 So we're now going to hear directly from diaspora organisations from all the participating countries on how they can contribute to the SDGs. We'll see the results of consultation that were organised by the Global Diaspora Confederation during their first global assembly last year. And I'm delighted to introduce Laura de la Fuente, who's going to moderate this session for you. She's an expat, Laura has been an active contributor to the Mexican Global Network in Ireland since 2015 and is currently president of the Red Global MX Chapter in Ireland. The co-founder of the Latin America Trade Council of Ireland, there is no better person placed to lead this dynamic session. So Laura, it's over to you. Thank you de la. It's an honour to be here. Thank you IOM and Government of Ireland for this opportunity. Ministers and distinguished guests, you are all very welcome. Hi, Mila Fulcha, that's 100,000 welcomes in Irish. Our topic today is connecting with diasporas as partners for development. This hybrid session will provide an opportunity for delegations from participating countries to hear directly from three diaspora organisations regarding their vision for how they can contribute to achieving the sustainable development goals through the presentation of the results of consultations organised by the Global Diaspora Confederation during their first Global Diaspora Week last year, as well as selected interventions from other diaspora organisations. Our first speaker is Peter Kwok. He is the founding chair of the Global Diaspora Confederation, the Umbrella Let's Civil Society organisation to connect and empower diaspora organisations at the global level. Peter also chairs the UK Federation of Chinese Professionals, interconnecting Southeast and East Asian in the UK. Young Chinese Professionals UK and Grandville University's Alumni Association in China. He's a member of the Police Scotland's National Independent Strategy Advisory Group, a member of the advisory group at Scotland China Education Network and Hong Kong Scotland Education Connection. Peter previously supported as honorary chair for the Asian Association of Culture, Commerce and Education in Europe and the Association of Chinese Entrepreneurs in Scotland and as the chair of advisory board for social development international based in Cameroon. He was a former board member of Nanjing Overseas Friendship Association, Yangshu Provence Federation for Returned Overseas Chinese Junior Committee, both in China and Ricefield Chinese Arts and Culture Centre in the UK. Peter received the Alumni Award for Excellence in Achievement from Grandville University and the Freedom of the City of Glasgow. He has nominated for the Charity Chair of the Year in the UK and is a graduate of Imperial College. He's going to talk to us about the needs and aspirations, challenges and opportunities for diaspora organisations collected during last year's Global Diaspora Week. Peter, over to you. Thank you very much. Can I just check if the presentation is on? To the Director General, to the Director General, your Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great honor to be able to present here today and as Laura said, Global Diaspora Confederation connects and empowers diaspora organisations at the global level. If we go to the next slide. So what we do, GDZ brings together the efforts and voices of member diaspora organisations to further support their communities. We've got a very brief history, just over almost two years and celebrating with you in April this year as well. Next slide please. Our vision, Laura has already briefly explained, we are an umbrella-led and diaspora-led civil society organisation to unify, support, develop and promote diaspora organisations where they can discover and realise their visions in order to achieve peace, unity and social and economic advancement for all. And when we say diaspora organisations, they are a shorter firm, shorter form to talk, it's the old standard for diaspora organisation. Next slide please. So GDZ is a charitable, non-political and non-governmental organisation registered in the deathlets with envy status. GDZ has four principal organs, we've got a council, board, fellows and also secretaries. We're connecting with 1,500 diaspora organisations in the world, also develop 70 categories of diaspora organisations, having trustees based in Europe, South America and Africa. Next slide please. Great. So we, GDZ has got a membership structure. At the very top we've got fellows, GDZ 100, GDZ 21 and senior fellows and junior fellows, but at the same time we also have senior members and regular members who are holding up the GDZ system so that we can continue to recognise and empower them through this contribution way. At the same time, we also recognise a lot of diaspora organisations that don't have registration and although we don't work very closely with them, but they are still associated to us. So in order for our time to become a member, regular member with GDZ, they need to have a diaspora community network, obviously. They also need to have a registration in the country of operation and comply with laws. So talking about the global diaspora week and assembly, we had the absolute honour from the Director-General who opened our week last year in December. The week with the purpose of listening and consulting the diaspora organisations across the world, their work towards sustainable development goals, as well as the GCN objective 19. The week was spread over six days, continental days, starting with Asia, Africa, Europe, North Central America and the Caribbean, South America and Oceania. Next slide, please. The global diaspora week was closed with the honour from Miss Daniels, also the Deputy Director-General of ILM, who came to meet us, the diaspora organisations. So the purpose of the assembly, which is on the very final day, and also on International Migrants Day, is to aim to recognise diaspora organisations' achievements across the world, promote them, empower them, and also demonstrate that even local diaspora voices can be heard directly by those at the very top. And of course, summarise the global diaspora impact that we have holistically done together. Next slide, please. We've got 160 diaspora organisations in the very first year joined us at the global diaspora week. Next slide. And later, I will be talking about these five groups. So basically, these five groups of thematic groups of SDGs happened on every continental day. They are all observed by ILM officers in all continents, including each group. Next slide. So to begin with, the first thematic group one, we've got SDG one, two, three, and six. So no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, and clean water and sanitation. Dio's from Dio's basically the diaspora organisation. Dio's from Asia believe it is important to map skills and establish relationships with stakeholders on clean water and sanitation. Many of them have skills, but local connections are sometimes missing. Dio's in Europe mentioned they have ongoing links with their home countries, not only to provide clean water and sanitation, but also to educate locals on the importance of water management. This sort of education has helped local communities to embed healthy sanitation practices in their day-to-day living. In addition to that, there were Dio's projects in Europe to provide a dam to address low water level and supply water to areas that depend on agriculture for survival. Not only projects are well funded and hence, Dio's in South America were engaged in crowdfunding activities to raise funds to build rainwater containers and reservoirs in areas of Venezuela where there is poor water supply. For example, solar panel plants for water treatment were used in Venezuela that has seen successes and they now even plan to export from the country. Dio's in South America also mentioned they have been tapping into government projects for clean water to rural communities in Chile. In terms of zero hunger and well-being, Dio's in Europe mentioned they have supported victims of natural disasters to tackle hunger, but limited capacity for Dio's in Africa meant connecting with stakeholders to collaborate at all levels is key. For example, fundraising to pull together resources. This is also echoed by South American Dio's with the vision to promote entrepreneurship to reduce poverty, empowering migrants with the tools to survive, financial support to find jobs and to help them live and work legally is becoming a common practice for diaspora organizations in many continents. For Dio's in North Central America and the Caribbean, they sent finances back to home countries to contribute to projects but express challenges of adequate resources required for intervention. These limited resources include time, finance and human resources capacity required. Next slide please. So for the same method group two, we're talking about SDG quality education. And of course, we also include partnership for goals number 17 in all groups. African diaspora organizations mentioned that Africa is encountering ongoing brain drain. We're highly skilled personnel migrate to developed countries for better living standards and quality of life. Hence they need to see education at the global at local level, so that Collins can feel the need to return to the countries of origin for development. Dio's in Europe shared that language support language schools have been attended by a sizable population of young descendants of migrants and elderly often enrich their quality of life when they pursue lifelong activities organized by Dio's. For Dio's in North Central America and the Caribbean, they expressed the need to have more resources channeled into improving education, citing it as a significant tool for development. Dio's in Oceania mentioned that they can leverage the use of technology for education and upscale migrants for employment where educational and language barriers can be bridged for better immigration into the country of destination. Next slide please. Thank you. So next slide, this slide, the matter group three key highlights. We're talking about SDG 5, 10, 16 and 17 as gender equality, reduce inequality, peace, justice and strong institution of course, partnership. Some Asian diaspora organizations have been offering support to victims of human trafficking, forced labour and modern slavery through advocacy efforts to cooperation with host government. They also emphasized the need for awareness campaigns that migrants worker need proper orientation and necessary support to avoid being victim of inhumane treatment. For Europe diaspora organizations mentioned that they have been supporting migrants integration into countries of destination with translated publications to remove the barriers while other deals provided language support to female diaspora farmers, for example, in parts of Europe. Gender imbalance within organizations is still an issue, especially in leadership positions, observed by deals in North Central America and the Caribbean. They suggested there should be adequate training for the next generation. Furthermore, there is an increasing number of good practices where deals promote entrepreneurship as a means to reduce poverty amongst women who are empowered to find jobs and overcome immigration issues and language barriers in host countries, discussed by deals in South America. For deals in Oceania, a balanced narrative needs to be given to remove the notion that diasporas just take from the host country and show through quantification and qualitative research. For example, references were made to Portugal's move in showing the contribution of diasporas not only in tax aspects, but also in social security contributions and South Africa's wine industry being majorly contributed to by diasporas. Sadly, the search in hate crimes answer a speech, particularly xenophobia, where ethnic minority groups were blamed for the outbreak of coronavirus has severely affected diasporas across the world, felt and alerted by a huge number of diaspora organizations. Next slide, please. So the next slide. So this slide will be the matter for looking at SDGs 8, 9, 11 and 17, eight being decent work and economic growth, nine being industry innovation and infrastructure, 11 sustainable cities and community communities. It is not taken lightly that the countries of destination had opened the doors to diaspora. However, according to deals in Oceania, the mindset needs to be shifted for diaspora to be able to create opportunities and enabling environments for themselves. For example, emphasis was drawn from the UK Prime Minister, acknowledging that he was attended, he was being attended to by migrant workers during COVID-19. With more institutional support, challenges such as host countries not recognising academic qualifications and experience obtained from home countries can also be mitigated. It is not uncommon to hear highly qualified migrants had no choice but to take on very low paid jobs in countries of destination because of such issues. Deos in Africa mentioned they have been contributing. Yeah, they have been contributing. To the countries of origin's economy, making investments and remittance for business to create employment opportunities. An African deal also mentioned a success story of the high spark women who put together funds to set up business rendering ambulance services. Every man deals have called for improved and better national government policies that will attract diasporas willing to come back to give back. They explained that some existing policies were discouraging for diasporas. As for deals in North Central America and the Caribbean, they observed that employment issues are hardly mentioned when grants are given, are being given to support projects, even employment issues contributing some of the major challenges diasporas face. Deos in South America believe the knowledge gap closing between migrants still need more support. As for Europe, deals think skills gap depends on different countries and volunteering with deals is a way to close it. Asian diaspora organisations believe that diasporas giving back the wealth of skills to the country of origin have led to employment creation. It is a common practice for Asian diasporas organisations to pursue synergic efforts with stakeholders for progressing infrastructures and innovations as well as policies on human and social capital development, funding and real time solutions to diaspora challenges. However, they have been really affected by COVID-19, especially unskilled migrant workers. Next slide please. Thank you. So Group 5, which is the very last group we had, we focused on number 7, 12, 13, 14 and 15. So affordable and clean energy, responsible consumption and production climate change, climate action, life below water, life on land and of course 17 partnership. Deos in South America suggest that there is a need to combine the goals of a country and those of the deos tourist clean energy solutions. For example, Dominican migrants in Chile imparting the knowledge of the use of recycled solar panels in Chile. There was consensus that although raising expertise can be done virtually, connectivity could be a barrier to others in other parts of the world. The need for diaspora driven impact investment was discussed. This required diaspora organisations to become climate change advocates and facilitate information sharing within their communities. This was also supported by deos in Europe, where climate change education was highlighted to tackle the global challenge through diaspora sharing examples from their affected countries of origin. Oceania diaspora organisations also mentioned there have been diaspora contributions as diasporas are often diverse responders to natural disasters. Their work should be quantified and recognised. Next slide please. So in short, everyone, including diaspora, are very affected by COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past year, OEM has been developing the global framework for diaspora engagement on humanitarian assistance. And this global framework, we're able to apply it right at this time, this very challenging and set time when we create the global diaspora humanitarian forum hub on Ukraine response. This later on you will be hearing from our colleagues from the Ukrainian diaspora, Ukrainian World Congress, who will talk more about their efforts. But at the same time, we at the global level also look at how we can provide support for Ukrainian diaspora, also non-Ukrainian diasporas. So to interrupt you, just we're running out of time, could you skip to perhaps to the conclusions? Wonderful. Thank you very much. In conclusion, which is like an alternative. Yeah, thank you very much. So in short, here are the recommendations and conclusions. We are moving away from traditional diaspora engagement and start harnessing the units of technology. We're also quantifying and recognizing diaspora and diaspora organizations effort, but we need your support. More opportunities to contribute to policy development and consultations have been a very big thing for diaspora organizations. We feel they wish their part and supporting the global efforts in building diaspora organization community is what GDC is working very closely with IOM and also all stakeholders in this sector, fostering more trust and capacity building activities is something that we hope to also work with stakeholders in future. And final but not least, promoting transparency in responding to and providing more resources for diaspora needs. So thank you very much for all your kind support in the years to come that we look forward to working with you at a global level and just just close the presentation. This year is 70 years anniversary for IOM. So wish you a wonderful time and also another successful 70 years ahead. Thank you very much for all the kind support and the privilege of sharing here today. Thank you, Peter. Our next speaker is Mirana Rajoharison. She's adept executive director. She joined the organization in July 2019 holding a double master in economics and development management. She has worked at different stages of the project cycle in various African and Southeast Asian countries. Mirana has also worked on the European Commission and World Bank funded projects. Her first experience on the nexus migration and development was in the Sahel where she worked with the climate migrants in the W park buffer zones. Mirana is from Madagascar where she has worked as an economic advisor with the president's office, within the president's office. She's going to share reflections of their work, challenges and more importantly opportunities to support their work going into the future through the future agenda document of the Global Diaspora Summit. Mirana, over to you. Thank you, Laura. Excellencies, honorable guests, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the opportunity to present Africa Europe Diaspora Development Platform, or ADEPT, the platform for Europe based African Diaspora organizations. Our mission is to amplify the influence and the impact in Europe and Africa. Our portfolio of services available to all African Diaspora organizations based in Europe includes policy and advocacy, capacity building, funding, as well as networking. In addition, we have dialogue tools. The first one is the diaspora development dialogue, a multi-stakeholder's round table deal with diaspora consoles. The second tool is the diaspora youth talk dedicated to youth preoccupations. The first attribute of diaspora organizations is their heterogeneity. This makes it difficult to meet their needs, which can be very diverse and even opposing. However, the major the majority of them hold similarities in the small size and lack of permanent staff. They constitute the first category of diaspora organizations. They usually are highly specialized. For full reason, they content their members and organize social events. They cannot rely on grants, as they do not have the necessary bid writing competencies, nor the access to relevant information. Our main challenge is to professionalize them, have them become more sustainable, notably for investment in human resources and in bid writing capacity. It is a prerequisite for that passing from this first category to the second one. The second category of diaspora organization is the medium one. They have more or less sustainable business model, permanent staff, and the benefit from capitalism of the 10 years of experience. They have the bid writing capacity in house, but lack time because of limited human resources. For the growth, they need opportunities to network with peers. This will enable them to learn from each other, as well as to constitute consortia, whether they pull the expertise to respond to calls for proposal. In addition to creating networking opportunities, we facilitate the connection with development agencies, especially in the field. Our main challenge is to be able to find funding to support the scaling up of the tested projects. Diaspora based in France and Germany, or from Mali and Selega, can benefit from dedicated funding. However, the European funding is needed to support the gas organizations based in a country with no historical link. Predictability of funding is key for them to formulate a long term growth and pass in the third category. The third category gathers Diaspora organizations with several decades of experience. The permanent staff is more than five people. They may have representation services in Europe and Africa. They have a proven business model and thanks to their recognized expertise, they can partner with international NGOs to carry out projects in Africa. The main expectation from us is the co-organization of events, relaying or tuning up on policy and advocacy, and eventually assistance for the outreach. They may have a cause to adapt small funding for the unplanned activities. These three categories share undertone motivation, efficiency and agility. The transaction costs are low as they connect directly the transnational to the local. The sustainability of their research is ensured by the partnership with local authorities and civil society guaranteeing a bottom up approach. They can intervene in fragile areas which foreigners do not have access to anyone. Excellencies, honorable guests, ladies and gentlemen. Diaspora organizations are our trump cards to achieve the sustainable development goals, as well as the objective two of the global compact migration. They can be the SDGs accelerator we need to minimize the drivers of migration. Adept commission of research that identified the key drivers for diaspora engagement. There were capacity building, funding and an agreement both in Europe and Africa. Countries aspiring to model good practices for enabling environment may strive to recognize diaspora organization clearly as development actors, integrate them into the development cooperation programs, include them in consultative mechanisms, dedicate specific funding adapted to their needs and characteristics, be it at a national level or through a platform and big partnerships with other organizations supporting them. Those are a few actions listed in the objective 19 of the global compact migration, which has been overlooked. Diaspora received today less than 0.1% of it. Diaspora organizations are doing their part. We have to do our work. Create the conditions for diaspora organizations to fully contribute to sustainable development. Excellencies, horrible guests, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention. I look forward to co-creating a sharp vision diaspora sector together. Over to you Laura. Thank you, Mariana. Our third speaker is Mr. Stefan Romanev. Sorry about that, yes. Our third speaker is Mr. Stefan Romanev. He currently holds the position of Executive Director of Community Languages Australia. He served terms as the chairperson of the Victorian Multicultural Commission under both governments in Victoria. He has a teaching qualification and prior to moving into senior government positions and senior management worked in a range of school settings. He has served as the chairman of the Victorian Government Australia Committee. He's first vice president of the Ukrainian World Congress and co-chair of the Australian Federation for Ukrainian Organizations. He holds position of chair of the Ukrainian World Congress International Committee for Recognition of Holodomor as Genocide and chair of the Ukrainian World Congress International Religious Affairs Committee. Currently he serves as a chairman on a number of committees and organizations with broader Australian and Ukrainian communities. In 2001 he was awarded the Order of Australian Medal for his contribution to education. In 2003 received the Centenary Medal for services to the community. He has received the three levels of orders of recognition and medals from the president of Ukraine for services to Ukraine. He also received the Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Medal for services to international relations. Stefan the floor is yours. Thank you very much. On behalf of the Ukrainian World Congress, thank you for having the opportunity to be here. Before I go into my presentation, obviously this is a sad time for Ukraine given that Mr Putin and his Russian Federation have now committed genocide and acts of against humanity which you've all seen. And the reason for the raising of that is because the Ukrainian World Congress has now played an integral part in supporting Ukraine during this time. The Ukrainian World Congress has been an integral part of developing strategies that can work with governments throughout the world and in conjunction with Ukraine. Could I have the first slide please? Next slide please. The UWC is a global voice for the Ukrainian people worldwide. We represent about 20 million Ukrainians in the diaspora. We have over 60 countries and now we're talking about diaspora in action because those 60 countries have been very, very active in supporting Ukraine and taking out the message of Putin's atrocities in Ukraine. We're also recognising the United Nations Economic and Social Council and we're participatory members of the International Non-Government Organisation with the Council of Europe. Next slide please. We have a range of impactful programs. We have a global team of volunteers and staff and we have strong networks and partners and supporters and I think that's the important thing that I've taken out of some of the presentations by their Excellencies and Ministers and also Mr Kwok in terms of what the diaspora should be doing. Next slide please. Our programs are varied and we have active councils and whilst you can't see them on there, they're the different councils that we have that work throughout the international community and the diaspora working very, very close with Ukraine. And we have also have very prominent leaders who work with us. Next slide please. Again in terms of the Ukrainian World Congress and the diaspora working in or in action, encountering Russian aggression. We have an international coalition of support for Ukraine in our countries wherever we are. We have worked very, very hard to make sure that Ukraine gets the support of those governments. We have peace processes. We work towards the Crimea and the deoccupation of the Crimean platform. So ultimately we're active participants. We collaborate with many, many other ethnic communities again taking our experiences and their experiences. We're protecting Ukrainian communities in Russia. Putin and his government has had black band in the Ukrainian World Congress and the Ukrainian communities in Russia and we have taken those up into the international courts. And we are a global voice in terms of NATO membership and advocacy. We worked hard to stop Nord Stream 2, a campaign which has at least some limited success. Next slide please. At this point in time, we have a major campaign again bringing the diaspora together. You're not with Ukraine. We have a $25 million at this point, $25 million fund, which is supporting medical supplies, protective equipment, fuel, night vision goggles, protective equipment and communication. Because Ukraine is at war and we cannot stand idle because it is a war of values. It's a war for democracy. We have, next slide please. As a diaspora, we have called to action and many of our member countries have taken part in advocating in Europe, advocating in the US, advocating in Australia. We call to action and our communities come together. And next slide please. In our normal support for Ukraine, apart from this war effort, we have members of memorandum of understanding with the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers and Ukraine Invest. In other words, we work in partnership with the diaspora with Ukraine in developing Ukraine. We did election monitoring missions throughout the years. We have a campaign in obtaining multiple citizenship legislation. We've developed programs in terms of economic development. We're working towards Euro Atlantic integration and we foster the Ukrainian national identity or responsibilities of the UWC. Next slide please. We have very strong powerful partnerships which we have created internationally. And again, that goes back into being a diaspora and on somebody who mentioned before that first, it's first generation but we do have a number of people, second and third generation Ukrainians who have returned back to Ukraine over the last 20 years and play active roles in different positions. For example, up until recently the Acting Minister for Health was Oliana Suprun, an American who took on Ukrainian citizenship. Next next slide please. We have our campaign is strengthening our communities from the cradle to the grave. In other words, the diaspora works very very hard in maintaining identity, not to assimilate but to integrate, be strong communities but be strong and active communities in the countries of their of their being. Next slide please. We have a very strong collaboration with churches. The churches in our in Ukrainian culture play a very very important role. We participated in the strengthening of the Orthodox Church in the Thomas which was granted. We were working towards the Patriarchal status for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. We work with the churches on community building and collaboration through such organizations as Caritas. And next slide please. We also as a diaspora see the importance of the memory of truthful history. Therefore, we have a committee and been working very hard about the Holodomor, the genocide against the Ukrainian nation 3233, the famine about getting global recognition. We have formed a Holodomor descendants network, again going back to what somebody mentioned before. It's no longer those descendants, many of those descendants have passed, but we want their children and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren to understand the impact of the Holodomor. We're also working towards the Babinyar memorialization. Stefan, one minute left. Revolution of dignity and the recognition of the 1944-51 deportation. Last slide. Our future vision. We're on to international advocacy. We're very close in collaboration with Ukraine at this point in time. We have a very strong youth program and for us community development is very, very important. Thank you for your attention. Thank you so much, Stefan. We have heard from three very important diaspora organizations and leaders what are their key challenges and the best practices. We recognize that diaspora organizations are instrumental to achieve the sustainable development goals of the global compact for migration. Some of the key insights and recommendations or best practices from the three diaspora presenters. We can take that and there's need for international advocacy, youth programs, community development and use of technology for a better diaspora engagement, quantifying diaspora organization efforts and more opportunities to contribute to policy development and consultations. As a diaspora myself with over 25 years in Ireland, I am very excited about the next chapter of diaspora engagement and the collaborations and partnerships that will stem from this summit and the collaborations in with our countries of origin and adopted countries. Thank you very much. Thank you, Laura. What a riveting session on who better than the diaspora organizations to let us know about the best practices.