UNESCO is the United Nations’ organisation charged with the task of building ‘the defences of peace in the minds of men’ by developing international cooperation in its fields of competence such as education, sciences, culture and communication. It is fitting, therefore, that UNESCO has been asked to lead the initiative of the United Nations’ ‘International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures’ during 2010.
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The goal of this International Year is to increase the extent to which the rapprochement of cultures is involved in policy-making at local, national, regional and international levels and to involve as many stakeholders in this as possible. Their policy document explains that this will ‘involve integrating the principles of dialogue and mutual knowledge in all policies, particularly education, science, culture and communication policies, in the hope of correcting flawed cultural representations, values and stereotypes.’
When launching the International Year programme, Ban Ki-Moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, emphasised how essential intercultural dialogue and understanding are for a peaceful world and for international development. This point was reinforced by Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s Director-General who said ‘No culture can afford to live in isolation. It is through dialogue and creativity in all its forms, through exploring new opportunities for creating connections between people, that we can prove that diversity is our strength.’
In response to this, hundreds of international activities are planned throughout 2010. These include a Euro-Arab Dialogue Task Force, a Round Table to involve publishing and new technologies in the programme and regional meetings in Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific regions.
While UNESCO is planning many activities throughout 2010, they are also inviting individuals and organisations to contribute in their own ways. Many companies now have a global reach and an international, multicultural staff. ‘Correcting flawed cultural representations, values and stereotypes’, as Ban Ki-moon expressed it, can help companies with a multicultural workforce to improve intercultural communication and enable colleagues to work more successfully with each other and with clients.
Undertaking cultural awareness training courses such as Communicaid’s Working Effectively across Cultures or Managing International Teams programmes is one way organisations can bring together employees from different cultures and improve their cross-cultural communication skills. Intercultural training has proven to be an effective way of increasinge understanding between employees from different cultures by dispelling cultural stereotypes and enabling people involved to create valuable connections.
Offering these intercultural training opportunities to your employees can increase the ability of your organisation to benefit from the cultural differences within it and, as Irina Bokova, Secretary General of UNESCO said, make diversity your strength.
© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2010
© admin for Communicaid Blog | Cross Cultural Training and International Communication Skills, 2010. |
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