A new guide to designing a communication strategy in intercultural cities has been published.

Communication is a particularly significant aspect of the intercultural “journey”, and the Council of Europe’s Intercultural Cities (ICC) Index includes a section on communication and media relations, assessing whether cities promote intercultural principles from the perspective of their communication policy. The number of cities with strong results in this section is low, and consequently many of them expressed an interest in having tools available to help them improve in this area.

Cities have underlined their need for a process-driven rather than content-driven advice. Clearly, the department or municipal team promoting the intercultural agenda cannot possibly have an influence on all local authority communication to make them more intercultural. For this to happen, there would first need to be political commitment, and there would then also need to be a process enabling the design of an internal communication strategy. This would define the objectives, secure resources, and above all define the coordination, key actors and transversal perspective of the strategy.

This guide shines the spotlight on precisely this issue. The aim was to create a practical resource which could help cities take the decision to design a communication strategy enabling them to better plan actions to improve their capacity to construct - and above all better communicate - intercultural narratives.

It summarises the different actions recommended for the strategy design process, which can be used for inspiration and reference, with a sufficient level of flexibility for it to be adapted to the context and needs of each city. Crucially, it should help encourage and motivate cities to take the decision to design their own communication strategy, giving them a helping hand on their journey towards more inclusive, intercultural cities.

The guide to “Designing a communication strategy in intercultural cities” was produced by the Spanish Network of Intercultural Cities - Red de Ciudades Interculturales (RECI) - with the support of a Council of Europe grant and was translated from the original Spanish.

 Designing a communication strategy in intercultural cities English Spanish