Workshop on Living Together in cities accross the Francophonie

On 22 September, the Observatory organized a virtual workshop on "Vivre ensemble: enjeux et pratiques dans les villes de la Francophonie".

At the occasion of the International Day of Peace, the International Observatory of Mayors on Living Together, in collaboration with the Research Laboratory on Intercultural Relations (LABRRI) of Université de Montréal organized the webinar « Vivre ensemble : enjeux et pratiques dans les villes de la Francophonie ».

The workshop was held around the presentations of two invited experts :

• Rachida Azdouz, Expert on Intercultural relations, Researcher at Université de Montréal
• Bob White, Director of the Research Laboratory on Intercultural Relations (LABRRI) at Université de Montréal

Following the introductory remarks made by Esteban Benavides, Coordinator of the Observatory, Mr. Pierre Baillet, Permanent secretary of Association internationale des maires francophones (AIMF) was also invited to give a welcome adress.

This international webinar explored the concept of "Living Together", through its models and practices, and particularly through the policies and programmes accross the Francophone cities. This workshop offered an opportunity to think how we live together in urban settings.

The session started exploring different diversity management models at the national level (see presentation).  The session also explored the society perspective and particularly how cities contribute to strenghten the social fabric at the local level (see presentation).

This virtual workshop gathered more than 50 partiipants, mainly city practitionners, from around 20 cities in 10 countries from the Francophonie. This event was part of the activities of the AIMF's Standing Committee on Living Together, chaired by Montéal.

A second edition of the workshop was held on 25 September (for a local audience of researchers) as part of the programme of the Peace Days - watch recording (in French).