Enhancing structures and policies for intercultural integration in Cyprus

This 14-month project will be implemented by the Intercultural Cities Programme and the European Commission’s Directorate General for Structural Reform Support, in partnership with the Migration Department – Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection of the Republic of Cyprus (31 October 2023 - 30 December 2024).

It is a follow-up project to the previous "Building structures for intercultural integration in Cyprus" project. This follow-up project aims to enhance and strengthen the previous project achievements and to support the rollout and use of the new tools that were developed under the previous project. It further aims to provide recommendations on their sustainability as well as to support Cyprus in the establishment of a new National Authority to co-ordinate multilevel governance of integration policy and the preparation of the national integration strategy.

Following consultations at the national and local levels, the previous project prepared a “Blueprint for multilevel governance of intercultural integration policies in Cyprus”, which was presented at a national event on 25 May 2023, and proposed the establishment of a new National Authority for integration. This project aims to support the establishment of the new National Authority, as decided by the Republic of Cyprus, through providing capacity building for the proposed Focal Points for the national level (representatives of ministries, social partners, unions of local authorities, national NGOs) and for the Focal Points for the local level proposed to be the regional intercultural network coordinators, representing the local NGOs, municipalities, migrant representatives, and civil society.

A proposed activity of the new National Authority will be the preparation of the national integration strategy and this project will support the capacity building of technical experts who will have an advisory role in the drafting of the strategy as well as assisting with the development of a monitoring and evaluation tool for the strategy.

The project will use the Intercultural Cities conceptual, analytical and policymaking tools to address the challenges of migrant integration, in particular related to building trust, fostering community cohesion and managing diversity as a resource.

 Regional intercultural networks

The previous project supported the creation of five regional intercultural networks in the Districts of Famagusta, Larnaca, Limassol, Nicosia and Paphos. Within the framework of the project, each network undertook an analysis of the current situation on integration polices, based on the Intercultural Cities Index benchmarking tool, and each network prepared an intercultural integration action plan/strategy based on the recommendations from the district Index analysis and local priorities.

The project will continue to support the coordinators in the development of the networks and the implementation of their intercultural integration action plans/strategies which had been adopted by the networks in April-June 2023. A methodological tool to monitor regional integration activities had been developed and tested under the previous project and will be used to monitor the implementation of integration activities at the local level, also the Intercultural Cities Index will be completed again to show any development in integration policies at the District level following the activities of the previous and follow-up projects.

More information about the five regional intercultural networks and the intercultural analysis of the current situation in each district can be found on their pages linked below. 

Famagusta District

Larnaca District

Limassol District

Nicosia District

Paphos District

The “Enhancing structures and policies for intercultural integration in Cyprus” project is co-funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument, and implemented by the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the European Commission. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.

Use of personal data 

Any personal information, such as name, electronic or postal address or other information, which may be supplied for the purpose of establishing intercultural networks in Cyprus, is not made available to the public, or disclosed or sold to third parties. The Council of Europe retains the data only for as long as needed for their processing and for the purpose to which consent has implicitly been given. Beyond that, the information is not re-used.

Where we rely on your consent to our processing your personal data for sending information about the intercultural networks, you have the right to withdraw your consent. If at any point you want to withdraw your consent, you should send us an email. If you do that, we will update our records immediately to reflect your wishes.