Hosted and moderated by AER in cooperation with IOM and the Council of Europe, the webinar “Intercultural regions: improving access to services” will be held on June 29th. The event will focus on the ways in which regions can improve the accessibility of public services for better integration policies and practices, with insights from IOM and the Council of Europe.

When? Monday, 29 June 2020, 11:00 – 12:00 (CET)
Where? GoToWebinar

Mutual learning for better integration policies and practices

Regional and local authorities are at the forefront when it comes to addressing integration needs in practice. The Covid-19 pandemic has strongly tested the current systems in place, revealing tremendous needs of authorities but also the resourcefulness which exists at local and regional levels.

This shows how essential it is to create opportunities for structured and meaningful mutual learning on integration in order to enable regional and local authorities to share good practices and improve policies and practices.

To facilitate these exchanges, AER and the Council of Europe have launched the Intercultural Regions Network, chaired by Oriol Amorós, Secretary of Equality, Migration and Citizenship for the Government of Catalonia. The network provides support for regions to design, implement, and evaluate diversity and inclusion strategies.

Health matters!

During this webinar, Dominik Zenner, Senior Migration Health Advisor, IOM Regional Office for the European Economic Area, the European Union and NATO, will share the experience of IOM on improving the accessibility of public services for third-country nationals. He will highlight the importance of access to health services, an issue which has become particularly salient with the COVID-19 crisis.

How to implement an intercultural approach

Irena Guidikova, Head of Division, Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Programmes, Council of Europe will explain how using an intercultural approach to providing public services dramatically changes the quality and efficiency of services. She will share implementation examples from around Europe.

Join the webinar!

Speakers at the webinar will be:

• Oriol Amorós, Chair of the Intercultural Regions Network: creating an environment for policy learning on integration in Europe
• Irena Guidikova, Head of Division, Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Programmes, Council of Europe
• Dominik Zenner, Senior Migration Health Advisor, IOM Regional Office for the European Economic Area, the European Union and NATO
• Nuria Diez Guardia, Policy Officer, European Commission Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, Unit C2 – Legal Pathways and Integration.

Moderator: Johanna Pacevicius, Coordinator Policy & Knowledge Transfer AER

This webinar is organised in the context of INCLUD-EU, an EU project funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration fund (AMIF) which contributes to building more inclusive and cohesive European societies by enhancing knowledge, driving innovation and stimulating cooperation between local and regional authorities in the European Union. To know more about the project, visit the project webpage, and consult this info sheet.