 Dear participants, guests of the next session of the Global Diaspora Summit, the virtual element, the session five on diaspora impact climate, ESG and investment. So I'm very happy to open this session for the participation of everyone who is joining us today across the world because we have prepared an exciting content to share with you. And we have prepared a very interesting panel of speakers to discuss this very fresh and interesting thematic area. Indeed, as the world is moving away from, hopefully, for some time from the COVID-19 pandemic, the question becomes, we move away, but where? So as you saw in the background paper of this session, we really want to discuss with you today the question of future, of how we can move forward to a more positive future and how we can do that together with the diaspora communities who are becoming very important partners in the context of great disruption, turbulence, but also opportunity. Indeed, we will be talking today about diaspora impact and how we can embrace the new ways of thinking and doing things and strategies of engaging with diaspora communities. While the roles of diaspora impact across climate, social governance is in the embryonic stage, I believe it is very high time for us to start talking about their role in the areas which are so far known maybe to those working in industries, financial industries, or looking into the context of social corporate responsibility. So the impact investment, the diasporas, we believe are really very, very good fit for becoming the so-called impact investors whom everybody is now looking to attract to different industries or countries. And the impact, the way how we do investment, not only trying to exert financial revenues, but also ensuring that the societies are benefiting from around that, that there is no negative influence on the environment. This is a very important question. And as you know, it's really dominating the agenda as we move out of the pandemic, greening, ensuring that we invest into social systems, but also in a way that it is not damaging environment, it is creating the green jobs. That's what we are speaking about. So today's session has a few questions which we will be addressing. The one, the first one is what could be the incentives that the governments could develop to encourage diaspora as partners in the areas such as trade and investment? So what can the governments do? Another one is what structures organizations have to be involved in order to really promote this work and to exploit and expand the opportunities to streamline diasporas contributions across climate change, environment, social, and governance domains? What can we learn from some initiatives which are already emerging in certain countries? What could be the next generation role in that area? So these are all very big questions. We do not have a lot of time, but we have really powerful and very experienced panelists with us. But also I have the pleasure to also introduce the co-host government of Fiji, which is joining us today and will be the first one to really kickstart the discussion and conversation. In addition to our dear colleague, Amelia Komai Savai, who is the Fiji's Director of Immigration, the co-host of the session, we will be also hearing from another very important stakeholder in diaspora engagement and partner of our organization, Frida Ntarangvi, Founder and Managing Director of CD Circle. And afterwards we will also have an exciting video also from Fiji to listen to and then move into the interactive discussion with all of you joining us today. So without further due delay, I would like to introduce the floor to Amelia and then listen to your experience, but also what you have to say in terms of our gathering in the context of the Global Diaspora Summit. Over to you, Amelia. Sorry, Amelia, we did not really hear you if somebody needs to unmute you. Or maybe I can do that. Good evening and a very important greeting, pigeon greetings from the Republic of Fiji. To begin our discussion, the impact of diaspora's contribution to a climate change environment, social and corporate governance and investment of significant topics to be discussed with you. The Diaspora Summit presents a very good opportunity for holistic approach on how we collectively can strengthen strategic engagement in these areas. At the outset, the key to our working diaspora investment and at the very heart of diaspora is connectedness. The heart of any successful diaspora engagement initiatives lies in how does a migrant connect back to his or her own country and how does he stay called as great and enabling environment that facilitates the connection and sense of belonging? That's why I'm motivated to invest back to their country by their families, their sense of empathy and their heart investment provides an employment opportunity that improves the standard of living in their country of origin. Indeed, so we can see that there is a wealth of learning and skills, exchange opportunities to be explored with that diaspora entrepreneurs and by in their country of origin. In this session, we hope that we can uncover and learn from each other ways we can build our existing diaspora strategies to encourage effective investment. On this map is a representation of our Fijian diaspora around the world. The majority of our Fijians living abroad are in Australia and New Zealand. Fijians are clustered in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and few have migrated to countries in Asia such as Japan, China, Indonesia, and India. The Fijian diaspora ranges from formalized organizations that are registered with regular paid members to formal online networks on social media platforms. They are mainly organized into teams of faith, local community, education or school alumni network, conferencing sports and occupational associations such as the British Army Association in the United Kingdom. A recent study, the government conducted with IOM Fijian, the Fijian diaspora in Australia, provides a picture of the overall diaspora engagement globally. The study showed that the diaspora associations maintain a strong connection and linkages to Fijian. And they do so through cultural engagement such as participation in the Fijian day celebrations and activities organized by the Fijian diaspora associations. They send the meetings and good home to support families, friends, and communities. If the land would be associations and response in response to disasters, global pandemic such as COVID-19, some have invested their earnings back home through establishing small and medium businesses or developing land. Fijians abroad also return home for visits to support our tourism industry when they come for a short stay while some return permanently bringing their human and financial capital gain from the countries they have. Each year the Pacific Island countries vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Although Fijian is one of the least unreviewed as to global emissions, it encounters all impacts of climate change such as the rising sea level, salt water trisha, increasing occurrence of destructive cyclones, floods that have created paper and affected the livelihood of our Fijians. In the very 2016 cycle of Winston-Ravage Fijian, the cycle came with destructive winds recorded at 185 miles per hour and gusts started to drop. The last of 44 Fijians were taken in that cycle that was later reported as the strongest to make landfall in the southern hemisphere. He destroyed homes, affected livelihoods and damaged key-basic infrastructures such as schools, passengers, road bridges and communication channels. Fijian's economy suffered a loss estimated at 1.4 billion which is more than a third of Fijian's GDP. Fijian was the chair of the COP23 in which the Prime Minister of Fijian in addressing the forum said, unless the world exercises to be addressing the greatest challenge of our age that the Pacific, as we know, is doing. That is conducted by the Center for Human Territory for the Pacific Diaspora and Human Territory response is noted that the Pacific Diaspora, in general including the Fijian Diaspora provide relief assistance after natural disaster through cash transfer and remittances, providing relief supplies, food, sharing information, fundraising, volunteering, organizing medical assistance, assisting with reconstruction works, programs, projects and even to the extent of providing physical emotional support. And they are motivated to do this because of their families back home due to a sense of solidarity, empathy, loyalty and a sense that it is their communal responsibility as we in the Pacific and in Fijian are in our support. I will now bring our focus to that forum meetings and its impact on climate change and investment in Fijian. At the outset, Fijian's remittances categorized into three types. They are personal transfer, compensation of employees and migrant transfer. Personal transfer, this is the world current transfers in cash received by resident households. Remittances comprise about 4.8% of Fijian's GDP. When we look at the trend, it is notable that remittances through personal transfers have been increasing in Fijian from 2011 to 2008. During GC Winston, the rate of inflation increased to 5.5% in July as the immediate impact of GC Winston on food supplies, particularly the increase in agriculture produce due to the cycle. The total amount of remittances received through the mobile money channels stood at 7.6 million as in July 2016. And most of these funds came from the UK, Australia. It was noted that the amount of equal remittances transferred through mobile money surpassed one million in that quarter. From February to April 2020, following the intensification of COVID-19 pandemic, the flow of remittances in the field fell remarkably. However, if flow starts to pick up as a pandemic system, don't lose your hopes. From Fijian's living abroad to increase their assistance to their families back home. Eight multi-regions have gradually increased, reaching records high in July and October when 69 million was received. In remittances through mobile money that will be increased by 278 cents in January to October of same year, compared to the same period in 2019. Using of the lockdown restrictions in key remittance source countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, along with removal is by mobile agreements underpin the spike in transfers by these platforms. The government of Fiji recognized the important role that the Fijian gas forum contributes to our national development from the community right through to the national level. And as such, it's adopted initiatives to strengthen continuous engagement without Fijian gas forum. These initiatives include engagement such as the Fijian events. Each high commission and embassy are allocated resources to coordinate and organize Fijian events with the gas forum suspensions. These events have been highly successful. We are a prime minister convinced to start a law and dialogue session with the gas forum to find their interests and perspectives on Fijian development. There are also informal community events and engagement that we should high commission organize and engage the gas forum. There are formal engagement such as trade events and Fijian international engagement such as the COMP that always have component of gas forum engagement and mission outreach, where each embassy and high commission visit the gas forum to discuss matters of national development and to conduct consular services for the gas forum communities. Fijian also recognized contribution of our gas forum through the presentation and awarding of the Order of Fijian Medal, which is awarded by the president and public of Fiji and its citizen who have shown their dedication, perseverance and commitment to Fiji's development in one type of field that they in. Fiji's great in an environment for diasporic increasing Fiji by many some of the key regulations and policies. These include the provisions of dual citizenship for those Fijians living abroad and who can utilize Fijian. Fiji has also introduced a waiver of requirements for investors specifically for Fijians living abroad who like to start a business for investing the local economy. Fiji has also introduced a digital Fiji platform that allows for businesses to be registered online and is currently reviewing the immigration regulation to expand opportunities for Fijians abroad to return and invest in Fiji. A diasporic online survey conducted by Iowa and government for Fijians in Australia showed that 60.5% of the 403 years respondents invested in Fiji. The key sectors of investment identified by the diaspora were real estate and the culture followed by tourism. On this slide are two examples of the impact of diasporic responding to natural disasters and impact investment in the studies to own micro enterprises in Fiji. Antiment shared by tourist respondents of the key persons inter-reconductor during the survey by IEPEN that was funded by IEDN. The end of this short line, some key visions of diasporic engagement in Fiji and perhaps some other countries as well. Firstly, to strengthen institutional leadership development, Fiji endeavors to put in place a diaspora policy in Australia as a diasporic engagement framework for the government. Secondly, to strengthen diasporic policy and dialogues through conducting more mission outreach and more organized activities between the government and the diaspora. Thirdly, communication strategy that clearly outlines key information such as assistance and support needed by the country of origin to allow for a targeted response from the diaspora. Lastly, potentially long-term incentives to encourage diasporic investment which includes, one, diasporic tourism and events can be organized to encourage that diasporic return home for vacations and holidays. To feature diaspora marketplace to lead diasporic investors in local business startups. As the diaspora fund, an example is a Pacific diaspora fund which is currently being implemented by Pacific trade investment Australia that provides seed funding to young entrepreneurs established as such. Thank you so much, Amelia, and for such a comprehensive overview of your initiatives and the role that diaspora is playing to support Fiji's economy, trade initiatives, investment initiatives, but also families. So you showed some slides reflecting the trend of remittances and indeed while we understand that diaspora engagement and role in more in contributions of migrants go way beyond remittances, but of course this is something which is very tangible and we saw the immediate impact of the pandemic on the flows and the graph was really very telling in terms of disruption to the connections due to the pandemic and then of course recovery. Very interesting also the pictures. It's always very nice to see the faces of diaspora and from other sessions what we have been hearing is really it's not about talking about diaspora or making policies, but really working with diaspora communities and really talking to diaspora. So and that that shows really the very active collaboration that you have already established. So thank you so much. So I would like to pass the floor then to our keynote speaker, Frida, as I mentioned a long-standing partner and collaborator of our organization. So Frida and many thanks for you joining that and we are very excited to hear about your work, your ideas in that specific area of climate, environment, social and governance, investment, trade. So please the floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you very much Marina. I think Marina didn't mention that I'm quite unwell. I did not know if I was allowed to say that. So I left it to you. Yeah, no, thank you very much. Yeah, of course, yeah, I'm unwell. I know I didn't give you permission, but I almost didn't appear. So I'm so happy to be here. I may not be the usual me, but I believe I'll be able to communicate well. So I will begin with sharing my presentation for today. Just a minute. And what a very exciting topic. I think this is a topic that is very, very close to my heart. Diaspora is close to my heart. Making an impact is very close to my heart. The ECG ESGs are very close to my heart because I believe organizations that are very good embed this elements in their governance and overall make it well. And of course investments, which is my background in terms of study and profession. So I think these topics are really close to my heart and I'm very, very glad to be here. So probably the best way to start is to tell you a little bit about what Ziddi Saku does. I'm very proud to have started Ziddi Saku as a diaspora. And because I wanted to start something that actually would address the diaspora problems that I saw. I saw a lot of gaps in entrepreneurship in terms of how diaspora can participate and help these to strengthen social and economic progression of countries with countries of origin and countries of residence. And of course diaspora investments, which is very much needed because this is a very nice way to contribute to our countries of both residents and origin at the same time through our resources. It's not always just money, but also the resources that we have there, knowledge and all that. So I'll be speaking today, not as a CEO, but as a diaspora myself, who has implemented a few things and that are very progressing in a nice way. So Ziddi Saku also is in both the entrepreneurship both countries for the diaspora. And I'm very proud to say like the past cohort was in collaboration with IOM. I think that's why Marina constantly said that, we are really working together on a number of aspects. And we definitely, we saw a lot of entrepreneurs who went back to their countries of origin and who are stranded to start a business. And we did a first pirate with Ghana and Ethiopia. This is our in Africa. And the other aspect that we saw was missing was of course the mentorship of these entrepreneurs. And to be honest, after this happened, after we trained them, they went to their back to their countries of origin still a lot of challenges. And that's where the investment part came in. And of course, they try to raise capital from conventional or the existing financial prayers that was not forthcoming. And I would like to say, not just the diaspora entrepreneurs who are a bit exposed, they will travel sometimes are very highly educated, but also the local entrepreneurs in countries of origin in this reference I'll keep referring to Africa because this is where our projects are focused. And so then the question came, how do we bridge the gap between the lack of funding, the entrepreneurship and creating our whole good ecosystem using the diaspora and having the diaspora participate themselves so that we can be able to move forward. So in this regard, we've conducted a few country specific programs in the Netherlands where we are based, we've worked a lot with diaspora migrants and we hope them on the area of entrepreneurship, Germany, we've run programs in Ghana, Ethiopia and Kenya. And we're very proud that most of the participants came to, I think they are over, of course my presentation is not always up to date, it's not just 15 countries, but of course at that time this is what was counting and they came across four continents. So I am not going to waste time on ZD circle, but today we are here to talk about a very important topic. And I wanted to just start introducing so that you see the flow and how we enter into this. So we started with entrepreneurship boot camps which continue to drive a lot of entrepreneurs, I think over 350 entrepreneurs diaspora have passed through the entrepreneurship boot camps that we provide, making them investor ready. And because of the funding gap now, we moved to the diaspora investment programs that we came up about. And the diaspora venture backers program is actually our signature program because without her, we have all these diaspora who want to contribute, not just to their knowledge, but they also want to share a few resources and there's no way, there's no investment vehicle, there's no structure, there's no training, people do not know how to do Andrew investment because sometimes it's left for a few, depending on what you started. So this program was just initiating to now bridge the gap in the knowledge gap in that sense because first you empower with knowledge and then you empower with a structure that people can be able to invest in. So I'm not going to dwell on entrepreneurship very much but obviously there's untapped potential when it comes to the diaspora. And I just want to talk about plastics, because that's a very good, that's all we can resonate with. You go to the beach, I think summer is approaching in spring, people go to the beach and all you see is a lot of plastics. And my first question is always, how do we as diaspora aid the plastic industry? Of course, it's a great industry, we survive on it, but the problem is the use product and the residue that ends up in the wrong places affecting our environment. So obviously there's a lot to get from the diaspora and one of course is the wealth of knowledge. I believe a wealth of knowledge is very good to advance in terms of also investments and resources because with practice we've seen, even if you gave a company a startup, a lot of money and there are no great minds to run that company. There's no ECG in those companies, there are no other resources, just money, they will put out the money and the business will not move forward. Also I think the diaspora are very good commercial network that they can use not just in terms of funding, but again, it's no range exposure and you're tapping on all those opportunities. And of course, funding is the last one. And I'm not going to dwell so much on remittances because you all know the numbers and I focus on sub-Saharan Africa in 2020 alone in the middle of our pandemic, you all know where Corona has come, we've come our own way. All these amount of money that you see on this chart went into Africa and Nigeria are only 17 billion US dollars. We have Ghana, we have Kenyan and all these I'm not going to dwell on the numbers. And so the question is, how do we make sure that these remittances bring a positive impact to our environment and to our economic well-being, to making our world a better place to bring in an impact. So I'm going to talk about the Green Venture Back-Us Program as a case study. And this is not just the work of ZD-Circle, the green project was initiated by the European Union. Together with other partners, we have SNB, UNCDF, we have the Ministry, the Embassy of the Netherlands in Ghana. We have all prayers and of course, very many partners that have made this program possible. And of course it's all about empowering the green economy, making sure that we are having more businesses, small and medium businesses in Ghana, more startups venturing in the green economy but above all getting more the support they need so that they can be able to move forward to the next level also as successful businesses but also making Ghana more green and of course the region of Africa. So we moved into this program, we partnered very closely with SNB because we wanted to bring in the diaspora and the best way from the background that I've given you was to find out how the diaspora would participate into Ghana's green economy through of course investments. And I must say that when the program started in 2021, in the last quarter of 2021, we thought the diaspora that would be having the appetite for this program would be from Ghana but we had diaspora from all walks of life, from all carers and everybody that wanted to participate into this program. We had a lot of participants from the UK, they relied itself, I think that you are setting a very good example and because a lot of diaspora participated in this program and they continue to participate, we had Germany, of course the European Union, Bayer and Ranch participated with diaspora from all over. So the main reason that we made this program I think is from what I've said previously that first of all you need to bridge the knowledge gap because I don't know if people do not know how to invest, I don't know if people have lost trust, especially the diaspora, I don't know if people have used very social means of setting back money back home to the country of origin and because sometimes it's also lack of knowledge so we thought the best way first is to equip these investors with the knowledge that they need to start functioning as angel investors and men to mobilize them both also Ghanaian and other diaspora into actively investing in the small and medium enterprises in the country of origin to build the capacity for them to understand the circular economy and the green economy and of course to contribute to access to finance for this SMEs. So that was the genesis of the program and the program goes through eight weeks virtual program we make it virtual because people are all over and I think these days with COVID that's the most efficient way to run programs. They use live case studies, the S&B together with local incubators and other odds in Ghana in the past in the last quarter of 2019 our own incubator and over that is small and medium enterprises in the green sector and that was in food and agriculture in wash sectors and of course in renewable energy sectors. So the businesses were already there so it was easier for the diaspora to have case studies and to study using those businesses to evaluate actual businesses to do due diligence in actual business and actually to invest in actual businesses. So the, of course the program goes through those weeks programs and then we are practicals which of course practical is mostly studying these businesses studying their business models that are studying the green business models and then of course then ZD-Circle gave them the post-training investment support which also further support with due diligence and of course the UTIMET goal was to invest in the green businesses using the ZD-Circle cohort. These are some of the modules that they covered or we continue to cover in the program and it's about basics of vendor investing you know, they're studying the business models and financials of a business making the deal all those things. Endure investments in Ghana itself as a case study how we choose them, how we judge the pitches because that sounds like jargon now to a Rayman so I'm not going to go ahead on the program so much but so this is the ecosystem that we envisioned on one hand we have the green economy that has all these businesses are being created from scratch by people who sometimes need just a thousand dollars to move to the next level and which is not available and then the diaspora are coming in with the resource that they have but also the knowledge because some of them are very knowledgeable they have a lot of knowledge also from abroad that can be applied into these businesses and then of course we focused on the small and medium enterprises and their shanty and western regions in Ghana in the previous picture that was there that those were actually green venture backers the investors from diaspora together with the businesses that they were funding so what happens post-training and that's one of the problems that we've been having without having a proper investment vehicle and I think after a long time I will tell you how long we came up with a special purpose investment vehicle in the form of a cooperative yeah so it's called the diaspora investment cooperative that has been constituted just to enable this diaspora investing the green businesses why did we choose this kind of model or investment vehicle is both a benefit structure there's a benefit to both startups and investors for the startups it's very hard for them to on board so many startups on their on their cap table because that's that's another jargon that I'm using but when you need to involve and on board many investors into your company you can also keep putting all sorts of shareholders into your company it's difficult but with a cooperative a cooperative the face of the diaspora and then the cooperative invests on behalf of the diaspora because they aggregate they put together these investments and then are able to invest in that company and of course for investors they are able to own shares without you know being participating on that startup for small and minimum enterprise that they invest in they have owed on Ontario cost in becoming a shareholder in a startup and of course the structure makes shares transferable and very frequent so that's about the cooperative this our cooperative is domiciled in the Netherlands and it was registered this year in the at the beginning of this in the Netherlands because the corporate's in and out to make the investment and we have a governing board that's you know of course make sure that other resources and all the activities of the cooperative are going on we have the venture backers who then participate in the training of the ZDBV the ZDBV that provides the engine invest in training we have investment committees and make investment decisions but every diaspora investor actually makes decisions on where their money should be invested we have the ZDBV co-op that is where the money goes in through that's what's called the investment vehicle and now we have the startups down there so our cooperative as a board and all these people are diaspora did a case of Caribbean origin based in the Netherlands we have Katarina who is German actually but she she's also moving around currently she's working from Kenya she's a diaspora of Germany but she wanted to participate we have David Boateng with a Ghanaian diaspora living in the Netherlands of course myself so I help with managing through the ZD circle the investments that they make they oversee all the decision-making processes so the people who can join this cooperative are individuals or groups or companies all diaspora from anywhere in the world based anywhere in the world the venture backers also make their own investment decisions although they aggregate those investments or they put the investments together because if a company is sitting inside a thousand dollars one engine invest is not able to get that because the diaspora this is a new norm for the diaspora so they put in the investments together and they're able to raise that amount they understand the whole process so that makes it very very easy and of course the cooperative and David is always there to support them and so the cooperative enters into investment argument to the business that they're investing in our first priority was in Ghana and I'm very happy to announce that we've been able to to to approve businesses in the green sector one is a plastic and I go back to plastic it's a plastic company that corrects all plastics in a very remote area of Ghana in the western region processes the plastics and then this plastic is able to be used in other production processes that are not really harmful to the environment the other good example is there is a business founded by all women founded business that has been producing and processing basic food products like tomato sauce of course but in in the previous years all that tomatoes that are made in a very odd country went into waste because there was no processing so that was as been able to to benefit and of course others I think we are almost running out of time so this is the good ecosystem that we're using sorry I think I'm running out of time so I'm going to conclude but this is a very good ecosystem that we foresee first the entrepreneurs are supported they are given capacity they're educated they start their own businesses also diaspora not just the local businesses in the African continent but more and more also to the diaspora running out to make the investments providing community capital and and then of course funding and then we are kind of creating some form of diaspora where that can be shared with others these are the chapters we done a diaspora chapter we have a Ghana focus program for the grain and and we learn a general program for Kenya and we are very excited the next post is starting next Wednesday on 60 program choice year together with SMV and I'm done with my presentation thank you very much I think our website has a lot of information I'm always very happy to share the experiences that we want to onboard more diaspora organizations private individuals diaspora so that we can be able to move forward with this so I hope my case today change some rights so now we can practically support the green economy not just in our countries of origin but also in our countries of precedence thank you very much Frida thank you so much that really a masterclass I would say you know we have one on Monday from our another partner Kingsley Eichens from Ireland about networking and I would call your presentation as a really masterclass on the actual engagement and doing that those initiatives and really what you were presenting there were a lot of really concrete tips and suggestions and structures the way how you are concretely working in supporting initiatives but also creating enabling environment to diaspora organizations tapping into some of the or addressing some of the challenges as you mentioned lack of knowledge you know lack of experience maybe there is a will to support but then there are no structures there's no knowledge I know and again many many things on behalf of everybody and the organizers that you joined we were so upset to hear in that because you might not be without managed so we're so appreciative of that and before we let you go if you don't mind I would like maybe to ask one of the questions I formulated at the beginning so you are the one who is indeed engaging in those initiatives you're also representing diaspora this summit is really convenient a lot of governments and today we have a co-host from Fiji so why don't we start thinking about indeed what could concretely governments do governments do to prepare strategies programs but maybe from your experience is there one two concrete things which each government could do your wishful thinking and that would make the whole engagement more impactful and really easy for you to really work in that area maybe a few words yeah thank you very much Marina yes of course I've done it practically I've dealt with a few governments and of course there's always a lot we can do to help and especially in enabring the infrastructure I think the infrastructure is what I'm like each and every government to think about when I think about diaspora when I think about them participating in our economy I really thank the government of Fiji on what they've been able to do I think it's very commendable the best thing to think is how we're making it easier for the diaspora and it's not just because sometimes I often think that you know when we talk about government and we talk about diaspora there's this notion that there's the west diaspora and the other developing countries diaspora but now with my experience I think about 10 years now they are diaspora for every country in the world and the best thing that we can do is ask well can we make the infrastructure work we are talking about the diaspora making impact how can they how can we make it easier for them in terms of forestry and in terms of making investment easier for example the government of Ghana has been very supportive to the TOA initiative through the investment commission that was very commendable so that's one point that can be made they are the ones that actually also initiated some activities because sometimes also diaspora want to defend they want to participate but they have no idea how to participate so create programs make them visible and have them participate I think I think that way creating a good and upbringing environment and then also being part of the processes in terms of creating the programs that would go a wrong way Marina I believe absolutely indeed because we have been working about policies policies important legislation are also crucial for investment for instance from our experience of talking to difference stakeholders of course the issue of even citizenship could be if you are citizen of another country maybe then you have to follow a different way of of an investor category so you have to you already you know the whole issue of cross national investment needs to be kept in mind so but but indeed this infrastructure focus what you spoke about programming these are the ones which allow us to experiment to do piloting and really roll out across different initiatives so thank you so much really it was excellent again feel free to leave us I am sorry probably lots of colleagues on the call and on the session will be sorry because they would probably like to ask your questions please do colleagues formulate your questions maybe you have two or three minutes to hear from Frida in the meantime we're going to listen to the video which we have prepared and that video is is also is a very important one following up on the already initial presentation from Amelia is from the from his excellency Mr. Jitoko Tikolevu Fiji's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland the Kingdom of Morocco and the whole AC so the colleagues from Fiji please let's listen to the video and the everybody in in the session please continue formulating your questions or comments in the chat our distinguished keynote speaker Mr. Thomas Debes Madam moderator Ms. Frida Narawinghi Excellencies Ladies and gentlemen Bulu Yunaka from Fiji I'm pleased to have this opportunity to speak on the session pertaining to dashboard impact specifically on climate environmental social and governance and investment dashboard remains an instrumental catalyst of development and growth for Fiji and for most if not all small and developing states Fiji's development and growth path has been favorably influenced by a dashboard contribution particularly in the areas of remittances investment and savings portfolio remittances constitute the largest source of Fiji's external finance flows followed by official and non-official development assistance in saying this I would like to refer to a survey that was carried out on the Fijian dashboard in the UK in 2017 as a basis of understanding the dynamics of our dashboard sector in Europe the survey was also facilitated as a means of developing capitalizing and maximizing our dashboard segment the survey examined dashboard savings and investments and covered current practices and motivations obstacles to savings and investment addressing obstacles and other incentive mechanisms and preferences for future saving and investment some fundamental findings of the survey were suggestions that dashboard members are highly engaged with Fiji 94 percent of the respondents sent money to family and friends and 68 percent who interested in investing more in Fiji financial connections are common and largely focused on benefiting friends family and the local community as a result saving and investment tends to be informal with most sending remittances to friends or family often via electronic transfer methods results reveal and investment gap although a majority of respondents express an interest in investing in Fiji over two in five reported that they currently hold no form of saving or investment in the country sectors of interest were properly our property real estate, agriculture fisheries and forestry just under one quarter report that they are unsure whether or not they would like to invest or save in Fiji government issues are considered key obstacles with over half of respondents highlighting them as a priority for government to address a far greater proportion express an interest in long-term investments than those expressing an interest in medium or short-term investments there is a particular interest in entrepreneurship amongst the Fijian diaspora over half say they are interested in setting up a business while only a minority report that they have done so in conclusion the survey has indicated gaps and opportunities to improve on existing mechanisms in collaboration with development partners such as international organization for migration IOM there is a need to expand the parameters of the study including demographics and information relevant to the current global developments including the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on diaspora the government is already working with IOM through the development of policy recommendations reflective of the issues and concerns from our diaspora we trust that the findings of the survey will be equitably advanced through the discussions today and throughout this significant program in Nakabaka level thank you so much for this video I'm amazed every time we connect across the world in this virtual environment I was almost about to thank his excellency for his very exciting statement forgetting that I was just a recording but please pass over to him our best regards and gratitude for his engagement and really making this statement the topic is exciting and indeed it deserves much more time than one and a half hours that we have but I would like to now start to gradually move to our audience and again encourage them to engage with us we have around 70 participants and I'm sure I already know some of you have a lot of experience and I know already as we were preparing for the session the colleagues from FAO were in touch with us asking to engage and Dominique that's the opportunity please we were also so eager to have you as co-hosts but anyway so even if you just make your intervention in this capacity but I hope with the spirit you are throughout the whole session with us please Dominique yeah I hope you can hear me well well thank you very much Marina and I would like really to start by thanking you and by thanking the speakers and I would like really to share your enthusiasm because I think it's a very very interesting session and I found the presentation from Fiji as well as the presentation from the ZD Circle super informative so thank you for that it's clear from our perspective that diaspora can indeed contribute to enhancing the resilience of rural livelihoods and ecosystem restoration as well as basically fostering the uptake of sustainable agriculture technologies in their areas of origin through investment and transfer of social capital in that respect you may know that FAO acts as a bridge between diaspora organization and rural stakeholders and we have a I would say plenty of examples and I will just mention one or two in Tajikistan for example FAO supported the Ministry of Labor Migration and Employment to develop a matching grant scheme accompanied by a great business training to support improve investment in agriculture and rural development of diaspora and return migrants this was launched in early 2019 this investment estimating market development and innovation and promote assets building among low income households FAO is undertaking a number of feasibility studies to replicate similar approaches in six additional countries such as El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Ghana in Uganda for example FAO works on facilitating financial and non-financial contribution of diaspora to the agri-business sector and fostering diaspora inclusive dialogues this entails for example a wide range of intervention such as strengthening diaspora presentation in policy dialogues setting up diaspora networks in agri-business or for example facilitating diaspora investment and scale transfer in agri-business participants by the way are welcome to join our side event directly after this session to learn more about that FAO is also currently implementing a project in Zimbabwe with the support of Irish aid that aims to harness the potential of migration as climate adaptation including by enhancing diaspora engagement in national adaptation policy processes and by raising diaspora awareness about investment opportunities in green sector just in concluding just to say that in order to untap the potential of diaspora to contribute to climate resilience food system and adaptation we feel it is key to strengthen diaspora engagement in agri-business and sustainable development raise diaspora awareness about investment opportunities in green sectors and foster skills and knowledge transfer and I would like really to thank you again and thank you for the opportunity to join such a very interesting event thank you Marie thank you very much I don't know why we have the session station showing thank you I don't think we are coming to you and then we still have half an hour based on my understanding and thank you Dominica so it's absolutely it's so interesting to see you know for organization like ours we've been working the area of diaspora engagement for many many decades already we used to have programs on return support to return of highly qualified nationals to countries of origin but what is interesting I noticed in the last years is really the focus on specific sectors being very concrete really and really as Frida was speaking about really shading those programs and tangible examples where it becomes very concrete and really making sense when we bring that in a concrete situation of a country of a community and we bring that example forward then it becomes very tangible and really interesting to discuss because then it becomes something which we relate we can relate to and everybody can relate to thank you Dominic so from the perspective of other prepared speakers who wanted to engage I also have information that Peter Fock from the Global Diaspora Association Confederation sorry was interested in also engaging and this is the floor Peter for you to share thoughts comments on the content of the session or any others over to you Peter thanks very much Marina and I hope Peter is feeling much better soon and I just want to say what a great privilege and I want her to be able to join this meeting because a bit of personal story when I was very young I went to Scotland to for my education and because I was under 18 I had the guardians so my guardian was actually a teacher who was from Fiji and I lived with them for many years and then with a family and then learning about a culture and inspired but of course big fan of rugby so what an amazing time that I was able to I'm able to meet with Amelia and the team so one thing actually taking my example I was wondering perhaps Diaspora organizations can actually act as the ambassador to to bring in more friends in terms of not just impact investing but also many other opportunities such as diaspora tourism and I thought I myself want to go to Fiji desperately and to see my teacher again and at the same time I also want to perhaps also ask if there is any opportunity for the next generation to step up in terms of participating in diaspora organizations where we can do more great projects so a bit of background about GDC global diaspora conversion we connect and empower diaspora organizations across the world and our role is to strengthen ties between the diaspora organizations and the stakeholders including of course international and local national governments so this is an opportunity for us to speak up and I'm really grateful that voices are heard and the thing is we're also thinking about the impact investing there are many great opportunities examples not only from Fiji but also across the world as we have from Frida as well the thing is from our point of view GDC we are really looking to promote as much as possible the good work to do good best practices of all countries diaspora organizations in terms of this this work and of course sharing the challenge as well because we're not alone you know alone we're all sharing this and then to find the best solution so I also want to kind of come in and make some suggestions if there is any opportunities in the future it will be wonderful we can also help bring together more diaspora organizations not just the Fijian diaspora organizations but non-Fijian diaspora organizations that could also feel the impact that Fiji has been doing and there are not also Fiji of course all other countries and participants today this is a wonderful opportunity but thank you very much for the chance to share as well thank you thank you so much Peter for your intervention as well as for your leadership in bringing diaspora organizations together in one configuration for us it has been a very important milestone because of course we are aware about different diaspora organizations in different parts of the world doing their great work and the examples like what Frida has shared they're really captivating really motivate us to do go forward but not all countries really were so privileged to see these diaspora organizations matured and really become powerful actors but the potential is there as Frida was speaking the lack of knowledge lack of understanding so the idea of bringing those experiences together and really continue learning from each other and strengthening those connections it's not to say that no work has been done but really how we can become more impactful is absolutely very important and then of course the session that we have prepared for Monday so on Monday just a little bit of promotion to our participants that when the ministerial segment starts on Monday so we have a session after the opening specifically trying to bring you know to learn from diaspora organizations and Peter yourself in terms of what it means to to become more organized from the diaspora organization perspective what it means to to really bring and tap into your experience of getting to know maybe somebody from a country like Fiji which I have not had a chance to privilege to to really visit or really learn about but that's that's how it is when people move to another country they are the ambassadors of their culture of their of their spirit so yeah so looking forward to also your engagement on the on the first of sorry on the 4th of April thank you so much so I would like maybe to to to give Amelia a possibility to respond to Peter if you feel like or anybody from Fiji because there was so much personal reference if you want anybody from your side who would like to to engage in a statement related to what Peter said or anything else or otherwise I will move to the audience it's not yet because you're muted would be nice to unmute first the microphone should be working is just on the computer the mute button which is not unmuted yes now you can talk but the sound is not yet coming no sound we had the sound before maybe because who was playing the video maybe that was the connection maybe if you can try to look into that and let me in the meantime look into the chat and the questions if we have any from the audience or any raised hands who would like to comment make an intervention at this point something maybe Tanya you could let you would like to to comment in terms of how how were the exchanges in the chat so far I don't see any comments or any feet in the chat unfortunately so far not so not nothing okay good so thank you so much then then let us I continue encouraging the colleagues who are with us today to really use the opportunity to ask questions to anybody of us and again we have also other organizations presented so like Peter or Dominique from FAO so feel free to address all of us but in the meantime maybe let me turn to the next question which were we were hoping to address maybe as a next one to discuss and really maybe ask the audience to to really to provide answers so I think can we maybe stop a little bit on the topic of a diaspora as an impact investor this is something which has been quite quite I'm occupying myself because you know this is quite a new area of investment area of investment specifically the focus on impact investment it's an industry which is which is growing it's an industry which is emerging here in Switzerland for instance I see a lot of organizations which are promoting themselves as impact investors as well as the one who can help investors to assess to what extent their investment activities are really in line with the so-called social or environmental impact or governance so there are different organizations who are setting up different indices to measure compliance with various indicators of course the sustainable development goals agenda 2030 presents a very important opportunity to to be inspirational towards achieving those goals but in the meantime also there is a need to have to be more tangible so I'm wondering whether anybody from the audience and I'm posing this question to anybody now would be ready to to maybe comment on on the statement which I am now proposing is that diaspora investment that diaspora investors are the best personification of impact investors and I have my theory why I believe it is like that but I want to hear from you whether you agree with this statement or whether you do not agree with that is this the question that that is resonating with anybody and I saw Kingsley joining joining us as well Kingsley can I put you on the spot if no other volunteer is coming up yeah I was going to make a comment about Ronnie Cohen I don't know if that name rings a bell with anybody Sir Ronnie Cohen and he was the father of venture capital in many ways he's an Egyptian who moved England when he was nine or 10 so he's a diaspora member and he was the head of Oxford University he's a wonderful man he's written a book called social impact and what he says is that there's a revolution there isn't a tsunami coming at us in terms of impact investment and he gives the example back in the 1920s when you want to compare one company with another company you just look to their accounts but there was no commonly accepted standards no gap accounting they used to call and then the National Securities Commission in the United States introduced these common standards where you could compare company by company he says that's coming in social impact investing and the big elephant in the room if you like is pension funds pension funds globally are trillions and trillions of dollars of investment money and they are going to use this process of assessing companies and investments with each other based on their impact on the economy on society on employees and of course on climate so I think that you know we need to prepare for this because this is coming and I was only last night at an event with the government investment agency here and they're just talking about how it's now it's now a film through which everything is viewed in investment so I think that it's smart that you're taking this topic on now because it's only going to become bigger and bigger and it's going to become the determining element in all investments do you pass the tests of impact investing? Absolutely that's very much but do you agree with my statement that diaspora investors also have you know a specific characteristic of being called an impact investor so do you think that how do we link impact investment and diaspora engagement do we see any interlinkages from the practical perspective? Look I like to think the answer is yes but I don't have evidence and you started this morning by your desire and your passion for data and evidence so I don't have evidence for that I'd like to think that they have a bigger interest than purely commercial return that they genuinely want to engage in a sophisticated way with their country of origin or heritage or ancestry but I don't have the statistics to back that up I do think that they want a financial return and if it comes up against the societal return maybe I'm not sure which one will win so I would have to withhold judgment on your question Yeah absolutely so but I don't think that we need to put an investor in the category of either the one driven by only societal return or financial so we're only hoping that both could be merged and I believe my statement actually I will bring it back because I will hold on a little bit and then explain why I think could diaspora investors could be considered as a very powerful impact investor but I think Paula Henrik you raised your hand and lifted and lowered it do you want to engage or or not how do I interpret the fact that your hand is no longer raised Hello everyone thanks I just raised my hand very quickly because your question got me a little bit unprepared and I was a little bit like trying to elaborate a little better my question but I think that one clue that we can relate the diaspora with with these type of investments I mean the impact investments that we were mentioning is the fact that the diasporas are the community that sometimes are very much impacted or they represent type of materiality for those corporations who are operating globally take for example companies related to tourism or even remittances that like choose projects to work with that have sometimes some local impact but they do not really look at the diasporas which are their very customer I'm not really sure if this answers to your question but I think this might be one clue so I'd like to see your views on what I'm trying to say thank you thank you so much and absolutely I don't think we have that knowledge or we have the evidence as Kingsley said and by the way I wanted also to mention and thank Kingsley for his engagement Kingsley is our also long-term partner and friend who has been framing and helping us to frame our approach to diasporic engagement in our organization and he has been working a lot in the area of investment philanthropy and there is a masterclass happening on Monday again I'm inviting everyone to not to forget about the fact that we have a second and third day but Paolo Henrik thanks for and sorry that I put you on this but this is the question because it really is something what I've been thinking about I do believe that diaspora when we speak about investors so indeed the traditionally investors were there to put their money to reap some financial gains returns calculate readjust and then really the whole system is has been monitored and responsibility shareholders was about really financial profit the whole system of development in the world is still geared by this GDP number and despite of the fact that we speak about sustainable development really there is a lot of focus on the data about financial and economic areas of that why I think diasporas are impact investors when they engage investment activities when we speak about diaspora direct investors we believe that they are the ones who are geared and who are calculating their investment strategies taking to account maybe a higher risk so they are better they are more prepared to to also to experience losses in their investment initiatives because they believe that even if it is more risky but because it is the country of origin because it is an initiative in their community of origin they are prepared to take that risk and that's why for me it's also it's an it's an intention driven by this by the more orientation not financial gains but really games coming additionally so that was my thinking but I think it's an area of absolutely thrilling and novel the how we bring diaspora engagement in the context of addressing issues related to climate change climate change green investment initiatives and the broader areas so thank you so much I think I would like to understand if there are any more hands but I see there is some sort of chat happening unfortunately in French which I'm not yet so fluent to to read and Kinsley is suggesting a read thank you so much for that Kinsley Amelia, do you have any observation right now do we have audio with you right now with Fiji Rina, if you want I can translate the contribution from chat into English thank you so much after we have the response from Amelia I also want to make sure whether the audio is working or not and then afterwards we'll go to the chat discussions Amelia yes yep we have the audio, yes we're going to thank the diaspora organization who had commented on this experience on Fiji so we want to thank you for sharing that experience and we we couldn't remove with what we have shared in terms of strengthening diaspora organization national government and that's an area that that came out very strongly in the survey that was done with our Fiji diasporic community is in Sydney and in London are more into an institutional for able to formalize this type of engagement with our diaspora is really coming top of the list for a more structured engagement a more policy and institutionalized type of engagement so I couldn't remove with that there's a lot of work from the national government in terms of institutionalized and formalizing some of these those engagements in terms of this common opportunity for next generation to step up to do more that's an area that actually is a gap in also that was highlighted for both surveys with our diaspora community in both Sydney and in London as well so thank you yes thank you so much indeed I guess each country would have their own you know list of target countries and of course for you it's the UK and the Australia and diaspora there is the one with which you are engaging and it's very close to your heart and I know that we also have a video from Fiji which will play towards the end a message to your diaspora but before we do that I would like to indeed ask my colleague Tanya Diodovich our regional thematic specialist and also a long-standing diaspora engagement in our organization one of the most important ones to comment on the exchange in the chat Tanya if you could explain to everybody who could not maybe follow the chat what was the question so actually it's it's more of a contribution and Mr. Uman Adha is sharing with us that the diaspora engagement in the development process in Chad is very much still in an embryonic stage but at the same time he highlights that in an indirect manner and mostly on an individual level the diaspora from Chad is contributing in a significant way most of all significant for their respective families so we can take from that that what we see many times that the engagement of diaspora is very much related back to their very local level to their families and first of all and then local communities so also in Chad with the diaspora engagement still being very much at the beginning this is exactly where it starts diaspora takes care of their families first of all and then everything else thank you thank you very much Tanya I didn't know that we could write so many words in the chat but this was really very good presentation of the experience in the country maybe which hasn't yet moved forward indeed in mobilizing the diaspora but we are of course sure that there are diaspora individuals and potentially organizations living outside of the country which would be very very interested in supporting some initiatives so yes good luck and that's why we are convening here within the context of the global diaspora some to experience to share these experiences to identify some common challenges but also solutions and before we maybe say goodbye to the session it was exciting for me to really be here for with all of us I would like to ask the colleagues from Fiji to play the video they kindly requested us to do so as a concluding part of the session which was hosted by the government and we are looking forward to staying in touch with everyone and then engaging in the follow-up sessions as well as bilaterally thank you everyone and let's conclude with the video Fanti Naik is about the university's system we do take to spend a lot of time with you I miss my family in Australia I miss my brother and son the thing I miss most about my family in Australia is the family jokes and the always-dancers but I miss my daughter there's a lot of most stresses one thing I miss about the other local I just want to be here, in the city, to see if they're ready to stay. I miss the fact that I always go fishing again. I can't just stay with you, because I want to. I want to think that I miss my grandmother, my father, my host, and my family. I think that I miss most of my family living in Australia. It's a good presence around the world. I just think that I'm going to go to the city many, many times. I'm just going to have fun, because I'm going to be here, and I want to stay with my family, because I want to stay with my past. I wish you a happy return. My friends and I are going to stay with my friends and house, where we're going to eat. That's all. We're going to the city, because of all the other things that I miss anymore. I miss my family, because I want to stay with my family. I miss you and I love you, I miss you and I hope to see you soon. Thank you everyone. It was nice being together with you over to next sessions and the next two days, many, many things, especially to our panelists and really to you and in the government of Fiji, stay healthy and stay in touch. All the best. Bye-bye.