 are officially recording the meeting. So I think we're going to keep up. All right, I'll take over from here. Thank you, the technical crew for bringing this together. Hi, everyone. Right now, I'm just looking at the number. We got all 240 attendees, participants. That's great. I'm sure more people are going to be joining. Thank you so very much for being here today. My name is Kimo Kamara. I'm the founder of OMEK and your host and moderator for this amazing milestone fantastic event today. So I'm really, really excited. This is my second time being here for iDiaspora. And I'm sure it's not the last time. I'll do my best to make sure that they don't kick me out. I love being here. This is a community. It's a global community. And yeah, they will have to drive me to be outside this community. It's not about me. I'm excited to be here. And like you can see, so we have a really simple program today, but really insightful and really excited to be here. And then you will see our panelists and then moderate guests start talking about what everybody's here today. So before we do that, we're actually going to go and then give the opportunity to Ms. Lara Thamsong, who is actually the deputy director, to give us a welcome session. And then after that, then we can kick start. So Ms. Lara, if you want to go on and then take away from here. Thank you, Kimo. And hello, everybody. It is a pleasure for me to welcome you to this event, iDiaspora, years after accelerated iDiaspora's global engagement in the post-pandemic era. Two years ago, during the International Dialogue on Migration, we launched the iDiaspora platform. Today, we want to jointly look at the progress of the platform and to how it has contributed to the empowerment and collaboration among global diasporas and to present to you the new version of the platform and the functionalities. iDiaspora was born in 2017 from the need to provide a platform, a digital venue, driven by communities themselves. Connect, contribute, and learn. To connect to each other and reach out to as many voices as possible. To contribute to important international fora, in particular, to the deliberations in the context of the negotiations of the global compact on safe, orderly, and regular migration. And to learn from each other and from those who look at engaging with diaspora, as well as from global expertise and initiatives. The platform now counts 510 members in 109 countries across continents. This is, I think, a very important achievement. I am very proud to have been able to facilitate the platform as migrant communities and diasporas specifically have been ongoing partners in addressing migration governance in different parts of the world. In addition, diasporas have been our partners in a number of initiatives, such as the so-called 3E strategy, engage, empower, and enable, thanks to which IOM has engaged with both transnational communities directly and supported governments and other partners to understand the relevance of diaspora engagement and to partner up with them. During these two years, diasporas have shown to be actors who engage in transnational initiatives to allocate international crisis and support their communities worldwide. They have proven to be the link that makes a difference between desperation and hope, reaching out to their communities and not letting vulnerable migrants in isolation. This has been particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. Who better than our own communities can, in difficult times, reach out to offer help, build trust, and restore hope? And what an opportunity to make use of the technological tools that have helped us to continue communicating despite the lack of physical contact and presence. Together, we have organized three global diaspora virtual exchanges on COVID-19 response in English, French, and Spanish, allowing migrant communities from different regions to participate. These exchanges have offered a space of collaboration where diaspora groups from around the world have shared their practices, initiatives, and innovations responding to the pandemic. Nearly 300 stakeholders have joined the discussion, including policy makers, researchers, member of the Global Civil Society, and diaspora leaders. The common aim was to maximize the potential of migrant communities facing the pandemic worldwide and to show them they are not alone and they have really a network to counter. During these global exchanges, we have identified some 50 examples on how diasporas have developed philanthropic, humanitarian, health and social transnational actions to support their communities, both in their host and home countries, including initiatives to inform the most vulnerable migrant populations about the risks of the COVID-19 disease and how to prevent the spread of the disease, initiatives that address the shortages of personal protective equipment, sanitation supplies, and food, initiatives also that led to employment within their communities, and finally initiatives to combat and denounce xenophobia. In sum, the diasporas have shown to have the social capital, the resources, and the capacities to design short-term initiatives to respond to global emergencies. Further, their knowledge and their ability to navigate different contexts have highlighted their ability to foster initiatives that mainstream development at the global, regional, national, and local levels. As our technological tools, our platform has quickly become outdated. As a result, we have reached out to all of you to improve the tool, address its shortcomings, and enhance its capacity to continue reaching out, innovating, and building trust. I want to acknowledge and thank all of those users who have contributed to this revamped version with their comments and suggestions. This version is indeed the result of a collective effort, and we hope that it better addresses the needs and expectations. Before passing the floor to my colleagues to present to you the new features of the platform, let me once again express my gratitude for your engagement in this initiative and for your collaboration. You are really an essential partner for IOL. I wish you a fruitful and interesting discussion today. Thank you very much, and good luck in the discussion. Thank you so much to the deputy director general for blessing us with this kind word and then the update of what the iDiaspora program is about and what it's been doing so far. Thank you so much for being here and thank you for opening this session. And now I'm looking really forward to the next two people that's coming to actually take us a little bit through the program and then also the progress that's been happening with iDiaspora since the last two years. But in addition to that, we're also gonna see and then like just go through the platform itself, the changes that's happened and then where's the platform is being. That will be the first, the second session that's happened and after that session then we'll bring some members of the diaspora, leader of the diaspora that's like really being with iDiaspora itself like being doing really changes with the community within the respective community in the diaspora to like just give us, share the perspective. So we'll start with the second session. What I'll do, I'll start actually with Dr. Larissa to just give us a take us through the progress of like what iDiaspora has been doing so far the past two years. Thank you so much, Kimo. I would like to share my screen but I think the option is not available but it doesn't matter. I think the most important thing now is I really want to thank everyone involved in this project. I really see the evolution and the future very bright and I'm really thankful for being sharing this floor with different members of diasporas and I am really grateful that not only we have African but also Latin American representation and also European representation and Asian representation. So I think this is a moment to just think about that because I've been studying diasporas for quite a long time and it's my pleasure to see that these synergies are being created at a global level. So I wanted to thank everyone involved in the project. So without any further ado, I will start my presentation. Hopefully I can share it. Just give me one second. Is it, can you see it? Yeah. Yes, that's really good. Thank you, perfect. So very briefly I would like to comment on four points Kimo already addressed it. So I'm going to basically comment on the evolution of the platform and I will also present some data on the users since you will see it's a very interesting community not only internationally but also we have achieved a gender balanced community. So I think that's actually also a very important point to mention. Then I will proceed to talk very briefly about the global diaspora virtual exchanges on COVID which were very, very good to provide data and to really see how diasporas are contributing to development in the world. Finally, I will briefly present how diaspora engagement and the digitalization are a very important key for the progress of the diaspora and also thinking about what we're living today. So the digital world has become very important and I think it will still be. So I will just make some points on that. So the community, the diaspora community is a platform to empower the diaspora engagement and it's a digital space that provides diaspora members in the world to connect, to share knowledge, to share their experiences and to share their best practices. They can share videos, pictures, everything. And I think, again, this is a very creative space and most of all it enables the diaspora members to engage with a bottom-up approach in the initiatives that they want to share with the others. So as we have been mentioning there are different stakeholders involved in this process. So it's not only that we want... It's not only a space for migrants to create their initiatives but also to tap on other resources and other expertise. So we also have members from businesses, from governments, from international community in general and the global society. And this is very important again because it's a space that really wants to integrate different actors to provide important and smart solutions. We all as different actors have different knowledge and this is the place where we really want to share this. So we have people from different areas of expertise and different interests and they have been collaborating and I will present a very specific key example which are the global exchanges. As of today we have 530 members from 109 countries and I'm sure that it will grow because everyone is being very active and I'm really grateful that everyone is responding to the platform positively. Most of the users are young. Again, this is a very important statement because as you know the youth and as the UN we really focus on this community. So we're trying to enhance also the initiatives done by young people. And as I told you before in terms of gender we're fairly balanced which is again a great progress. From the latest numbers that we have is that almost 223,000 users, sorry, times it has the platform has been accessed. And in terms of the countries that 32% of our registered users are from India, 16% from the US and 6% from the UK. Again, I think this will, it might vary across time and I'm really curious to see how it evolves because we are integrating members from different diasporas and again, I think it's a very positive note. In terms of interest, we have different interests of the diasporas that have been involved. So it ranges from health to social interests to more economic development, humanitarian support. So this is relevant to discuss and to think about because as I told you before it doesn't matter your area of expertise of interest you will find an option to collaborate and to actually integrate interesting discussions with specialists and experts. And it's a hub of information that hopefully you will be able to access and to explore more. Finally, just very briefly I would like to talk about the global diaspora virtual exchanges on COVID. So we had three, one in English, one in French and one in Spanish. And it was an important event because it actually brought together diaspora members from all over the world that could share their best practices and strategies to engage transnationally. Once again, I think this is one of the very few events that managed to attract so many people from so many different regions. And I think we have to acknowledge that. And hopefully we will very shortly present you a report that we have been working on to really after analyzing all the different practices that diaspora members have shown in these events we came up with the analysis and then three main sets of good practices. So after analyzing all the exchanges, we realized that diasporas are really interested in enhancing connection, partnership, and self-empowerment. In terms of connection, they really want to ensure to create long-term sustainable networks that privilege bottom-up solutions. And they are actually pointing out that technology is a great tool to do that. In terms of partnership, diasporas really emphasize the fact that communities need more trust and transparency. And once again, technology has been a key tool to do that. In the report we will, once we publish it, you will see that technology and smartphones have been very important in terms of ensuring transparency, trust among the communities worldwide. And finally, in terms of self-empowerment, migrants have really showed that they can contribute with their know-how and their knowledge to development. So they really want to keep providing those resources and those tools that recognize their voice and capacities to fight for their own rights and to keep creating important co-development programs. So just a few notes before giving the floor to my colleague Roberto on diaspora engagement and digitalization, as we have seen, diasporas actually acknowledge the power of technology. And I think today it's even more relevant now what we are facing as an international community. So in terms of how can technology and diasporas are linked is, and especially in the COVID times, diasporas have been able to create informative campaigns. They use technology as tools to collect funds. They communicate as we're doing just now and we are reinforcing networks. So this is very important in the world we're living today. And I'm really excited to see the new features and I hope you will really like them because we have been working on them and thanks to your feedback, otherwise it wouldn't be possible. And I think this is, and I hope you will enjoy the new tools. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you so much, Larissa, for taking us through the progress that's been happening and they look like there's a lot of good, good thing that the team have been doing from the ideas perspective since the inception two years ago. So that's exciting to see. And it's also nice to see the three event that happened during the COVID time and some of the panelists here, including myself were part of that. So it's just exciting to see them looking forward to just getting the report from all the finding that was captured from that. Thank you so much for your presentation. Now we'll move on to Roberto. So Roberto is gonna take us to the new platform or the update and then the fancy. Well, Roberto, I won't take it away from you. Go ahead. Thank you. Thank you, Kimo, for the great introduction and thank you to all the participants that have logged on and thank you to all the panelists and speakers that have joined us today for this great event. Very exciting, as the colleagues have said. This is a milestone for the platform and we've really been listening to all the feedback that we've been receiving over the last two years to try to make the platform as responsive to your needs as we can. So as you can see, I hope everybody can see my screen now. Okay, and the rest is shaking their head. So I'm gonna go ahead. This is the new version of the iDASPR platform. As previously, it's still based around the three pillars of learn, connect, learn and contribute as is found as a tagline for the iDASPR logo in the platform in general. And I won't go into depth into each one of these because this structure pretty much has remained the same since the previous version. So I won't, for time purposes, I'll be focusing on the new features which we have been working on for the last, ahead of this launch. So one of the first things which we have often received as a comment is the limiting factor of having the platform only in English. Of course, we want the immunity that we're working with is very diverse. As Lyssa pointed out, we have members from over a hundred countries around the world. And it can be difficult for some to navigate in English. So the new version of the platform is multilingual. As you can see here, we have a Spanish version of the platform already live and we will be adding a French version to the platform as well. These are the three official languages of IOM. So these will be the first three languages that the platform has been translated into to facilitate engagement of different communities that feel more comfortable in different languages. So this is one of the, let's say, key additions that you'll find in this new version of the platform. So here you can see the Spanish version. It's loading a bit slowly, but essentially, I mean, it is the same platform but with the content and the navigation primarily available in Spanish for those that prefer using Spanish language and feel more comfortable. So since we are having the webinar in English, I'll return back to the English version of the platform for the rest of the walkthrough of the new features. So here we go. Another of the feedback that we've often received from our users and partners is that while they appreciate the global region scope of Diaspora, they feel that it would be much easier and more convenient to navigate the platform if it can be done by region. So here, we've actually added a new feature that allows navigation of all the content on the platform by region and by country. So here on the homepage, you can find it through this map also through the menu you have here and the dropdown menu, the different regions and basically content, the continent where we have divided the content of the platform. And we'll use Africa as an example as it's one of the most populated regions. So we had a lot of engagement with the African Diaspora. Therefore, we have a good bit of content from Africa to be displayed. So on this regional page, you can see that this page basically brings together all content that has been tagged with an African country as the country of origin or a country of destination that is relevant to that content. You can also see users that are from that region. And you can see all sorts of content from news and updates, calendar events, blog entries, opportunities. These are concrete opportunities for engagement. So short-term assignments, volunteer assignments. These are all available through the platform. Resources in terms of manuals, training materials but also research and studies. And once you're on the regional page, you can also dig down deeper into the country pages. And similar to the regional pages, the country pages collect all the content which have been tagged with that country as either the country of origin or the country of destination relevant to that content. So again here, you can see for Sierra Leone, the users that are from that country and the content, be it calendar events or opportunities or resources that are related to that country. So all this content is also available to the traditional global navigation of the platform through the main menu, but this allows users to focus on those countries or regions that are most interest to them. So this is again, another of the big changes that we've done to respond to some of the feedback that we've been receiving. Another feature that we've added relates to how the community engages. And we've been working with different aspects of community engagement since the beginning, trying to facilitate that kind of connection and collaboration. And here you can see the Explorer, the community page. This would be familiar for those of you that have used the platform before. We also have a new feature or enhanced feature for the community dashboard, unfortunately, due to some issues with the server. I can't show you that right now, but they should be online shortly. But here through the Explorer, the community page, we can basically browse all the different users on the platform and filter and search by different characteristics. So for example, I want to find our web developer, who is from the Philippines. So I can search here through all the users in Ida Aspa to find all the users on the platform who are from the Philippines. You can also search and cross-reference by place of residence, city of residence, type of users because we have individual business organizations and government agencies, as Lursa mentioned. So Paul is actually our web developer, who's done a great job in putting this all together. And I wanted to show you his profile because it actually illustrates another one of the features that we've added to this new version, which is to basically recognize those users and those members of the community that are most active through providing a system of badges that recognize the amount of contributions that a member has actually made to the community. So here you can see on our web developer Paul's profile, he has a number of badges. These on the top are activity badges, which are received for uploading or generating new content. So depending on the amount of content within different categories. So for example, the booster relates to how many other users you've recommended. Thinker relates to the number of blog posts that have been made and a conversation list refer to the number of forum conversations that have been initiated. And based on the number of activity badges, then there's also user badges that will recognize the overall contribution of that user to the platform. And so there's different levels of user badges depending on the amount of contribution. And now I will quickly show you my own profile for one of the other new features, which hopefully will facilitate that engagement even further. That is a very old picture. So don't be surprised, that is me, many years ago. And here, what once we have the new features that we're going to show you and here what once we log in. So right now everything you've seen is from the perspective of a non-registered visitor to the platform. But once you actually sign into the platform with your username and password, then you have the opportunity to interact with other users in a number of ways. So once you identify a user you would like to be in touch with, you can send them direct messages. But one of the new features is actually you can follow another user and receive notifications whenever that user generates new content on the platform. This is part of a whole new system of notifications that we've built into the new version of iDiaspora. So I'll show you here basically once you're on your profile, once you've established your profile, you can follow other users, but you can also subscribe to receive notifications on different kinds of content that are being uploaded. So specifically some of the content that one can subscribe to here under notifications. Now you can see events calendars. So whenever there's a new event, you'll be notified. The news and updates, whenever news and updates are generated, then you'll be notified or featured content. And featured content is any kind of content which is promoted to the homepage of iDiaspora. So this can be calendar events, it could be using news and updates, but it could also be resources, it can be opportunities. So it's a number of different kinds of content, but those that are considered to be most interesting for the community and that thus are promoted to the homepage. Those are the main features I wanted to share with you today, but I also wanted to make sure to highlight the fact that only because we did this relatively large upgrade, it doesn't mean that we're planning to stop here. iDiaspora always has been and will continue to be an evolving space and we very much invite all the users to provide us with inputs and some suggestions so that we can continue adapting and improving the platform as new needs rise, as new inputs are received. So please do not hesitate in providing us feedback, comments, we're looking forward to being able to make sure that iDiaspora is responsive to the needs of this community, which we are trying to serve. Thank you again, and I'm happy to pass the word back to Kimo. Excellent, thank you so much Roberto, and yeah, there's like a lot of exciting new feature added to this, so it will be nice for everybody to now just get an opportunity and jumping into it and start getting used to it. Thank you so much again, Roberto for sharing these new features and let yourself for walking us through the process and then the progress that's been made from iDiaspora for the past two years. You can see a lot of things, a lot of new things, a lot of progress, like a really good progress have been happening ever since. So yeah, thank you so much guys for getting us up to date. Now we're gonna move to the third part of the session today, which can be three panelists that we invited from the respective diaspora community to come in and share their perspective and yeah, and with their involvement in their community and then also with their involvement with the iDiaspora community. So the first person I'm gonna call come will be Peter work. So Peter, actually I will ask each and every one of you to actually introduce yourself and then probably in one or two minutes so the audience know who you are and then before you start talking about the topic that you wanna talk about, but Peter will reflect a little bit on the iDiaspora's role in building global community. Peter, if you could go on and please introduce yourself and then yeah, take it away. Thank you, Camel. I am so excited about iDiaspora new version and thank you so much Roberto for sharing and we love your hats. And also Larissa for bringing us on the two years. Now we are entering the new chapter together. So thank you so much. Brief introduction of myself. My name is Peter Quok. I am the chair of global diaspora confederation and in the UK, I chair the UK Federation of Chinese Professionals. So what we do, what I do, I am a diaspora or community representative in the UK and also in China. I chair a number of diaspora organizations in Europe, Africa and China. So a lot of experience in trying to check all the language and as I actually talked with Roberto earlier on before we start, my Spanish is not that good. So I'm trying very hard to learn as well. So I am progressing. So this is my very brief summary. But today I'm trying to talk about the connection between the new global diaspora confederation I chair with a lot of amazing members and the iDiaspora connection between each other. So as I said, I chair the GDC and less than seven months ago, I had the chance to speak at iDiaspora, first global virtual diaspora exchange with a wonderful moderating also from Canada. My topic was on tackling xenophobia and hate as we experienced a suspected rise in community tension towards hate crime. At the webinar, I shared about how we introduced the concept of and set up our first national virtual third party reporting center in the UK. For those who are not familiar with third party reporting or when a victim or witness experience hate crime and prefers to talk to someone who is familiar with their culture and language, they can approach us for helping with police. However, no country is exempt from xenophobia since the beginning of our human race. The COVID-19 pandemic this year has made this global phenomenon more viral and Chinese diaspora was only one of the first groups being severely affected. Thanks to our iDiaspora event, our work and concerns were shared with other diaspora communities. But most importantly, it was the space on the iDiaspora platform that gave me the confidence in developing the ideas for more social change. This was how global diaspora confederation GDC was born in response to the need for greater coordination and collaboration in face of the global crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. So a brief history about our newly developed GDC, the reason why we created the GDC in face of the current tsunami of xenophobia as our UN Secretary General sent is because we believe that unity is the solution. One diaspora organization may do so much for its community but together we create a global impact that spread positivity across the world. Hence from May to July, we have reached out to 1200 diaspora organizations and published with over 230 diaspora federations and associations a joint statement of solidarity with victims of COVID-19 related xenophobia. Thanks to our debt, which is also here today with us, Coalithion for Venezuela, African diaspora network, UK Federation of Chinese Professionals that helped convene the statement. As our IOM Director General Antonio Vittorino said, the joint statement refers the importance of racial and social justice and the need for unity between peoples regardless of origin, race, skin color and cultural background at this challenging time and into the post pandemic recovery. So in July, Global Diaspora Confederation was formally established with an elected board and a strong number of member organizations. By October, we have successfully attracted applications from over 1500 volunteer professionals through our diaspora platform, enabling us to embark on creating the foundation of our global secretariat and focus on global COVID-19 online consultation and mapping. So as we are on track to become the largest diaspora-led organization for global diaspora communities, our role is to unite, support, develop and promote diaspora organizations so they can maximize the impact of supporting the host and home communities in light of the current pandemic and beyond. Going forward, the GDC will further the exchange of best practices and facilitate joint initiatives among diaspora organizations and promote cooperation between humanitarian actors and diaspora organizations through the partnership with UNIOM and iDiaspora. The GDC will also provide our members, member organizations, global diaspora network support, updates and events. In terms of the localizing our global support, we are aiming to strengthen our dialogue with member organizations and partners to mobilize resources. Let me give you an example. Yesterday, I was with my virtual support center team leaders of an African charity that supports local vulnerable communities. We spent five hours with our country representatives to discuss how we could further support the displaced population hiding in bushes from attacks. They do not have money, no food, no clean water, no transportations, no medical treatment and even they want to transport the roads, do not allow them, the roads are not built. So I know IOM is already doing so well on this. I imagine we also have someone local and registered on iDiaspora who can share his or her experience for us to complete our data mapping for our COVID-19 outreach initiative. How good would it be? So I saw, because we were talking with Sierra Leone and Cameron teams yesterday, so I was really pleased that actually Roberto showed the Sierra Leone page on iDiaspora. So it more or less echoed when I actually said just now. So to conclude and celebrate the new version of iDiaspora and the success of the GDC, may I take this opportunity to thank Marina for all her very kind support. And I know Roberto, you have heard me saying this so many times, but I want to thank the New York game for everything. And also, Martin Russell, if you are here, for introducing me to this wonderful plan in such a short period of time, the way it was built and put together, the way the initiative started and then now it feels like the sky is the limit in terms of the accomplishment that can be done. So when people start coming together, magic happen and this is like a really a clear example of that. So thank you so much for taking us through that and then really clearly articulating what you guys have been doing and what is in the future. Thank you, Camel. Thank you. All right, now we'll go to the next two people that's on the schedule. So we have Karina, do you go first or Laura? I'm not sure who wants to go first. Do you think that I'm supposed to start? All right, so I will have a Laura go first. Laura, if you would in mind introducing yourself, maybe just a two minute and then you can go on and then start talking about the topic. But Laura and Karina is going to talk about the perspective on how I diaspora serve the transnational community. Laura, please do go ahead and introduce yourself so people who don't know who you are. And then yeah, take it from there. Are you sure, or do you want to go Karina first? I think she was first on the list. I'll go first. I don't mind. I'm fine. Yeah, Laura, go first, please. Okay, all right, okay, sorry about that. Yeah, so thank you so much for the invitation, first of all. I'm very grateful, I am new here. I am the new kid on the block here, but I'm super excited to be sharing what we do here in the group that I represent. So a little bit about myself. I am, my name is Laura de la Fuente. I was born in Mexico. I've been living in Ireland for the past 24 years. So I will be waving both flags, the Mexican and the Irish one, proudly, both of them. And I am a sociologist from school, but I am also a project manager in IT finance. And at the moment I am the president of the Mexican Network of Talented Professionals abroad. The name in Spanish is Red Global Emerges. And so the idea is that I talked to you about the Red Global. So this association is a network association, which was created 15 years ago as a project from the Foreign Affairs Board of Mexico to group the diaspora for the brain drain in Mexico. So 15 years ago it was created mainly focused on the US and Canada, which was the majority of the immigrants where they go. So with the years it developed to what it is now, which is a well-structured organization. We have presence in nearly 80 countries in the world. We have around 6,500 members. We are the only network association, a Mexican one, that is recognized by the government. It's institutionally recognized. We have a collaboration ties with all the embassies where we have a representation that is mainly about the structure that we have worldwide. And what do we do in the Red Global is kind of divided or structure in four mayor pillars. We call them pillars. So we have a entrepreneurship. We have social responsibility. We have science and technology, all the STEM area, and the arts, the creative arts. And that is the structure that is followed across all the, we call them chapters that where we have representation in the different countries. And we have a rules. We have the structure all across that is followed from all the chapters. So we also have representations in the country. For every state of the country, majority of the states in Mexico, there's 32 states. We have so far 16 representations of the Red Global in the country. And the way we work is that based on those pillars for different areas, the Mexicans that are registered in their chapter in their country, and perhaps they specialize in science and technology or they are musicians or they're in arts, the group with these representations in Mexico to reach out more people in Mexico in order to make this a economy of knowledge to be more available to the people in our country for all the Mexicans that are at the moment unable to travel or to emigrate or they just want to learn. So majority of our activities, obviously they are networking, but also they are around all the economy of knowledge. We want to give back to our country and we give back to our communities where we are. So that's pretty much in a high level in a nutshell how we are organized worldwide. We group as well by region. We are 22 chapters in the European region. We meet every year and we have different clusters of specialties. We have a lot of SMEs. Subject matter experts in different areas. So based on the initiative or the expertise, the group and we have the initiatives such as a global women MX. We have a cluster of science and technology which is very strong in Europe. We have the cluster of space studies in the U.S. and Canada because there's a number of Mexicans nearly 10 that are working at NASA. And so we have also a creative industries cluster as well in Europe. So this is just to give you a flavor of how we are grouped within our chapters, within our region. And that is the same structure we follow to give something back to our communities in Mexico. And people in the different chapters can have various initiatives. I'm just gonna mention one just to give you another flavor of what we do. The chapter in Spain and they have two, one in Barcelona, one in Madrid. They created a project called Adopta High School. So what they started three years ago is working with high schools in disadvantaged areas in Mexico and different parts of Mexico. And we are a number of volunteers part of this group. And what we do as SMEs is share one hour of our time whenever there's a space available to give these sort of a workshop or class to the high school students for free. And we think it's amazing because besides their normal curriculum, they can learn about our areas of expertise. So I have spoken about project management but people that they are in science and technology, for example, in Madrid, they're experts in the study of the field of the alcoholism in the brain. They are working in labs, they are PhDs. And they give these talks to these high schools. And I think in return, in a few years time, this will be amazing to open up this young community, the eyes to what is like to be a Mexican abroad, what are the opportunities they could have. So everything that we do, it's around the knowledge that we can share as Mexicans to our communities in the countries where we live or in our own country of origin. And I can take more time and I don't, that's not probably the moment now to high tackle the time that I have, but I could speak about many other initiatives. But for now, this is kind of just a flavor of what we do. And the reason I am super excited about the iDiaspora is because we share the same values, the connect, the learn and the contribute. Those are values that we share strongly personally and as my chapter, the chapter Ireland. And for my team, for my committee, I can tell you that they were very impressed when we had a look at the platform and see all the opportunities they could arise from there in terms of networking, in terms of collaborating, in terms of synergies with not only the Mexican diaspora, but all the diasporas in the world. And the opportunities just multiply and expand by working with you guys. So just for example, the COVID-19 as well, we share the same desire initiative. We did something like that as well in the red global, but I think working with the IOM and the iDiaspora, I think the opportunities will expand and it will make this initiative stronger. So with that, I am going to stop and I welcome questions later. So that's me. Thank you, Kimo. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Martin and Rosa for connecting me with all of you guys in the first place. Roberto, Laista, Peter, everyone here that I have interacted with so far. I know I've been here for a very short time, but I'm looking forward to the interactions in the future. Thank you so much, Laura, for taking us through and it's amazing working I don't at the red global. MX seemed like a really well-structured organization and that's really nice. And I think one of the beauty of this platform is seeing how other diaspora organization, how organized they are or what are they doing well and then how can other organization learn from that? And I think I'm sure you probably have a contact from more organization to reach out and see if there's any good practices to be shared. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. And now the next person I'll go to will be Karin. So Karin, if you can please introduce yourself also for the audience member to don't know you and then yeah, just to take it from there. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much, Kimo. And of course, thank you to IOM for the invitation. I must say that I'm really glad and very honored to be here to participate in this anniversary event knowing that two years ago, ADEPT attended the launch of IADISPORA. So it's a real pleasure to see the platform, the initiative evolve. So I am the executive director of ADEPT which is the Africa Europe diaspora development platform. And I have been asked to talk about, of course, IADISPORA but also about the activities and the services that are offered by ADEPT when it comes to diaspora engagement. So I will say a few words about the platform. So we are a platform of African diaspora organizations based in Europe, so the European Union but also Norway, the UK and Switzerland and our members conduct, develop activities in Africa but also diversity and inclusions action in Europe. And the mission of the platform is to enhance the capacities but also the impact of the diaspora organizations in Africa. And this is very ambitious but also very necessary to help reshape the narrative about diaspora. So to do so, we intervene in three, sorry, different areas. The first one being communication and information. So we provide information about events, about funding, about trainings and about fellowships and we do so through our newsletter, our website and also through social and professional media. We also showcase actions that are conducted by the diaspora and here again, the IADIS to help change the narrative about the diaspora to change the way the diaspora is seen and we do that through our magazine. So we have a magazine called ADEP MAG. We also do that through our several media campaigns and very recently we have launched a media campaign on COVID-19 and more specifically on the actions conducted by diaspora organizations and individuals in response to COVID-19. We also circulate good practices so that other organizations or individuals can take inspiration. More specifically about our members, we conduct as often as possible surveys so that we can have more clarity about their needs and their expectations when it comes to ADEP. We have several IADIS on the table, in order to improve the engagement of our members. One of them is to establish a community of practice. Another one is to conduct as often as possible online consultations to have a better idea of where they stand, what they want, what they would like us to do, what they would like to do. We also would like to relaunch what was set up previously which are thematic working groups. So all that is about communication and information. The second area of intervention is policy and advocacy on migration and development related issue. And here the objective is to try as much as possible to promote the inclusion of diaspora organizations in development circles and also to amplify the voice of the diaspora. And to do so, we have a flagship event which is called diaspora development dialogue which is a space for dialogue gathering international organizations, of course diaspora organization but also bilateral agencies, the private sectors, the NGOs to discuss diaspora related issues. And we use this plot to this, well, framework, let's say to also organize trainings, to organize networking events but also peer learning. When it comes to policy and advocacy, we also produce position papers. And very recently we have issued a position paper on the EU anti-racism action plan. We also first participate in high level forums. Very recently we participated in the International Dialogue on Migration organized by IOM. We also participate in the GFMD among many other forum. We also consult our members as often as possible. I think it's never too much but we try not to bother them too much knowing that they are also very busy. But we consult them to help us build a common position when it comes to issues that are handled by the EU. And very recently the European Commission launched a consultation regarding the integration of migrants. So we consulted with our members with a view to having a common response to this consultation. So this was for policy and advocacy and communication and information. And the third and last area of intervention is capacity development. So we provide technical and financial support to diaspora organizations that want to implement projects in Africa and in Europe. We also organize trainings as already mentioned and we provide support to help create consortiums because we think that it's very important when it comes to diaspora engagement. Last but not least, we have also created a pool of diaspora experts that can help us, for example, when we want to organize a training and other activities. So this was to give you an idea, so very briefly about what we do. Now, when it comes to AI diaspora, this year we signed a memorandum of understanding with AI diaspora and we are very happy about that. We have seen this collaboration gaining strength. We participated in the initiative that was launched as a response to the mounting xenophobia due to COVID-19. And I think that this is a real illustration of the added value and the strength of AI diaspora. This ability to create a global community, for us it's very important to know much more about what diaspora organizations based in other geographic areas do because it's important for us to know them and to learn from them. That's the reason why we're very happy that the website is being revamped. Apart from this initiative, so we have also used AI diaspora to promote our events. We have launched a webinar series on the EU Africa partnership and there was, for example, a webinar on migration. And to us it was very useful to have it promoted through AI diaspora and as I said before, we have launched a media campaign under COVID-19 and it was also promoted via IOM website and it was really a satisfaction for us. Personally, I use AI diaspora to get knowledge because there is this wealth of knowledge. When it comes to knowledge resources then it's extremely useful. What I would like to see more, but I say AI, but I think that's where I can talk on behalf of ADEVT is to see more cross-regional actions, joint statements, but also joint projects on specific thematic topic, for example, human rights, climate change and I think that it can be very impactful. But there is so many things to say. I think it can also be very useful to talk about funding because you know that it's a key issue for a diaspora organization. It's not always good to talk about money, but it's key and I don't know if it's a possibility, but I think that if it is, you shouldn't refrain from that because it's always a key question for us. So this is what I wanted to say and of course a big thank you for the very fruitful collaboration between ADEVT and AI diaspora and ADEVT and IOM at large. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you so much for walking us through all the work that ADEVT has been doing and then continue to do and then the vision, the dream and then how you bring in the community, especially the African diaspora community in Europe. And yeah, I like how you have this a bigger vision and I think one of the areas, especially for most of the diaspora below, for the African diasporians, that narrative change. And I think that's a big thing. So I'm glad to see you guys have that on the agenda. So thank you so much for that. I think we're gonna now move on to take a few questions, but let me check with my co-host here. Roberto, do we have it into like 4.20? What time is it? Yeah, we have it until 4.30. Was it 4.30? So we still have a few, we have opportunity here to take a few questions from the audience. I think there's already one question that's specifically addressed to you. Roberto, I will have you take on that because I think it's gonna be helpful to other people also in the audience. And then we'll see if there's more questions. If not, then I have a question for myself for the panelists. Great, thank you, Kimo. So I'm actually going to take advantage of this question to show a bit more about the platform. So the question from Cedric was, can previous initiatives be shared through the platform or is it just for future initiatives? And the answer is that there definitely, there's a space to share previous initiatives on the platform. And there's a number of ways that that could be done. So one of the places where we have a lot of interesting initiatives that have taken place in the past is here under the connect pillar and get inspired. And basically this page includes a number of the success stories, interviews with diaspora leaders and experts. So if you have these kinds of promotional materials for your initiative, videos mainly or what we call success stories, it's a kind of online storytelling system, which I'm not an expert to tell you the exact details, but these can be shared here. In addition, if you want to share information in a text format about your initiatives, you can create a blog post. So the blogs are open to all users. So you can very easily create a blog post both about upcoming events and about previous campaigns. You can see here a post from Peter and the combating prejudice campaign they did, as well as some of the posts that I've shared. So these are the two main areas, but actually one of the new features in the platform is also in the events calendar. Unlike the previous platform, we actually do have a section for previous events. So you can actually go here to the past events and you can have a look at some of the different events which have been promoted through iDiaspora previously. So if you have created an event previously on iDiaspora, you can actually go back to those events and add videos, photo galleries, reports to follow up on those events. So I hope that answers your question. And I just wanted to take one more minute to actually address the points which Karin made because this was actually feedback that we have received from other partners and members about the funding issue. So we've actually created a space for sharing funding opportunities. I didn't mention it previously because right now we haven't populated it, but basically this is just to let you know that it is one of the new features on the platform that we're working on and that will be ready hopefully soon to actually help to diaspora associations be able to connect with the funding that they need to implement the important work that they're doing. Thank you for that. And happy to receive any other questions. Thank you so much Roberto for going through that. That was a, it's much easier to actually show people how to navigate directly versus like just explaining. So thank you for doing that. Two for one, you actually answered both questions. I think I really, I think maybe on most of the participants or all the participants who agree with me just hearing these three panelists and go through the work that they're doing that you just can't help but be inspired by the amount of the effort for each organization but really the vision that the each of them has to really root the diaspora community on the map to support them, to promote them, to really enhance their ability to make an impact not only in the country of origin, but over here that's the idea of being part of the diaspora. I think my question to you all, feel free to jump in. How do you see, now we have in the conversation which is the first step, right? I always say once you see each other then you start talking, then once you start talking then you start engaging and then things start coming happening from there. We have done the first step. How do you see this organization figuring out in the concrete way of coming together and really starting sharing this because we're all in the same path. How do you start plugging in? So I'd like to use that term now versus saying collaborating, right? How do you start finding the synergy area to really start practically making things happen, start working together and start really plugging in and as you go forward. Just unmute yourself and feel free. It looked like a lot I want to jump on first. Yes, I just kind of wanted to share that. From my perspective as representing the Red Global I think a good way to start would be via the SMEs, the subject matter experts. So for example, in my committee we have four pillars of work and we capture pretty much everything under those pillars and have people and experts in those pillars. So we know there's initiatives and personal projects that we are working on them at the island level, with Mexico level, at the region level. But now that we have a diaspora and we have the IOM here, I think it will be a great opportunity for these people from my chapter to join the idea for to start the conversation on their topics, their experts or they have interested on and probably we share the structure that we follow if that's of any help. Be open-minded and start working with like-minded individuals in other diasporas or in other members of the diaspora. That's the way I've seen it work in our side, for example. That's the way we created the... I didn't say the name in English because I don't know the translation but the ones that speak Spanish, I understand it. When we created the Red Global, when the Red Global was created 15 years ago, we only created the chapters which are the representation on the countries. But eventually seeing the need to collect and make synergies where the need was, we created the representation on the states in Mexico. They call nodos. Nodos is a word that signifies... The meaning is there's a place that it is stable. It doesn't move. So the nodo is the places in Mexico of all the people that they cannot move. They stay there in Mexico but still they want to make a synergy, interact, resolve a need, raise a problem, just get together to join talent and create groups, create companies, whatever you name it, we have seen it. So I think it will start with the appetite of every person, at least from the SME perspective which is what I can offer from the Red Global perspective. Hope it makes sense. Thank you so much. Maybe one person can go and then I think we have a couple of questions here from our dear friend and advocate, Martin. So maybe Karin or Peter can take a stab at the same question or we can move on to the next question. Yeah, thank you very much, Kimu. And thank you to Martin for this very important point. And I think that it's key even though it's a little bit more complicated in this COVID-19 time, it's very important to convene as often as possible. And I think it makes a difference because it helps, as I said, know each other and but also it helps create partnership. It's always the first step to the creation of a partnership. So if it cannot be made in person, we have to find a way to meet each other as often as possible online. And that's the reason why we aim to put in place regular online consultations internally. But I do believe in cross-fertilization. So I think that it's also important to have the possibility to meet and discuss and exchange views with people from other geographic areas. Thank you. I think that's a good point if I may. Hello? Yes, Peter. Oh, yes, Kimu. Actually, I heard this cross-fertilization is a wonderful term you're actually describing. Thank you for the wonderful questions, Martin. I think cross-promoting is actually a great idea on social media specifically nowadays. We all use a different type of social media. And interesting enough, GDC has created a video recently, very short, I mean, one minute. I think it's promoted on Ida Espar, which I thought if the audience would like to see it on YouTube, see it on Ida Espar, then it will actually spread the news of the new functionality of Ida Espar. That's a very good idea. And I'm going to send you everyone the link now to Ida Espar to give our video later, not now, later. Thank you. So I think, Peter, you were answering Martin's question on maybe I will read the question here for everybody to hear maybe give an opportunity to also, Roberto, to take a shout out there. The question was, the advocate defends the participant here. How do we consider in the new, the 2.0? Is this a 2.0? Like this is really new version with like all this new amazing feature on it. How can the participant, the advocate, everybody like put the help, spread the word out? Yeah, I think, sorry, Roberto, do you want me to... Go ahead, Peter. Oh, in terms of, again, I think I want to reiterate the social media is such a powerful tool. I think it is not like kind of hard selling, like promoting is like heavily, but it's about introducing. Because I also realized recently that UKFCP, we need to do more on that, reaching out to the networks, to the communities and everyone, whether depending on what you represent today, you may be diaspora organizations, you may be an individual network. When you reach out to actually, oh, you saw something very interesting, but actually you can get trophies. Is it trophies or medals? I can't remember. Well, diaspora, of course you share more information. Oh, sorry. So have you shared something very interesting like that on your social media? This can increase the awareness substantially to come to either a spread and to know more about the good work of other diaspora organizations as well. So I think this is something I would like to add to that. Roberto, active. No, thank you so much, Peter. And thank you, Martin, for the question. I think it's actually very much to the point because we are counting on all our partners and advocates that are online today to help spread the word about the platform. And I think the best way, in my opinion, is to use it to take full advantage of it. As Karine mentioned, ADEPT has been promoting their events through the event calendar. So when that event is on the calendar and then you share the link through social media, that brings new users to the platform as Peter mentioned, the promotional video for the global diaspora confederation is on the platform. And then when they share that through social media, again, that brings people to the platform and allows people to get to know, to be familiar with the platform and hopefully drive more engagement from a broader base of people. And then one thing that as IOM, we are very much happy to offer to all our partners and advocates is actually to do walkthroughs and sort of tutorials with your members, be it member associations, like in the case of the confederation or ADEPT, or specific associations with the diaspora members that participate in your association. So we are actually working on having a user guide and online tutorials now that we have the new platform. So that will probably be released next year. But in the meantime, we've been doing these one-on-one and we are happy to continue doing those. So please feel free to reach out if you want a walkthrough for your members to be familiar with how to use the platform, to demystify the platform and make sure that it's easy to share content and engage. And if I could respond to Martin's other point about the Global IDASPR summit, it is definitely an excellent idea. And I think it is something that we have discussed internally. So it is definitely an option. But definitely we also want to encourage everyone to actually leverage the Global IDASPR confederation as a means of collaborating on that Global Liberal that is actually diaspor-led. So IDASPR, we want to make it a tool for this community, but we see the importance of actually diaspora associations leading this initiative. And that's why we're very happy to count with the partnership and supporting collaboration with the Global IDASPR confederation, which actually counts with ADEPT as a board member as well. So well represented here today. So we definitely look forward to maybe doing something jointly with the confederation, but also encourage all interested in this global level of collaboration to join the confederation, which is moving along quite quite well with the leadership of Peter in all his hard work. So I'm sure there'll be a general assembly soon, where it'd be another opportunity to meet at the global level. So that's from my perspective, but I would also welcome Larissa to share her thoughts in terms of Martin's questions. Thank you everyone for their participation and for the very interesting questions. I would really love to organize the IDASPR summit and gather and really start, well, if COVID allows or even in these times, I guess we're doing this type of events and what doesn't exclude the other. And just to address one point that I really liked was the contribution that Karine made at the end of her presentation about the future of not only the diaspora, but in general terms on migration, diaspora development, how to address it, this cross-fertilization, but also the cross-regional actions that we can implement and try to really learn from each other in terms of themes as human rights or climate change. So I'm really looking forward organizing something around those lines and of course, including all the members that we have already been in touch with. As Roberto mentioned, the component that I really leveraged on those networks that already exist. So I'm really happy for that suggestion. I think it's great and thanks for the, thank you for the cross-search new tools in the diaspora. I think it will be easier to just find and keep tapping on those resources. Definitely looking forward to it. Thank you. Okay, I think that will do it. Thank you, everybody, for being here. I really appreciate it. And I hope the participants really are living this session today with a lot of new information, a lot of good insight, not only from our panelists on the way there are different organizations being run and also the vision they have for the diaspora. But most importantly, just like putting on the table like the willingness and the desire and the opportunity really to have all these organizations really start figuring out how to merge, how to like cross-pollinate, how to work together because everybody's on the same path, right? We are on the same path. And the sooner we figure out how to work together, the sky's the limit. And so you also have like the GDC that's here and then you have the new version of the iDiaspora as a tool. So it seemed like everything is in place, all the pieces of the puzzle are in place. It's just a matter of like plugging them together. So I'm hoping 2021 will be really an amazing step, progress that's done in terms of like bringing all these things together and in terms of like really creating the bigger impact that the diaspora is capable of doing. And then all of us here on this panel and also in the audience know the potential that the diaspora has, we just need to figure out how do you unlock those potential and that's what we're all trying to do. And so I'm glad that this is an opportunity to bring all of us together in this space to have a conversation. Once you start talking, you start engaging with each other and then you start collaborating, start building trust and the magic start happening. So I think this is the start. And yeah, thank you so much everybody for being here. Roberto, I don't know if you wanna have the last word before we let people go, it's 430, pass. Yeah, I would pass the word to Larissa. Okay, Larissa. Just once again to thank everybody. I think their input that you made today was great, the participation. And also I want to thank the participants who brought up very interesting questions. And hopefully we will be able to meet soon and to keep co-creating because this is the space of co-creation, very nice initiatives to reinforce and empower diaspora engagement around the world. So thank you everyone for being here. All right, thank you everyone. Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you, bye. Thank you everybody, take care. Take care everyone. Guys, do we stay here for a minute or do we finish now? Might be nice to wrap up. I mean, I see there's still some attendees. So let me just... I wasn't sure it's fine. The recording first.