Stavanger is one of the many ICC committed members and its authorities fully appreciate diversity as an advantage for societal cohesion. With this in mind, they recently created a participatory platform whose main task is to involve Stavanger’s diverse citizenry into further developing the city as a place where diversity in equality is an asset.

Called “Dialogue Forum for Diversity and Inclusion” this platform aims to increase the participation of residents with migrant background in the city’s decision-making process and improve communication between the citizens and various stakeholders from the public and private sectors.

The members are selected on the basis of their motivation, competence, country background, and gender balance criteria. Members should represent all municipal districts and act in personal capacity. The current membership consists of seven women and seven men, from eleven different national origins. Some of the members are also involved in large organisations such as the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO), the Stavanger University Hospital (SUS), the University of Stavanger (UIS), the Chamber of Commerce in the Stavanger region (Næringsforeningen) and the Council for Religious and Life Stance Communities in Norway (STL), and bring these additional competences to the Forum.

This new diverse and gender balanced body will work with the mayor, the deputy mayor(s), group leaders, members of the Stavanger’s Immigration Council, and leaders of the municipal district committees, in order to enhance the reach, the creativity and the communication capabilities of the Dialogue Forum for Diversity and Inclusion. The main areas of work will be:

• The preparation and implementation of the new strategy for equality and diversity;
• The evaluation of measures addressing residents of migrant background, carried out in the municipal districts, with the view to adapt policies and measures to their specific realities.