Ten community organisations honoured at Expo 2020 Dubai for intercultural work

Winners will receive $20,000 each in financial support and professional mentoring

Ten community organisations were honoured at the Germany pavilion at Expo 2020 for their intercultural work. Photo: UNAOC / BMW

Ten organisations from 10 countries have been awarded the Intercultural Innovation Award (IIA) for their social commitment at Expo 2020 Dubai.

Now in its 10th year, the IIA honours people and projects that promote diversity, tolerance and inclusion in a creative way.

Organised by BMW Group and the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations (UNAOC), more than 1,100 organisations from 120 countries applied for the award.

The winners will each receive financial support of $20,000 and professional mentoring from BMW Group, UNAOC and consulting company Accenture.

The awardees are:

Initiatives of Change International (Switzerland) – an organisation that supports communities in times of conflict and social upheaval, providing resources to address and overcome conflict issues.

La Cana, Productos Con Causa (Mexico) – a non-profit organisation that promotes fair working conditions and vocational training for women in prison.

Mediterranean Youth Foundation (Egypt) – the world’s first inter-religious youth dialogue, which uses workshops to empower young people to implement the concept of “human fraternity” in their communities and counter hate speech, extremism and intolerance.

MITTI Social Initiative Foundation (India) – runs “inclusion cafes” staffed by people with disabilities.

Peacegeeks Society (Canada) – provides refugees and migrants with reliable information about the asylum application and immigration process in Canada.

Place Network (France) – offers a platform for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants to make their success stories visible and motivate them to actively participate in the social life of their adopted country.

Politize! Civic Education Institute (Brazil) – shares knowledge, training opportunities and educational experiences with young people who want to participate in the political life of their communities.

Spielen in der Stadt (Germany) – schoolchildren find new ways of engaging with Munich’s National Socialist past through creative film, dance theatre and performance formats.

Street Project Foundation (Nigeria) – Creative Youth Boot Camp brings together young people from more than 200 ethnic groups in Nigeria to get creative together.

Strengthening Youth Leadership Collective (Sri Lanka) – Youth Leadership Collective is a community of young people engaged in community development work that cuts across all ethnic and religious lines in Sri Lanka.

The award ceremony took place at the Germany pavilion, coinciding with the themed week on tolerance and inclusivity and the International Day of Tolerance.