Offer made to Local Authorities
November 2015: The President of the Council of Europe’s INGO Conference, Prof Anna Rurka, was invited on 20 October to address the 29th Congress of Local Authorities on the theme of active citizenship. She presented the different INGO instruments that had been developed to work on and promote active citizenship.
She said: “It would be impossible to stand before you today and do not discuss active citizenship in the context of the massive influx of migrants. You know better than me, ladies and gentlemen, how important it is to make our towns and friendly villages to become genuine cohabitation places… And if you like, the Conference of INGOs can engage locally by offering the INGO Dialogue Toolkit. The tool has already demonstrated its effectiveness in several cities, as Järva in Sweden and Kairouan in Tunisia. Everyone can use this Toolkit; our coordinator will be available to answer questions. Through this, we want to show that it is important to go beyond policy recommendations to develop and implement solutions based on the multi-stakeholder approach. In this area, we feel it important to pass on this actionable know-how to all, the NGOs but also the public service workers, so that interculturalism is a resource and not an obstacle.”
Readers wishing to accept this offer to local authorities can do this here by writing to the INGO Dialogue Toolkit Coordinator.