In February, the Intercultural Cities programme (ICC) carried out two intercultural expert visits to the cities of Izhevsk (Russian Federation) and Kepez (Turkey). The visits are regular activities carried out by the Intercultural Cities programme to deepen the assessment of the community´s perception of diversity, representation in the local debate and decision-making of minority/migrants groups, spatial segregation issues, and the role of schools, religious communities, businesses and local media in fostering interaction between people with different cultural backgrounds. The city of Izhevsk adopted end of 2017 the “Concept of strategic development of Izhevsk as an intercultural city”, elaborated in a participatory manner involving many actors from the civil society willing to challenge “the destructive processes and unconstructive stereotypes”. The experts and the ICC Secretariat met the Mayor, the city council representative in charge of integration/diversity, key individuals and organisations from civil society (including migrant/minority groups), religious communities, businesses, trade unions and organisations carrying out integration/intercultural projects on the ground.

The city of Kepez, in the district of Canakkale, has joined the network of 135 ICC cities at the end of 2018. The programme of the visit included a meeting with the Mayor and other city officials, as well as a wide range of local stakeholders in order to make an in-depth "diagnosis" of the city's needs in relation to intercultural policies and governance. The Intercultural city Index results were presented to the municipal staff, political representatives as well as representatives of civil society.

The visits will further result in reports that will draw the “intercultural profile” of the cities and which will be the basis of subsequent work.