum (Världskulturmuseet) in Gothenburg. The meeting brought together more than 40 members and alumni of the Anna Lindh Foundation Swedish network and network coordinators from Denmark, Finland, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. This is the first time the network members met in real life since the pandemic (2020).  

More information about our activities can be found here.