For the first time, on 29 March 2017, the RECI held the Award ceremony of the Diversity Advantage Challenge 2016 organised for the first time by the Spanish Network of Intercultural Cities to celebrate projects and initiatives that excelled in demonstrating the concept of the “diversity advantage”.

The RECI is a Network of Spanish cities participating in the Council of Europe’ “Intercultural cities” Programme, which promotes the intercultural integration policy model in more than 100 municipalities across Europe and beyond. The RECI is supported by the “La Caixa” foundation, and it was created in 2011. To date, the RECI includes 16 cities and the Island Council of Tenerife.

The intercultural policy model promoted by the Council of Europe recognises on the one hand the need to address the complexities of a growing socio-cultural diversity, and on the other hand the advantages and opportunities of diversity for the development of our society. The Diversity Advantage Challenge has been launched precisely to raise awareness about the concept of diversity as an advantage, by acknowledging projects, public policies or private initiatives that manage diversity as an opportunity for achieving better results.

The event was held at the Caixaforum in Madrid and it was opened by the Spanish State Secretary for Migration, Ms Marina del Corral, together with the representative of the Intercultural Cities programme of the Council of Europe, Ms Ivana d'Alessandro, and the President of the RECI, Mr Jaime Lanaspa.

The representatives of the awarded projects, selected among more than twenty applications, received their diplomas and made vibrant presentations about how their projects seized the “diversity advantage” concept.

The awarded projects are the following:

• The Fuenlabrada Diversity Management Programme of the local police
• The Hospitalet Llobregat Public School “Joaquim Ruyra”
• The Barcelona co-working Centre “MOB”
• The Logroño School of Urban Trends (ETU) and Open Micro

The representatives of the RECI stressed the high quality of all the projects that applied to the diversity challenge and informed that – although only four of them were award for their capacity to translate into practice the diversity advantage concept – the other participating projects would be used to set up a RECI “inspiring library” of good practices that could be replicated by other cities.

After the award ceremony, the participants had the chance to enjoy some live music, which converted into a short master class by the Uruguayan/Armenian violinist Mr Ohannes Emirkanian, who explained the origins of Tango music and played a fantastic Armenian tango giving another practical example of the “diversity advantage”.

Finally, the representatives of the RECI cities of Cartagena and Getxo shared with the participants their experience in DELI Project led by the Council of Europe. DELI focused on the existing links between diversity and the socio-economic development at local level, taking advantage of the entrepreneurial skills of many migrants to design actions to be implemented by local governments to improve knowledge, management and support that reality.