Second Capacity Building Workshop for Intercultural Innovation Award Recipients held in Gurgaon, India by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and the BMW Group

Monitoring and evaluation, organisational development and leadership were the focus of the second capacity building workshop for ten recipients of the 2016 Intercultural Innovation Award. Hosted by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and the BMW Group, the workshop took place in Gurgaon, India from 12 February to 16 February 2017.

Participants of the workshop came from Brazil, Bulgaria, France, Germany, India, Israel, Kenya, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The training sessions were designed with the aim of building their long-term impact and ongoing sustainability so that their initiatives could be expanded and replicated in other contexts.

The first part of the event focused on leadership, organisational development and sustainability, taught by experiential group learning, case studies and simulations. The participants were then taken through the steps to develop a monitoring plan, and how results from monitoring and evaluation could be used in making management decisions and for communications. A highlight of the workshop was seeing the work of current awardees, Routes 2 Roots and Safecity. Based in Delhi, Routes 2 Roots is an organisation that promotes peace through cultural diplomacy. Workshop participants were able to view one of their projects “Virsa”, which teaches cultural heritage to students throughout India on an interactive digital learning platform. Meanwhile, Safecity is a platform that crowdsources personal stories of sexual harassment and abuse in public spaces. The organisation arranged for their Youth Campus Ambassadors to conduct an example of their meetings on gender rights and stereotypes, which takes place in colleges throughout several cities in India.

The training in Gurgaon is part of the one-year support programme provided to recipients of the Intercultural Innovation Award. The first capacity building workshop took place in Munich, Germany at BMW Group Headquarters during June 2016 and focused on the areas of strategic communication and effective planning. The Intercultural Innovation Award was established in 2011 by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and the BMW Group in a historic partnership geared towards creating a new model for collaboration between the private sector and the UN system. Its mandate is to select highly innovative grassroots and sustainable projects of non-profit organisations that promote dialogue and intercultural understanding, while making vital contributions to prosperity and peace in global societies.