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seen their works awarded by the Anna Lindh Journalist

Award. Renowned Mediterranean personalities Amin Maalouf

(Lebanon), Edgar Morin (France) and Tim Sebastian (UK)

have chaired the Anna Lindh Journalist Award.

Arts for social change

Arts for social change has been a theme running through the

foundation’s capacity-building work with cultural leaders

since 2005. This ranged from the Cross-Border Arts Project,

launched following the 2006 Lebanon war to bring together

Euro-Med artists using cultural creation as a means of recon-

ciliation, to the 2014 Dawrak training in Amman with 44

cultural leaders and youth workers from 10 Arab countries.

The flagship cultural event for Alexandria, the host city of

the foundation’s headquarters, has been the Farah el Bahr

Festival. The event, which has had five editions since its

inception in 2005, combines grass-root artistic initiatives

and educational outreach activities with cultural contri-

butions from Europe and the Mediterranean on the theme

of cultural diversity. Alexandria has also played host to an

innovative programme of Music Debate Workshops, organ-

ized as part of Dawrak and Young Arab Voices, where young

people had the opportunity to voice their concerns using

hip-hop music and debating skills.

The foundation has organized a series of high-profile

cultural events, among them: Euro-Med Dialogue Night

(2008), held simultaneously across 38 countries, involving

over 30,000 people in public events and debates on cross-

cultural issues; Euro- Arab Concert for Dialogue (2009),

broadcast from the Cairo Opera House; Hip-Hop Connection

(2010) with music groups from Germany, France, Turkey

and Egypt; and Arts, Instruments and Expressions for Social

Transformation (2014) in Taroudant, Morocco, with several

Anna Lindh National Networks.

The foundation was able to involve more than 60,000

people and artists from across the Mediterranean in its main

cultural programmes.

Young Arab Voices

The Young Arab Voices (YAV) programme not only enabled

the cultural exchange of ideas, diversity and dialogue; it also

stimulated youth development.

Launched in 2011 in response to the historic events of

the Arab social uprisings, the YAV programme involved

in its first three years more than 90,000 youth in debating

activities in six targeted countries: Algeria, Egypt, Libya,

Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. The programme, which was

co-created by the Anna Lindh Foundation and the British

Council, has been structured around three main compo-

nents: a regional training for trainers programme in debate

methodologies; investment in the creation of debating hubs

within education institutions and civil society groups; and

international exchange opportunities for debaters from the

Mediterranean region and Europe.

In addition to grass-roots debate activities, YAV has

provided major platforms for youth advocacy. This

Creative Entrepreneurship, Active Citizenship: this event provided participants with the entrepreneurial skills needed to develop ideas and projects to face difficult

economic conditions and contribute to positive societal change in their communities, while also encouraging youth to become more community-oriented

Image: Anna Lindh Foundation

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