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Author Archives: diversity
Newsletter No 1
Diversity in Leadership Europe
First international Newsletter
Table of Content:
1. International Workshop Berlin, June 2014
2. Ratna Omidvar’s Keynote Life “Why Diversity Matter”
3. Kick-off Meeting Reggio Emilia, January 2014
4. Partners & Projects from the European Learning Exchange
Berlin: Vielfalt entscheidet
Copenhagen: KVINFO
Dublin: Immigration Council Ireland
London: Diversity in Public Appointments
Reggio Emilia: Mondinsieme
5. Stories & Facts
Success Story: Diversity in Leadership in the board of Mondinsieme
Facts & Figures: Low cultural diversity in leadership positions in German Foundations
Dear colleagues and friends,
We hope you spend a beautiful summer time across Europe!
The European Learning Partnership “Diversity in Leadership Europe” is happy to provide you with the first insights on what is going on good practice diversity projects in the partner cities from:
BERLIN COPENHAGEN DUBLIN LONDON LUXEMBURG REGGIO EMILIA
The partnership is funded by the LifeLongLearning programme of Grundtvig. I’s objective is self-empowerment through knowledge building and sharing at European level and, with that, to boost local projects in participating cities based on DiverseCity.
DiverseCity onBoard initiative of the Maytree Foundation connects qualified candidates from visible minority and under-represented immigrant communities to the governance bodies of agencies, boards and commissions and voluntary organizations in the Greater. Toronto Area. Our sincerest thanks to Maytree for their generous support in the concept development of this project.
1. International workshop in Berlin, June 3-4 2014
Welcome to Berlin! We are all Berliners!
Thank you to all the participants! Berlin welcomed around 70 participants from more than 20 different cities around the world. The first Diversity in Leadership Europe international workshop was a common project with the Maytree Foundation and the aim was to learn from their DiverseCity onBoard project and how they connected visible minorities to leadership positions. We learned about collecting the Evidence and building sustainable Partnerships. We success stories from London, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Finally we practiced innovative and interactive methods which allowed us to bring our projects to a next stage.
To get a deeper insight in what we discussed during the workshops, you can easily access the documentation and our website.
For more picture, please have a look at our huge photo gallery!
2. Ratna Omidvar, Why Diversity Matters
“Our cities are diverse, our leadership is not“.
To listen to the full keynote speech given by Ratna Omidvar,President of the Maytree Foundation,
see below:
And here the Graphic Documentation, done by Garbiele Schlipf
3. Kick-off Meeting in Reggio Emilia, January 16-18 2014
DiverseCity onBoard goes European! The official launch and Kick-Off Meeting of the learning partnership took place in Reggio Emila/IT in January 2014 and was hosted by Mondinsieme. The partners developed the working plan, introduced their local projects and set the stage for a common learning journey on promoting diversity in leadership.
Consult the full documentation of the meeting including insights from all partners, their projects and the learning partnership as such. See here for pictures.
Some topics the ELE likes to focus on during the next two years:
- Collective consulting
- Smart partership building
- Evidence building and sharing
- Funding
- Marketing & Communication
- Business Case for diversity
- External speakers on measuring diversity & on the importance of diversity on governance
- Social innovation
4. Partners & Projects
Berlin: Citizens For Europe & DeutschPlus
vielfaltentscheidet.de
Contact: Catherine Wurth, wurth@citizensforeurope.org
Vielfalt entscheidet is a joint project of DeutschPlus and Citizens For Europe and calls for more diversity in leadership positions in Berlin. Nevertheless
boards of universities, public companies and cultural institutions in Berlin are not representing the diversity of its population. Consequently, they do not identify nor serve the needs and interests of the whole city population. This leads to a situation in which services provided by the institutions do not match the actual demand of the diverse population and migrants are degraded to disadvantaged social groups.
- Collecting the missing data and identifying best practice. To get a better idea, have a look at the recent study on diversity in leadership in German foundations.
- Praising best practice institutions, such as during the workshop with Wooga. It helps designing processes for institutions that want to rethink their leadership conception.
- At the moment we are applying for further funding to extend our activities, collect more data from other institutions and sectors in Berlin
- Soon our website will be relaunched and will offer us to disseminate more information about data, good practices and stories of diversity in leadership in Berlin! We can’t wait and will keep you posted!
Copenhagen: KVINFO
https://www.kvinfo.dk/side/661/
Contact Person: Beatriz Hernandez de Fuhr,
beatriz.hernandez@kvinfo.dk
What’s KVINFO being doing since the start of the partnership:
- Gathering information on the demographic composition of Copenhagen, and gathering data on how such demographic composition is reflected in leadership positions of cultural institutions and non-profit organisations.
- Finding out about what are the procedures in Denmark for board nomination and appointment in non-profit organizations.
- Assessing who are the key organizations who will be able to help KVINFO to map the pool of eligible candidates to be placed on a future roster.
- Finding out about who could be the core champions who will be committed to help us tell the story to our target groups.
- Exploring which partner could host and manage the Diversity in Leadership Program
- Following the international workshop Berlin, commencing the planning of the second international Learning Exchange which will be hosted by KVINFO in cooperation with the United Federation of Danish Workers 3F in the Copenhagen in November 2014.
Dublin: Immigrant Council of Ireland
www.immigrantcouncil.ie
Contact: Brian Killoran, Brian@immigrantcouncil.ie
As a partner organisation in the DiverseCity onBoard project the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) has benefited immensely from the opportunity to further develop its ideas and campaigns in several areas.
- The ICI furthered its work with public transport providers in Dublin, launching a toolkit for its anti-racism campaign which includes substantial work to further develop diversity strategies within the partner companies to reflect the diversity of their staff groups. (To access further information regarding the toolkit, click here.)
- The ICI has also engaged in a process of developing a leadership programme for 2014/2015 which will build upon the success of previous ICI leadership and mentoring schemes and intends to include an element of facilitating young people from a migrant background who are interested in volunteering for boards of organisations or companies. To further develop this element of the programme, the ICI has engaged with an organisation in Ireland who matches candidates with interested boards. The ICI will be meeting with this organisation in the coming weeks, and hopes to invite them to participate in future planned learning exchanges within the project.
London: DiPA
www.dipa.org.uk
Contact: Shaama Saggar Malik, shaama@dipa.org.uk
DiPA – Diversity in Public Appointments, is an independent organisation. Its purpose is to promote diversity in public life by guiding and supporting individuals from previously unrepresented groups to successfully apply for Public Appointments. DiPA is currently focussing on:
- Intensifying its work with the Cabine Office of the UK government to improve understanding the reasons for low representation of Black Minority Ethnics (BMEs) in public appointment, to explore actions needed to make real improvement and network with talented individuals from diverse backgrounds.
- Disseminate information about public appointment vacancies in the UK on DiPA website.
- Develop models to help promote and encourage self-assessment of “diversity in the board” performance.
- Coaching people from underrepresented groups who have expressed interest in seeking public appointments.
- Discussions are going on design/support/deliver some form of training programme to help develop the skills of individuals from under represented groups and who may be potentially suitable for board appointments.
Reggio Emilia: Mondinsieme
https://www.mondinsieme.org/
Contact Person: Nicoletta Manzini,
nicoletta.manzini@municipio.re.it
In Italy, a crucial question is how to promote diversity in leadership in a context in which the social fabric is facing a dynamic transformation, with a growing number of private companies owned by people with foreign origins, but high rates of unemployment among youngsters (43%), and low percentage of professionals with migration background represented in administrative board of firms.
Mondinsieme wants to make companies aware of the diversity advantage and facilitate them the access to qualified works of a diverse workforce. Mondinsieme’s approach focuses on youth and aims their empowerment. Concretely, Mondinsieme strenghtens the network between schools and companies with internships and international exchanges in order to make the diverse youth of today ready for the leadership of tomorrow.
5. Stories & Facts
Aia Radwan,
First elected member of the Board of Mondinsieme,
21 years old
Mondinsieme is a private organisation created by the Municipality of Reggio Emilia to deal with intercultural policies.
Diversity in Leadership:
A story from Reggio Emilia
Aia Radwan: a second generation young woman in the Board of Management of Mondinsieme
The election, held last June 2013, presented a short list of 8 candidates, both of Italian and foreign origins. 92 were the persons entitled to vote, as participants in the activities of Mondinsieme (both individuals and associations). The participation in the election was very high (67%) and showed an investment in the youth, especially in second generation immigrants.
The winning candidate, Aia Radwan is, in fact, a second generation youngster of Egyptian origin. She is an ambitious 21 years girl, engaged in political and social activities at the local level, and an excellent student of Political Sciences at the University of Bologna.
For the first time the first generation of migrants have trusted with their vote in the second generations proving that an Italian city is ready to accept new challenges.
https://www.migazin.de/2014/06/02/studie-kaum-interkulturelle-vielfalt-in-stiftungen/
Diversity in leadership positions in German foundations:
This is the first big study done by Citizens For Europe and a first step to get concise data about cultural diversity in leadership positions in public and private institutions in Berlin.
Low cultural diversity in leadership positions in German Foundations
In Germany, Foundations shape the public discourse and are forerunner in promoting cultural diversity, inclusion and anti-racism. Nevertheless the results of the study shows that within foundations these principles are missing. Only every 11th person in leadership positions has a migration background and in the major foundations even only every 30.
Citizens For Europe examined approximately 3,000 leadership positions (Advisory Board, Board of Trustees, Council, Executive Board and Management) of the 30 largest private and public foundations in Germany as well as 250 other foundations with legal headquarters in Berlin.
Best practice cases show that diversity benefits the foundations’ organisation and culture. For instance Bürgerstiftung Neukölln and Stiftung Digitale Chancen declare that cultural diversity brings “innovation” and “helps responding to the needs of a diverse society”.
To download the study (in german), https://vielfaltentscheidet.de/Studie-stiftungen/
Newsletter No 2
Diversity in Leadership Europe
Second international Newsletter
1. International Workshop Copenhagen, November 27-29 2014
2. Release Video “Why Diversity Matters”
3. Partners & Projects from the European Learning Exchange
Berlin: Vielfalt entscheidet
Copenhagen: KVINFO
Dublin: Immigration Council Ireland
London: Diversity in Public Appointments
Luxembourg: OLAI
Reggio Emilia: Mondinsieme
4. Interview with Ratna Omidvar: Order of Merit, Canada and Germany
Dear colleagues and friends,
One year has passed since the European Learning Exchange started. So far, a fruitful learning journey through Reggio Emilia (January 2014), Berlin (June 2014) and Copenhagen (November 2014) has boosted our local project on Diversity in Leadership.
The European Learning Partnership “Diversity in Leadership Europe” is happy to provide you with the newest insights on what is going on good practice diversity projects.
We thank you for your cooperation and interest in our activities.
All the best for 2015!
The partnership is funded by the LifeLongLearning programme of Grundtvig. Its objective is self-empowerment through knowledge building and sharing at European level and with that, to boost local projects in participating cities based on DiverseCity.
DiverseCity onBoard initiative of the Maytree Foundation connects qualified candidates from visible minority and under-represented immigrant communities to the governance bodies of agencies, boards and commissions and voluntary organizations in the Greater Toronto Area. Our sincerest thanks to Maytree for their generous support in the concept development of this project.
1. Second international workshop in Copenhagen, November 27-29 2014
Learning in Copenhagen!
KVINFO and 3F would like to thank the 40 participants of the learning exchange in Copenhagen … and all 75 guests who attended the public session on Thursday, November 27th.
Our aim was to explore answers to one question: What do we need to know to fully use the skills of diverse leaders? And we were happy to share with you the knowledge and professional experience of organisations such as Phineo, Brap, DiPA and Citizens For Europe. Collectively you’re an amazing army of idea pollinators. THANK YOU.
– Beatriz Hernandez de Fuhr and Anthony Sylvester
The agenda was very inspiring with international and national experts on diversity and social innovation.
For the whole agenda, participant information, pictures, videos and documentation of the event:
Thursday 27th November
Introduction and Welcome by Beatriz Hernadez-Fuhr (KVINFO) and Martin Wilhelm (Citizens For Europe)
Workshop I: Social Impact Orientation and Measurement by Julia Propp (Phineo gAG)
This workshop’s objectives were to enable the leaners to: 1) identify key strategic objectives and challenges for their projects, 2) develop their “theory of change” on how to make a difference in society, 3) give and receive peer-feedback and 4) communicate and scale up their projects‘ social impact. It was designed to allow for feedback and learning between “peers”.
Public Session:
Søren Heisel, General Secretary of the United Federation of Workers in Denmark
Mette Ovgaard, Diversity Manager, Arriva Denmark
Pernille Kjeldgård, Head of the Centre for Diversity and Employment/ Copenhagen Diversity Charter
Martin Wilhem, Director, Citizens for Europe, Coordinator of “Diversity in Leadership
Europe”
Friday 28th November
Workshop II: Square Pegs Round Holes- Creating Intercultural boards, Joy Warmington and Diane Rutherford (Brap)
Brap’s approach draws on the latest thinking about “uncouncious bias” and intercultural competences. The audit tool is for any innovator, especially those determined to take action on the diversity challenge. Via floor exercises the learners tested the four key areas of Brap’s intercultural board model: individual awareness, board values and behaviours, decision making, and the ability to realise the benefits of diversity. The board audit tool is a work in progress.
Workshop III: The training needed to serve on diverse boards, Shaama Saggar-Malik (DiPA)
This workshop focused on showing in practice what does it take to prepare individual candidates for serving, on diverse boards. DiPA works on a daily bases with non-profits dealing with the diversity challenge and in the process of forming a diverse board for their enterprises. But more importantly, Shaama Malik and her team at DiPa have developed a whole support system for individuals to join in through the process of creating a diverse board.
Walk through Nørrebro: with Uzma Andressen (I am Norrebro) and Laerke Clausen (3F) Over the last couple of decades Nørrebro has evolved from being a working-class area into Copenhagen’s hottest neighbourhood. Trendy bars and fashionable designer shops are side by side with cheap kebab places. Nørrebro is also the place of the Assistens Cemetery, which holds the graves of Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kirkegaard. The residents of Nørrebro love their neighborhood so much, that they create an audio walk: I AM NØRREBRO. Uzma Ahmed Andresen, social activist and candidate for Alternative, and Lærke Kamma Clausen, student assistant – 3F, walked with the learners in a very cold November afternoon exploring Nørrebro’s diverse and hip multicultural atmosphere.
Workshop IV: Media, Branding and Communication, Catherine Wurth (Citizens For Europe)
What needs to happen so that diversity is more valued in public discourses?
This workshop designed and facilitated by Catherine Wurth aimed at developing 5 good practice projects/actions on what needs to happen so that cultural diversity is more valued in public discourse. First a silent brainstorm session in six small groups. Next, each learner shortly presented two ideas on diversity to her/his small group. Cultural diversity was concretely related to the learner’s daily work and projects. Ideas were then presented to all the learners, and further refined into best practice projects/action. Prototypes of these projects were then pitch. Templates, pictures and outputs of each pitch can be seen here.
To get a deeper insight in what we discussed during the workshops, you can easily access thedocumentation.
For more pictures, please have a look at our huge photo gallery!
2. Video Release “Why Diversity Matters?”
Finally our video about “Why Diversity Matters” from the Berlin Learning exchange meeting is finished! Have a look: there are great interviews and a nice shot about what we did in Berlin in June.
“Our cities are diverse, our leadership is not”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9w8Z0FAYf8
3. Partners & Projects from the European Learning Exchange
Berlin: Citizens For Europe & DeutschPlus
Catherine Wurth
wurth@citizensforeurope.org
Vielfalt entscheidet is a joint project of DeutschPlus and Citizens For Europe and calls for more diversity in leadership positions in Berlin.
During the last few months, the Vielfalt entscheidet Competence Team was institutionalised; a diverse team with more than ten experts from Federal Ministries, city administrations, foundations, the private sector, various NGOs and academia regularly meet to consult the team of Vielfalt entscheidet on project developments and strategic decisions. The aim is to work with different stakeholders to be constantly confronted to the different facets of diversity, from working against structural discrimination as well as improving the performance of institutions. We also want to experience cross-sector cooperation and specialise in multi-stakeholder engagement in order to maximise collective impact.
Vielfalt entscheidet is currently gathering data about diversity in leadership data in different sectors. Beginning 2015, the data on the number of people with migration background, People of Colour (PoC’s) and women in boards and in the executive management in federations, associations and stages (theatres, operas, etc.) based in Berlin will be released. In addition, the team of Vielfalt entscheidet has been looking for best practice institutions and personalities in shaping and enhancing diversity in leadership that will be published in the beginning of January. Have a look atwww.vielfaltentscheidet.de.
The big aim of 2015 is the implementation of a Vielfalt entscheidet Pilot Project in Berlin thanks to the intense fundraising we done during the last months.
Copenhagen: KVINFO
https://www.kvinfo.dk/side/661/
Beatriz Hernandez de Fuhr
beatriz.hernandez@kvinfo.dk
Focus on Diversity in Leadership in the Cutlutral Sector
There have been serious efforts to bring more diversity in the workforce in Denmark.There has also been successful experiences bringing more women into leadership positions in the Danish private sector. Therefore, KVINFO has been assessing the local needs and readiness for a program that tackles diversity in leadership beyond mere representation in the cultural sector (schools, kindergartens, nurseries, sport clubs & other clubs, old people’s homes, libraries, etc.) There is momentum for issues related to diversity, civic engagement and participation in a city like Copenhagen. However, there are also basic questions such as:
- Is there a sufficient pool of eligible applicants among women and youth, among ethnic minority groups?
- How will you prepare applicants to serve on boards and expert committees in the broad cultural sector?.
- How to help boards and expert committees of cultural organizations asses how diverse they are?
KVINFO role is to create the prototype of an online dashboard, which shows the kind of talent pool available. The prototype will include access to the board intercultural audit tool presented by the British think-tank Brap in Copenhagen, and access to the steps designed by the partner organization DiPA to make individuals board-ready. The prototype is a first step to develop a business case to garner support, obtain funding for a future pilot project.
Dublin: Immigrant Council of Ireland
Brian Killoran
Brian@immigrantcouncil.ie
Teresa Buczkowska
Teresa@immigrantcouncil.ie
As a partner organisation in the DiverseCity onBoard project the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) has benefited immensely from the opportunity to further develop its ideas and campaigns in several areas.
Focus on Inclusive Transport System in Ireland and Leadership Programmes
During the last few months, the ICI has furthered its work with transport providers in Ireland, having successfully received funding from the Equality Authority in Ireland to deliver internal anti-racism and diversity capacity building session within private transport companies such as taxi companies and a private bus company.
This training, to be delivered in 2015, will seek to work with companies to identify or formulate best practice approaches to diversity and anti-racism within their organisations and to develop protocols which describe this.The ICI has also further developed its intention to initiate a leadership programme for 2015 which will build upon the success of previous ICI leadership and mentoring schemes and intends to include an element of facilitating young people from a migrant background who are interested in volunteering for boards of organisations or companies.
To further develop this element of the programme, the ICI has engaged with an organisation in Ireland who matches candidates with interested boards, Boardmacth. The ICI will be meeting with this organisation in the coming weeks, and hopes to invite them to participate in future planned learning exchanges within the “Diversity in Leadership” project.
London: DiPA
Shaama Saggar Malik
shaama@dipa.org.uk
DiPA has been continuing to spread the word about why diversity in leadership and on boards in particular is important and a win-win for individuals and organisations. This includes links with central government teams leading on public appointments, the office of Northern Ireland Commissioner for Public Appointments and attending a new network to be launched in January by a leading executive recruitment firm (Harvey Nash), aimed at identifying and supporting more diverse talent for non-executive and board appointments.
In February 2015, DIPA, in partnership with Women in Public Policy (a development network for a wide range of women involved in public policy roles), will run a workshop to promote understanding of public appointments, improve confidence and skills in making effective applications and to practically help women apply for current vacancies. ‘What are we waiting for?’ will be the encouraging theme of the workshop.
Reggio Emilia: Mondinsieme
Nicoletta Manzini
nicoletta.manzini@municipio.re.it
2015: The year of the Diversity Advantage
Mondinsieme’s engagement with the issues of Diversity in Leadership and Diversity Advantage/Diversity Management, with a special focus on second generation youngsters, is continuing under the umbrella of the Diversity Advantage year. Two international events will be held; 1) in March 2015 – Spring against Racism and 2) in June 2015 – Summer school on cultural diversity advantage.
As many local actors are interested in the development of activities on such issues, the present challenge for Mondinsieme is to create and coordinate a competence team (composed of the Muncipality of Reggio Emilia, business and trade associations, companies, trade unions, academics, employment agencies, etc.) to define an action plan for 2015. In view of the summer school and the action plan 2015, data on Board composition, as well as on second generation’ s qualifications and employment rate, need to be collected and processed. Mondisieme, together with the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, will be in charge of all data collection and processing.
The action plan 2015 will in particular include:
– training opportunities for companies interested in approaching the issues of Diversity in Leadership and Diversity Advantage/Diversity Management;
– training opportunities for youngsters entering the job market in order to become conscious of their diversity competitive advantage.
Luxembourg: OLAI
https://www.olai.public.lu/en/
Laure Amoyel
laure.amoyel.olai.etat.lu
Catia Fernandes
catia.fernandes.neves@gmail.com
Focus on Local Integration: Setting the right basis for diversity in leadership
The Luxembourgish Reception and Integration Agency has developed and implemented local Integration action plans. Information sequences have been distributed to all the local towns and in total 10-12 towns are interested in setting up an integration plan for their community.
The aim is to mainstream integration practices to the local community level in order to encourage the local decision making bodies to develop long term strategies for a sustainable integration policy. A hand book has been created and promoted. At the moment the OLAI has tailored personalised workshops for the different towns in order to find out the different priorities. In addition, equal representation in the local associations is target. At the moment, a survey has been distributed to find out the status quo.
In addition, the Luxembourgish Chamber of Commerce has shown interest in the topic of Diversity in Leadership. There will be a follow-up on the opportunities to tailor a workshop for them.
4. Interview with Ratna Omidva
Ratna Omidvar and Consul General Walter Stechel
Ratna Omidvar is Founding Executive Director of the Global Diversity Exchange (GDX) at Ryerson University and former director of the Maytree Foundation. She initiated DiverseCity onBoard, that won the Intercultural Innovation Award of UNAoC and BMW Group in 2011, and since then has spreat throughout the world and is at the origin of the European Learning Exchange.
The Order of Merit is awarded by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany to draw public attention to achievements that are of particular value to society. Of special significance is the contribution that Ratna’s international work with German foundations, universities and public institutions and the new vision she brought to Germany as a country of immigration, and a nation committed to fostering a culture of welcome.
To see the whole interview, please follow this link!
An interview with Ratna Omidvar
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany “Today, Germany and Canada are both countries of immigration. And Germany can learn much from Canada.” (Walter Stechel)
What can Germany learn from Canada?
Canada is not perfect by any means, and Canadians will be the first to say it. But I think there are some areas we have become quite good at over time, and others can learn from this experience. From policymakers down to educators, Canadians see immigrants asfuture citizens. We recognize that Canada will only succeed if its newest residents succeed alongside with it. What does this mean in practice? It means that weinvest in people from the start. We want you, a newcomer, to pass your citizenship exams, we want you to learn English or French, we want you healthy, we want you to get hired, and we put tax dollars into doing these things faster and better.
Another lesson is found in the Canadian private sector, in a class of its own in terms of leadership on diversity and inclusion. Businesses of all sizes have proactively improved their newcomer hiring and management strategies. Why? They recognize that diversity is an asset, and they leverage that asset as good businesspeople do. With a top-to-bottom diverse workforce, Canadian companies have reached new markets both outside Canada and inside the country, for example, by developing products and services targeted at newcomers.
But one of the most important institutional levers we have in Toronto (and in Canada) to promote our multicultural identity and values is our school system. An institution that touches all of us, at the heart of every community with a mandate to leave no child behind, committed to fairness and equal opportunity, and rigidly intolerant of discrimination, racism and hatred of any kind – these policies are transformative, and are seeded and grow up very naturally among our young people. Germany can better recognize schools – also libraries, health services, and police services – as critical forms of public space where systemic change can occur every day in ordinary ways.
Finally, as Canadians have done, I urge Germans to find your symbols. To develop a national narrative that recognizes your diversity and tells its story. It will feature your brilliant scientists, artists, young leaders, economists, and entrepreneurs who are making Germany what it is today.
Thank you!
Newsletter No 3
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