 Distinguished guests, colleagues and friends, welcome to the Global Diaspora Summit 2022. IOM is so thrilled to co-host this unique event with the Government of Ireland, a country with a long-standing tradition and passion in connecting with its diaspora community, a vibrant Irish diaspora counting some 70 million people. The comprehensive approach to diaspora engagement of the Irish Government fully resonates with IOM's vision. So why is this summit so important at this point in time? Ten years have passed since the last time diaspora and development ministers met in Geneva at the IOM, International Dialogue on Migration, and so much has happened that has highlighted the role diaspora plays as a key actor in shaping the international migration agenda. The most evident is certainly the adoption of the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration. The GCM recognizes the importance of creating the space and the conditions for diaspora engagement and therefore provides a framework for action, a framework that will help building a lasting and trusting relationship, rather than remembering engaging the diaspora for support only when it's needed. More diaspora plays a key role when it comes to representing a trusted voice in reaching out to migrants and this includes, yes, sharing information on safe and legal migration opportunities and helping facilitate the access to these, but also and very importantly, alerting them to the dangers of embarking on unsafe journeys, the risks of exploitation, trafficking and smuggling. This is not only an opportunity to save lives, it is a responsibility that we all bear. Diasporas have demonstrated a role during the COVID-19 pandemic during which migrants were seen as those essential workers supplying the missing doctors and nurses or agricultural workers across the world. And diasporas are playing an essential role in the current Ukrainian crisis, not only by providing technical expertise, one example is IOM's mental health and psychosocial support hotline which now runs inside Ukraine thanks to Ukrainian psychologists in the diaspora, but also by engaging the diaspora of third country nationals in Ukraine who are not able to leave the country because they have no means to do so and are vulnerable. The virtual diaspora networks are the only ones able to reach these migrants providing them information on how they can access help and in their language. So let's take advantage of our three days together to share experiences and lessons learned, but more importantly to identify concrete ways to increase partnerships with the diaspora to engage strategically in policy development and the response on the ground. Let us make sure that the outcome document we are aiming for can bring the gist of our discussions and our commitments to the first international migration review forum which is only a few weeks away. It's truly a unique opportunity that we have to bring the migrants voice into the IOMRF. I wish us all a highly successful and productive summit which we hope is the first of many more to come. Thank you. Falture of Gabalio Orclea. Hello and welcome to Dublin. Ireland is proud to have been asked to host this global diaspora summit of the member states of the international organization for migration. This is an important summit. It takes place against the tragic resurgence of conflict driven migration and of growing environmental threats particularly through climate change. In addressing these challenges the global diaspora is a vital but overlooked source of support and knowhow. Our diaspora are communities forged through hardship both in their home and host countries. It's made them strong and resilient. They are communities that look to give back to contribute to places that they and their family left as well as the places where they have made their new home. Their stories and experiences are the connective tissue of humanity crossing countries cultures and often generations. As we see today in the case of Ukraine the global diaspora is providing vitally humanitarian support and shelter to others forced to abandon their homes. I believe that this summit will strengthen the important contribution that our global diaspora can make to a more peaceful and prosperous world and I wish you all the best in your deliberations over the coming days. Thank you very much. And thank you everyone. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. It's a pleasure to have you here today's session. Diaspora Humanitarianism COVID-19 as a Breakthrough Movement. My name is Bashar Ahmad. I'm the CEO at Shabaka, a research and consulting organization focused on diaspora humanitarianism and I have the privilege to be the moderator for this session. Just a kind of a quick background to the importance of this session and and it's great. We're going to hear also from our speakers about this topic. So there is a growing body of evidence that shows diasporas are becoming and are crucial actors in humanitarian action and development through their financial or non-financial contributions. Diaspora networks, knowledge, expertise and resources are valuable assets that has allowed them to be actors at break between the different actors and more importantly with the communities we seek to serve as well. And we've seen this remarkable role with the diaspora communities on the front lines of many services and support during COVID-19 pandemic but also diaspora response to peace building, humanitarianism and being the first stop for engagement of diaspora to think strategically about ways to there can be a positive change at home and abroad. And and I think this is why this kind of discussions are quite important not just to see diaspora just within the lens of development but also humanitarianism and there's a lot of that learning and also the bringing of the humanitarian and development nexus. So that kind of opening towards non-traditional humanitarian actors and that kind of collaboration is quite important. So this is kind of like just a gist of the discussion but our speakers will be providing of obviously really unique insights into that. Just some notices for this session. Firstly please note that there will be opportunities for to poke some questions in the chat functions and such. There's also interpretations available in all six languages so in Arabic, French, Spanish, Russian, English. So if just check on the bottom of the screen and you'll find the interpretations options. Secondly and I think we're all very familiar with the online world nowadays. However, I'll just be grateful if you can just ensure that you mute yourself when you're not speaking. This will just ensure that there's a quality of the sound and also when you're asking questions later please just keep your comments short to allow for broader participation. We want to hear from everyone at this session today and finally please don't shy away from contributing. Even if we're asking you to make comments and questions shorter but please your thoughts are really important to ensuring these kind of discussions take forward. And with that I will just stop. What I wanted to do is to introduce our first speaker, Mingo Haidiko. She's been working in the humanitarian development sector since 2007 and for the past decade with a specific focus on supporting effective diaspora engagement in the field. So as her function as head of unit at the Danish Refugee Council, Civil Society Engagement Unit and the diaspora program, Mingo has developed strategies and leading programs and initiatives that have contributed substantially to the field of diaspora engagement. This is particularly through the Development of Demag Initiative and several pushes for the inclusion of diaspora in the overall humanitarian ecosystem and Mingo has also played a leading role in ensuring an increased interest in that recognition of the value and impact of diaspora humanitarianism in the past years. And with that, with not further ado, Mingo, I will just hand over to you. Thank you. Thank you, Bashir. Thank you for the kind words as well. Hello, everyone. I'm really honored for the invitation to speak here today with such a number of relevant and important participants and partners present. And diaspora engagement and specifically diaspora emergency response has not just been my bread and butter for the past decade, but also one of my greatest passions. So I'm very, very glad to be able to share and to listen to this conversation today. Just maybe a caveat. I think the COVID has served as a very strong magnifying glass on the need for inclusivity and local ownership of humanitarian aid and obviously also the strong value of diaspora engagement. I will not be speaking specifically about COVID-19 and diaspora, but we'll share some more general reflections and lessons learned from my work in this field. I did prepare a presentation to just make sure I have some of the key concepts that come out of my reflections over the past years on screen. So I will try to share that. Let me see. It works. Definitely should. Here we go. Bashir, are you seeing something said, the beginnings? Yes, I am. Thank you very much. Perfect. So yeah, now how does the switching work when I'm in this mode? Ah yes, perfect. When I started working with this specific topic of diaspora engagement in conflict settings in 2012 and even more specifically than with diaspora humanitarianism in 2015, diaspora engagement was actually completely unheard of in the formal humanitarian sector as opposed to the development sector, where this has a much stronger and longer history. So myself coming from one of these formal humanitarian organization, colleagues across the board actually looked quite quizzical and doubtful when I started talking to them about the value and the volume and the impact of diaspora engagement. Even my own manager kept asking me year after year, what was it again diaspora was and why was it we should be working with them? So I mean, there's nothing wrong with continuously questioning the value of what we do. But it did take quite some patience and a lot of good colleagues to offload on in order to keep going in that kind of environment that was ignorant of this area of work, at least when I started. Because as we all know, there was a dawning recognition that the formal humanitarianism system couldn't cope with the rising needs alone and that it needed to take a very serious look at itself and at the way it could include other actors in the system and in the leadership of that system. So it's in that context, you could say of the growing self-reflection on the shortcomings of the international system and the importance of having all hands on deck, that I started working with the DMACC initiative and looking more specifically at how we can support and increase the recognition of the very significant role that diasporas play as part of the first response mechanism in almost any country across the world. So that has been quite a long and very fascinating journey. And I think I would like to share some reflections on what I think has made that a success. And I mean, we're far from there yet, but things are moving. So talking a little bit about what I think matters for diaspora support programs as opposed to policymakers, etc. Some general reflections being that I think, I mean, a lot of diaspora support programs that I've been working with over the years are not necessarily run by diaspora organizations themselves. And personally, I don't see anything wrong with that. As long as you know who you are and what role you can play and what role you cannot play. So I think that's quite an important part to know your own role in this rather complex ecosystem. Initiatives like DMACC don't represent diaspora. They're not made up of diaspora, but they serve diaspora. They're supposed to build activities on diaspora's needs and requirements. What we can do in initiatives like DMACC is to leverage the expertise and the networks and the power of the organizations that we work with, of the organizations that host us, in this case, the Danish Refugee Council being one of the bigger humanitarian actors itself. It has a responsibility to share that power and to share its expertise and networks for the greater inclusion and inclusivity in the humanitarian system. And the same goes for all our partners in our advisory boards and reference groups that are made up of at least 50% diaspora and people from the former humanitarian system. All of them have expertise, networks, and power to leverage on behalf of the greater inclusion of diaspora and humanitarian aid. And another thing that we are able to do is building bridges between the more institutionalized formal system and diaspora humanitarian responders. Then another thought and very strong personal experience as well, having continuously been engaged with the same partners and actors, technical expertise and support isn't enough to create a successful engagement with diaspora from a non-diaspora perspective as well. To work successfully with diasporas about building relationships and it's about building trust. That in turn means that it's key to be utterly transparent about our actions and our engagement and its objectives, to be honest about what we're able to do and to be honest about what we are not able to do. And we have to be accountable for what we do, not just to our donors but even more so to our partners and then even more so to the people that we're all there to serve when it's about humanitarian aid. And so I think also never to forget ultimately we're all a means to an end in humanitarian crisis to the service of the people affected by the crisis. So building of trust is also about knowing who you work with, having a real curiosity as to the who and the why and the how of diaspora and that humanitarian response. You do need to build a very clear understanding of the context and of its dynamics because every crisis is different and so is every diaspora. One size fits no one and context is king I think in any work with diaspora engagement and so it's true for many other engagements as well. And I also think it's quite important to stay on to be there in the long run. I think short term it's fashionable right now diaspora support projects rarely work. You need to have a long-term engagement, the kind of engagement that builds relationships and understanding and expertise and trust. Another very important factor for diaspora engagement to work is to ensure ownership and again that's coming from the perspective of us being a service provider to diaspora engagement. They only work when there's real ownership in the diaspora. That doesn't mean you have to be diaspora it means you have to ensure that the support you offer builds on their active engagement and what they see as relevant and needed for their engagement to be the best it can be. An example currently Ukraine has been mentioned many times and we have weekly coordination meetings with the growing number of Ukrainian diaspora organizations supporting them with the space to coordinate their emergency activities and it's mainly by word of mouth that this group of people joining those coordination meetings is growing and the number of organizations joining that is growing and that's because they feel they're part of building this network and building that kind of coordination through their response and I think another very key point to all of this to all of the five points I'm mentioning here is that this goes both ways. We also need to work with the same approach to trust and to understanding the context to knowing our role to ensuring ownership ownership with the actors in the institutional humanitarian system because while we might at times feel that the system is a rather hegemonic standardized and bureaucratic giant it does consist of people most of whom just like engaged diaspora are trying to make a real difference for the people we are there to serve in humanitarian crisis so they also deserve that we engage with them with respect and trust and accountability. I also have some general reflections from the operational end as to what I've seen work well and not work so well when it comes to policymakers which I think is to a certain degree the other end of the spectrum or one of the actors in this ecosystem of what makes diaspora engagement engagement as impactful as it can be. One of them is don't wait with developing policies and structures that include diaspora until A or the next emergency strikes. I think any partnering in collaboration should be strategic and deliberate and it shouldn't wait until your hand is forced by crises. I also key important to really include the diaspora and not just in a tokenistic way they have to be part of developing policies and plans and that work has to be based on respect and trust and it has to be curious and it has to be thought of as long term. I have seen the rejection by diaspora of government policies on how to engage diaspora when they have felt that they had no involvement at all in what has been written down as expectations on their part of what they should be doing in their countries of heritage. Another point to not create gatekeepers strong individuals and organizations are often powerhouses for diaspora engagement and they're good to invite, they're good to listen to, they bring all the skills, they bring the right words but there's also the danger of them becoming darlings that potentially might limit our view to the diversity of strong actors and voices that we should also allow to come to the fore. Don't instrumentalize diaspora I think that's something we've seen again and again not just by country of heritage policy makers but also by country of residence policy makers trying to put diaspora in front of the wagon of something that the policy makers want to achieve. I think that's a that's a road down to unsuccessful diaspora engagement because there's no ownership in that. Don't co-op but cooperate for real with trust with respect with curiosity as to what diaspora wants to do and where the common ground is to be found. Yeah that was some of it for the policy makers. I also am I running out of time or am I okay? Good perfect. I also have some critical reflections they come with our line of work. Oh sorry that should go back. So coming from a humanitarian organization I'm also working quite a lot with the bigger topics of inclusivity of localization of humanitarian aid, the importance of local organizations leading on resolving their crises etc to the largest degree possible. The normative normative and pragmatic need for that for the ecosystem to ensure that and I think that's a key point for diasporas to remain aware of as well. What is their role in that localization discourse? Who is local and what is diaspora in the local dynamics etc. I think that's a key thing to at least reflect on and be well aware of because we have also had situations where local organizations felt they were co-opted or dominated by diaspora organizations coming from their point of view from the outside being part of the social ecosystem but yet not living in the country that they are responding to crises in. So I think that's a key important just the reflection point to never lose out of sight. And then I also think I keep telling myself and within our growing team on a daily basis humanitarian aid is not supposed to be about competition and I think it's I mean it's supposed to be about complementarity it's supposed to be about putting affected people's needs first and foremost and I think that is often proven to be far too easy to lose out of sight for all of us. So that's also for everyone of us to really always I mean keep that one in mind. Those were a couple of critical reflections very few. I do have a thank you a very big thank you actually to finish up with to all the very passionate dedicated tireless and amazing people that I have had the pleasure to meet and work with in the past decade diaspora and non diaspora from within the system and without the system I really want to say thank you for continuously humbling me and for remaining a seemingly bottomless well of inspiration and I'm yeah thank you for that it's what makes us tick. Thank you. That was it from my end. All right my go. Thank you so much and very insightful I think we can have a whole day having a discussion about some of these points but I'm sure we will get the opportunity to do that and I really like the point about you know the need about the corporations and all of that. With that I will go to our second speaker. I would like to welcome Mohammed Bashir Osman. He's a young experienced entrepreneur and diaspora returning working in Somalia's printing and advertising market. He founded those advertising agency and award-winning and leading creative firm specializing in design and advertising in Mogadishu. Apart from being a businessman he is also the chairman of the Gregor so apologies about the pronunciation so you might have to just correct me when you get to speak around our orange house which is a Dutch Somali diaspora network organization based on Mogadishu Somalia. Osman has extensive experience in photography, graphic design, media production and communications and he graduated from Regent Issel and Media and Design College and returned to his hometown Mogadishu in 2015 to launch the diaspora agency. Osman has trained and hired a large number of young creative people in Somalia and he is a role model for many young Somalis. He was also been named as one of the most influential young Africans in 2020. Quite an impressive background for a young person so I'm delighted to have you here and to learn about the experiences of coming back as a returning and such so please go ahead. Thank you very much Bashir. I hope you can hear me and great greetings to everyone listening to this wonderful summit on diaspora immunitarianism. As you just mentioned or introduced me my name is Mohammad Bashir Osman. I'm the German of Guriga orange that's how we pronounce which means literally orange house in English. The name contains a combination of two words the Somali word of home which means Guriga and the orange which is the color of the kingdom of Netherlands so the orange house we say Guriga orange. Guriga orange is a non-prophets diaspora organization that aims to advocate, promote, connect and organize the Somali communities in Somalia and the Netherlands. It was started in 2016 by a small group of Dutch Somalis in Mogadishu. Guriga orange consists largely of entrepreneurs, business investors and professionals who play an active role in the development of Somalia economically, politically and socially. Orange house or Guriga orange is the bridges beyond then between Somalia and the Netherlands. We aim to facilitate information and knowledge sharing to the Dutch and Somali companies and organizations and to those looking for information about business investment opportunities in Somalia on different thematic areas to enable more effective policy and decision making. Guriga orange is a cooperation and information platform for the Dutch Somali citizens in Somalia that provides low-being and focus activities on behalf of the Dutch Somali citizens in Somalia. We provide actively relevant information on different thematic areas. We provide marketing information about economic opportunities in Somalia we support Dutch companies in creating and developing businesses also assist in practical matters among members. We also organize quarterly member meetings and organize valuable network opportunities and businesses on field trips and visitors. So we also do all necessary to assist both Dutch and everyone else that's interested in coming to Somalia and in between Somalia and the Netherlands. To give you a little bit of what we have been working we have been closely following up the economical overview of the Somalia and the Netherlands and we see that for the past like for the past four years that the Guriga orange was established. We are by the way one of the very few diaspora organizations in Somalia that aim to actually build a community from the host country coming to the origin country contributing to both bilateral relationships of the two countries that we you know we are from originally so this is the Somalia and the Netherlands. So we our contribution is not only more on business but it touches also on cultural bridges as well as social bridges and economical that is very important to us as well. Few things to mention Somalia the recent report from the EU business that has been that has mapped out the EU investment in Somalia in 2020-21 that almost 50 European investors were consulted from June to December last year. Netherlands became the top country which is significantly represented at 21% shared the first place with Sweden that European companies that are actively in Somalia their origin are from Netherlands so whether their managers are European Somalis or maybe Dutch Somalis or maybe any other country but we are also very much competing when we came back to Somalia in many sectors in Somalia to be the top and to shine on the top. So the work of Guru Goraya is focused on facilitation and improving the business and trade between Somalia and Netherlands specifically but also on where needed that we can assist on thank you very much. No thank you so much Mohamed and it's really insightful to kind of just see how you are not just kind of focusing on Somalia but also building those bridges with the Netherlands as well I think it's been quite fascinating to do that. No thank you and I think I personally have a lot of questions but I want to open the floor so for any comments or for any questions for our speakers or on this particular topic in particular with regards to kind of like policy recommendations and experiences on the topic of diaspora and humanitarian action can look at so you can post your questions here. Yeah we have a question from Martin Russell one comment so Martin please I'm mutant and make your comment. Thanks Bashir thanks Mingo and thanks colleagues Bashir knows my accent at this day so she can interpret accordingly you know look it's great to be here and it's great to see people virtually connected to Dublin and people in town next week you know I think Mingo you mentioned the point about localization as well and it's something that we often kind of overlook in diaspora engagement and I can tell a funny story maybe to give you a sense of that you know we remember talking to some people who had come home to Ireland and they went down to the local bus stop and at the time they had come back from London where they had these bus stops where they tell you that the next bus will be in 10, 15, 20 minutes whatever it was and the person who came home went down and we didn't have those in Ireland and they said essentially what time is the next bus at and the response from the Irish person was whenever it comes you know and I think what we're seeing is quite often is you know those tensions of maybe ways in which we see things getting done in countries of destination or residents and I'm trying to maybe implant those back to where we're from so I'd love to maybe just in time get a sense of reflections about how do we make sure that the engagements that we make are culturally sensitive because of course the diaspora will have a sense of what's appropriate but quite often linking that with the formal humanitarian system we have to be cognizant of that and I think just a follow-on question that maybe again for later in the conversation is you know we're seeing with the rise of issues whether it's Ukraine or different countries or different issues there's always a kind of a really strong mobilization in the short term just out of Goodwill so I'm just wondering from everybody's experience on the panel is there different types of diaspora engagement that you know maybe we can look at to think about strategically maybe in the mid-term as well and some of these issues that you know the immediate rise of Goodwill for humanitarianism is critically important but we also have to maybe take that mid-term a longer-term view of what diasporas can do so I just wonder if there's any reflections on you know what works well in that maybe mid-term context as well so there were just the two things that were kind of percolating in the back of my mind. All right thank you so much Murtin and what I'll do is I'll probably get like three two three comments or questions at one time and then we can ask our panelists to feed into that any more other questions from the floor if not I do have my questions I have quite a lot and I think it's and also it's also for attendees as well is regarding diaspora policies there's been a lot about kind of that kind of structured and trying to formalize this kind of relationship between diaspora and their origin countries but one thing that tends to be missing is with regards to humanitarian action it's a missing complainant can this be included what how can it be included what does it look like potentially so I will ask Mingo and then Mohamed to just kind of jump in on these two comments. Could you repeat your last question what does what look like I'm sorry I had a glitch. Ah yes so diaspora policies by you know for by member states to include a humanitarian action component and also the questions you know for Martin in terms of the comments what does that kind of look like in terms of going forward in the medium you know the short medium and longer term and then I'll go to Mohamed Bechet please go ahead Mingo. I mean I can start if that's fine just some general reflection the cultural sensitivity side how to ensure that across the board and while I fully agree with Martin that that yes we have the the assumption and the perception that obviously diasporas are closer to the local communities than the international actors are and I think there's there's like a spectrum of being local local and then getting further away from the communities that are in need of service and it's it's not it's it's it's it's fluid and it's not black and white and it's it's a specter and I I just think that all of us it doesn't matter I mean whether you're international or you're transnational or you're even national but working in a specific community etc you have to keep that some of the points are made in the beginning the respect the curiosity the trust the view on the agency of the people that are in need of support has to be in in the absolute front seat and you should never out compete existing structures and actors at a local level whether you're diaspora or an international actor that has to be a kind of an attention point for for for the way you work so yeah there's no I don't think there's any fixed recipe or other than keeping that self reflection going for everyone and obviously diasporas are at a better place than many of the international organizations for sure but it because of that also becomes easy to sometimes forget that you have maybe lived outside of the country that is now that you're responding in for a decade or two or even for generations so I think that's it's just important to not forget that and then the longer term lens for the immediate rise of goodwill we see I think to certainly agree that will come by itself because what we do see in diaspora responses that it doesn't follow okay now we're in the humanitarian sector then we're going to go into the development sector then we're going I mean they are by nature nexus actors to stay in that kind of lingo which sometimes is horrible I mean now the goodwill is rising because of an emergency response but many of the organizations responding now have been engaged before and they will be changing their engagement again after and they will be the wiser for this situation even horrible as it is it will contribute to their view on what they can contribute to their countries of origin so I think that's it's almost a natural but I understand that it's something to also think about and maybe even more so the immediate goodwill coming from where I come from is also how do you make that immediate goodwill get the most constructive lens it can have and we have a very it's a very picturesque saying on how do you get from teddy bears to relevant humanitarian assistance and that goes for all of us that goes for civil society engagement volunteer engagement at large so I think those are some of the key questions and so not answers other questions and reflections thank you yeah no thank you so much mingo um before I go to uh george can I just ask from hamed for uh if he has an intervention or comments on some of these particularly from your own experiences what would have facilitated um these kind of engagement with you know in Somalia what could have helped would it be a framework or because he obviously had to use but well I shouldn't assume but personal networks to be able to connect um to be in Mogadishu on such uh well thank you very much from uh from our from our example of Somalia uh I hope you can hear me clearly right yes we can hear it clearly thank you okay okay um like like Somalia you know if we have been following Somalia's uh politics lately you see that Somalia's got Somalia's cabinet misses where majority I think more than half of the cabinet where you know diaspora so uh you see the issue of later someone I think mingo was mentioned uh the issue of who's local and who's diaspora that has played in Somalia uh has influenced the daily uh political talks in the past and but uh we can highlight that seeing the fact that many diaspora retainees join the political uh you know movement in Somalia and be at the top of you know position making uh tables there are no such as uh policies that diaspora itself has being taken as as an element to be in in the in the policy making uh in the past we have seen that Somalia there was uh more than now uh 15 years ago there was a special ministry for diaspora but then the issue of federalism in Somalia has divided that issue and and you see that people when when they came back to Somalia they are divided into a system of federalism of and also some some sort of tribe tribalism which which actually uh took away the important aspect of diaspora engagement uh there there have been many conferences and many initiatives by establishing the diaspora organizations on a nationwide level but it hasn't been very successful uh but what you see practically is that diaspora uh Somalia diaspora are who usually contributed back to Somalia when every time an emergency uh races in Somalia or something happens in Somalia uh you see that currently there is a drought in certain parts of Somalia and you see huge contributions from the Somali communities but on policy level there is no such that diaspora uh should be some sort of national agency or some sort of you know particular policy that is only targeting diaspora to be in the in the in the table of policy making but but what you see is that diaspora you know sin is the the collapse of the central government in Somalia has been uh contributing to the to the to the back to their country and and also helping the country in in difficult situations to get up to get away thank you Mohammed that was really like important reflections in terms of the kind of like the practicalities of this um I will um I will kind of continue just taking questions and comments and then we can go back to our panelists so I'll take two more questions from the floor so George please we're struggling to hear you um what I would suggest George is if you compose that working area excuse me every every time I unplug my computer and move it I have everything resets to some default so excuse me anyway no thank you very much um just my question really is to link I suppose something that Mingo has said and then Mohammed as well like Mingo spoke about if you like the continuum between kind of from the local to the international and you've got this continuum it isn't it isn't uh a straight divide between who's local and who isn't and where humanitarianism is concerned I suppose what I'm trying to link this is to is to Mohammed's particular background uh you could also say that there's a continuum between people who are in the humanitarian business through people who are in the development business but find themselves suddenly with a sudden onset humanitarian crisis right through to people who are in the private sector uh through you know via you know various civil society groups that may not be specifically you know um profit oriented right through to the business sector where Mohammed is and in the same way as across that continuum from the local to the foreign you've got different types of expertise you've got the local expertise that helps you to operate in that context you might have technical expertise that might be a little bit stronger perhaps at the international level and in the same way in that continuum from the pure humanitarian organization across to the business person I suppose my question is are there again different levels of value added here in other words the entrepreneur who goes back to their country of origin or even who operates from outside the country it isn't it what added value is that person bringing as an entrepreneur rather than just as somebody who knows the country in other words are the particular types of networks that they have that may be people working in humanitarianism and development areas don't have do they have access to certain things that maybe others don't have access to in other words my question I suppose really is what is the specific value added of the entrepreneur in the context of humanitarianism as opposed to the specific added value of the diaspora person so the diaspora entrepreneur in particular that's really what I'd like to explore thank you thank you so much I should have actually asked everyone who from the floor to just kind of do a brief introduction to who they are or where they are joining us from so George maybe you can do that with Irish aid all right okay thank you very much and Martin you will get your chance as well I will be bringing you back to the floor apologies I have a question from Coney so I'm not sure from pronouncing it right so if you'd like to introduce yourself on your question please my first name is Coney and I work at the general directorate for diaspora at the ministry for foreign affairs in the Côte d'Ivoire on behalf of the general directorate I would like to say that every year we are organizing a forum on diaspora in order to gather the contributions of the diaspora and then we translate it into actions the following year the third year there is a feedback workshop to see how the actions have been implemented the first action took place in 2015 the second in 2017 and the last one in 2019 since 2018 we elaborated policies to manage the diaspora with the diaspora and we're working in three different with three different directions the general direction for the diaspora the direction for social action and the direction that is in charge of reintegrating returnies our diaspora is participating in the development of our country by contributing financially to development projects and in terms of skills it is used for higher positions in the administration for instance we work on these different topics with our various financial and technical partners at the ministry level we have projects that are going to be developed for example the development of an interactive tool that will allow the diaspora to remain in contact with us at the original workshop we were happy to learn that the african union in wants to finance the diaspora at the regional level we learned that on the 30s of march we're also very happy to be accompanied for this matter because this will give a political dimension to our action these were the few contributions i wanted to make today about the contributions of the general direction for the diaspora that it has been existing since 2014 and we hope to have the same success at the diaspora in morocco and mali for instance thank you very much for letting me present my thoughts today and i am available for any questions thank you no thank you so much and no it's great to hear about what's have been happening in cote d'voire in terms of you know policy development and the efforts to kind of engage with the diaspora and facilitating that what told us will now go to our speakers because i think there's really interesting points and this can be also other members other colleagues from taking part can also respond to that i think the questions about the labeling of the diaspora i think is quite a fascinating point you know because everyone put diaspora as one but there are diversity amongst the diaspora you have those who are who have needs those who can contribute in terms of philanthropy the different stages of life generationally gender all of this plays apart but also in terms of skill sets entrepreneurs medical whatever it may be so i just wanted to hear some reflections from mohammed and from mingo on these particular points how do you feel about that kind of use mohammed maybe can start off with that and then we can go into the diaspora policy discussions mohammed please yeah thank you very much i think what george has said mentioned regarding to the value of diaspora when they come they go back to their origin countries i think i can only speak about somalia and i think you know just taking me as an example my value to to somalia is because if i stayed in the Netherlands for the past let's say for the last six seven years that i'm now in somalia i don't think i would have contributed to somalia much in in what i am now capable of and what i have done it in terms of the people i've you know employed the you know the industry that there was not existing that i created the number of companies that i helped and also the public sector that i also gave them capacity you know injection in in certain areas that they have not been not that does not exist so that is me as one example to see the value because one of the greatest value i think from from my point of view is when someone is coming back to invest in the country is because that person he sees the opportunity in the country that someone who's local who has been in the market is not able to see it or even if he's able to see it he's not willing to invest it and because of the diaspora because of our host countries we have been you know we walk double than the ordinary citizens that we you know we live in so for example my my my my classmates in in the Netherlands if they were working for one more one job i was working too so because of i'm feeling this connection with Somalia that one day i'm going back to the country and i will contribute so with that concept i think it it brings a lot of value to the person itself himself as well as to the community that he's from and and also to mention the community that you left and looking after you because they think you are you know you went outside you got education they are also expecting some sort of knowledge transfer from where you went it's not only about so that is one thing i think when you come back you get more access you get more opportunity as a diaspora and that that is a greater value on humanitarian perspective the diaspora has has been always for instance Somalia diaspora has been always contributing to the Somali you know Somalis back in home and that has been seen as actually something blessing something you know community is upholding and and and very great so whenever someone is coming back either is helping the community or building a hospital or or employing someone it's seen as and and and people are also providing you these accesses because you are providing you know some sort of value back to the community which has not been existing existing but if i go on to the political side there have been you know lately discussions and big talks in Somalia that many diaspora the most diaspora retainees to Somalia that came for the past 15 years they ended up getting you know positions in the government and that has been seen and criticized by the local people that is the downside and the negative side from us from our perspective on on on the value it has not at the beginning it was you know seeing as something you know people were you know very looked up to highly motivated but when they when they when when when people found out that majority of those people ended up getting positions in the government were not people were actually good educated or or you know useful to the to the to the country they have been then criticized we should get we don't we don't we don't want any more diaspora to be at the other decision making because they exploit exploit from our interests from our opportunities but they don't bring it for us so but i mean i'm not saying i'm not judging anyone but i'm just describing the situation and as george you know asking me what is the value of diaspora when they go back to their country the value is you know they they contribute a lot to the community and they bring more. Muhammad that was music to my ears because i think it's so important to recognize and i think a lot of the interest of diaspora has been very much focused around remittances but it goes beyond that and i think this is where the recognition of diaspora humanitarianism the skill set the knowledge exchange these kind of opportunities and it's quite fascinating to see that you feel that you had more impact rather than sending remittances based in the Netherlands but being in Somalia you feel that to do that i think it will vary the story i think for everyone will have a different story and individuals the other point was about the privileges as a diaspora so when you go to origin countries so if you're coming from the global north going to the you know somewhere in the global south yeah you carry some privileges as well with you so i think it's kind of like that balancing act is quite fascinating um i will uh will go to actually mingo just to kind of look at your thoughts on that particular point and then i will ask both of you in terms of your thoughts about what would ideal diaspora policy would look like mingo please. Going back a little bit noting down some comments to some of the other questions and comments um i think Muhammad was speaking to the lack of space and policy making for diasporas while they are in the politics and they are in the action they there's actually no designated space for the outside of country diaspora being part of the policy making i think that's a key point i think it's because we might have a tendency to invest in consultants and people who can write and develop policies we don't invest enough in real consultation real participation it's not innovative it's a it's a handy work that you just you need to invest the time into that um then something about from from george on the yes the different expertise is an all thing and one thing that we have always been looking at is is the core difference between and now looking mainly at humanitarian aid but also in general international actors they usually work with specific sets of actions and engagements in all sorts of country settings while local organizations diasporanizations they work in one geographic setting often not always i mean there is no black and whites anywhere but for the sake of the argument and then they work within all sorts of sectors and ranges of activities and i think that that precisely gives two different skillset that are highly complementary is when you work with the same country setting the same community setting for years and years and years and that builds something that you don't have when you come as an international actor that just came from this crisis to that crisis it's and they bring technical expertise but you need to i mean complementarity complementarity complementarity i really think it's it's such a keyword in our line of work um the specific value of entrepreneurs and i think george asked actually entrepreneurs versus international humanitarian actors that i mean not so much diaspora versus international but humanitarian versus entrepreneurs i think is really really interesting and something that we struggle with to be quite honest because it works on different with different objectives but i think entrepreneurs have a lot of values to bring the fact i mean one the flexibility in their financing they simply have more freedom to actually use the money in a way that that they see fit and that makes sense and that produces outcomes and they are often have much more innovative ways of thinking and and sustainable ways of thinking and and and i think it's the collaboration between the two again is is really important and and it makes me laugh because i remember conversations with onyakachi wambu from from a fort uk who when i met him in the very first place very inspiring man on that note all right when i met him in the first place he told me what you you know what your problem is you always want to pick the winners which is exactly true and it is true for humanitarianism we you provide service based on who has the biggest needs not on where would you get the best sustainability of a business investor so it's it's there's a different logic to it but i think there's also a lot of complementarity to it um so nothing to be thrown out with the bathwater um i love the approach mentioned by the gentleman from kouti wa that kind of iterative approach is fantastic um to build into your policy making the revision of that and the action and revision of the action i thought that was really really interesting yeah i think that was it thank you so much mingé i'm just kind of conscious of the time but um uh just kind of a quick comment is uh i'm gonna throw it for enough to talk for everyone just think also about the aspera engagement into generation i think we've been focusing quite on the first generation but um and i think island is actually primed on that in terms of they're dealing with fourth fifth uh you know generations so what does that engagement looks like and also um that kind of connection and what we've seen in our own work and the research is that kind of subsequent generation might not just be focused on origin country but other forms of identities so it's something to um to take the discussions i know we have two questions if we can potentially have it as brief and please um is it in horror um i'm butchering some names today so apologies uh if you can just introduce yourself um and the correct pronunciation of your name and your question please the floor is yours thank you and thank you very much and made a moderator for giving me the floor uh i represent Ukraine the state service of Ukraine for ethnic policy and freedom of conscience we uh we are dealing mostly not the diaspora the Ukrainian diaspora uh living abroad uh but uh with the ethnic communities living in Ukraine and diaspora of different countries living in Ukraine and i would like just to inform the participants of this very valuable conference what the representatives of different diasporas doing today in Ukraine in this very difficult for my country time um i will switch on my camera uh because they i i see that the quality of internet is not very good here in the planes where i am now uh sorry not a problem thank you just for the second months uh in a row my country Ukraine a home of large number of different ethnic communities representing the diaspora of dozens of countries around the world is in a terrible situation of a hot face of a unprovoked war unleashed by the Russian aggressor like all Ukrainian citizens ethnic communities are suffering from the horrors of the war the Russian army is bombing peaceful Ukrainian cities throughout all its territory destroying many civilian houses and apartment buildings killing thousands of civilians including about 200 children Russian army shells and destroy schools kinder genders and maternity hospitals a number of Ukrainians cities uh regional centers with the population of almost half a million people including the ancient city of chernidiv of 1300 years old the city of Mariupol and many other settlements of our country have been almost completely destroyed by the Russian missiles and air bombs the capital as city of Kiev is also under the intense bombardment it is clear that not only ethnic Ukrainian suffer but also Ukrainian citizens of different ethnic backgrounds representatives of the different diasporas living in Ukraine dozens of different ethnic communities live in the country united in hundreds of community organizations many representatives of them are defending Ukraine from the aggressor on the battlefield Russia is also shelling the western borders of Ukraine and air raids are being heard in the western regions of my country where a representative of the eastern diasporas of our western neighbors live of Poland Romania Slovakia Hungary and others Russia's aggression which began in February 2014 on February 24 this year acquired a form that the people peoples of Europe have not seen since the world war two unfortunately i don't have a very precise statistics but according to the various estimates up to five million people have fled Ukraine in search of peace hiding and protecting from bombs and explosions about the same number of the people are internally displaced among them are many representatives of diasporas at the same time representatives of many diasporas today demonstrate good examples of Ukrainian patriotism and courage in defending the country from the aggressor doing so much for that now I think it's it's been such a heart wrenching situation and kind of watching it and really appreciate your kind of sharing what's been happening I think you've raised really important points already in terms of how the Ukrainian diaspora have been doing that but another point you've raised is about how that there are diaspora communities in Ukraine who are also trying to deal with the current conflict so an example is like with African diaspora in Europe how they're seeking to support African students and migrants in Ukraine I just wanted to ask in terms of what would be the kind of your kind of like common your main proposal that you would like to see happen from this with global diaspora summit a takeaway hello can you hear me yeah and now I can yes yeah sorry it's just a very bad transmission I don't know how it's happened but just a bad quality of the internet you see we have very many communities living in Ukraine dozens or and all of them now they behave as a real members of the Ukrainian community as a real the Ukrainian citizens of Ukraine so they protect their country and they participate in different kind of volunteer work assisting the refugees assisting the internally displaced person and we have hundreds of examples of such a very brave and very valuable and needed behavior for my country and we thank very much to to our citizens and also to Ukrainian diaspora living in varieties of countries abroad who assist and help my country now thank you no thank you so much for this intervention and and I think it's in everyone's mind and I think it's been mentioned here already quite a few times about the situation there so I think it's important to kind of like just see how the responses are and such and thank you Rengar for pasting about the DEMAC report and I know that European Union Global diaspora facility we did a report with them also around the same time last year with their reflections on the because European diaspora have been dealing with the situation since 2014 it's not just with the current conflict thank you so much for that uh with before going back to our speakers I'll have I'll take one brief question um from Eric um and then I'll uh I'll ask our speakers to do their last interventions before closing this session in about 10 minutes time thank you please introduce yourself Eric thank you very much I'm going to speak Spanish because we have this excellent interpretation service I am Eric Hernandez I am in Mexico City I am the director of health and sport of the Institute of Mexicans abroad we work with 11 million Mexican women and men who live around the world most of them in the United States but what I wanted to contribute to this great working group is the following this Institute of Mexican in abroad it was set up in 2003 and is part of the foreign relations secretariat of the government and we work on different topics we offer services to the community but also we offer we work on development issues and also engagement of all generations of Mexicans who live around the world the best example is those who live in the United States because around 37 million Mexicans around 37 million people who foreign people who live in the states lots of them are Mexican and and seven million have no documents to live in the United States or have access to health services so what we try here in in our organization is to and with the pressure coming from the diaspora itself was the strategy of health hatches we have 51 health hatches working in the United States we often we often help to people who have no documents in order to access medical support medical services so we support them with these hatches these windows during the pandemic we had a vaccination strategy together with the consulates and as you know Mexico has the largest consular network of any country we have 50 consulates in the United States who are working together with the diaspora they exist because the diaspora has demanded it not because of any government's initiative and that's important to point out I don't want to use too much time but I wanted to also mention that in Latin America we have diaspora and we have also identified a diaspora with needs in Europe who has suffered because of the pandemic but also due to the current conflict that Eor just mentioned so we want to say we support them we offer our solidarity and a group of psychologists women mostly women set up a network to offer health mental health services throughout Europe and this is offered through the embassies and consulates of Mexico in all the Europe in the hold of the European region so this is also an important action an important initiative coming from the diaspora and we are supporting not only Mexican men and women but anyone who speaks Spanish who come to us to these organizations if they need support during these times when emotional support is so needed we have established a connection with first, second and third generation Mexicans we bring them back to Mexico to reconnect with their places of origin and to become natural ambassadors of our country abroad I will leave you the link to the institute so that you may know it better and well the Mexican diaspora has made the government work harder for them we even have deputies migrant deputies representatives in Mexico who are the voice and they have and they have the voice in Mexico and that's all for me thank you very much no Eric thank you so much and it's really insightful and I think you really kind of bring that kind of like that kind of collaboration how the diaspora can work with origin countries governments and I was quite fascinated I know I think at one point with irregular migrants in the US Mexican migrants there was even an attempt to support them to open bank accounts to access certain services that were not feasible and I think an important thing that has come through as well is when we talk about protection of migrants as well diaspora play an important role and I think this is something that tends to and this is why we need to ensure that when we talk about diaspora engagement with origin countries it's not just focused on the development but also the humanitarian because they have become an important resource in terms of protection support and importantly it's not just about physical protections about mental health and well-being and we've seen many examples of how the diaspora have been supporting with the COVID-19 response so and I know there's colleagues here have posted some materials on that we have only about a couple of minutes so I will ask Mengam Muhammad just for closing remarks on these points or any responses to that I know it's a lot and I wish we had more time as always with these kind of discussions but hopefully this will really kind of lead into informative you know processes into the future Mingo your one minute kind of maybe not so much a one minute wrap up but more because on the Ukraine diaspora engagement which is really interesting as well because the Ukrainian diaspora is coordinating very strongly with the Ukrainian embassies across different countries to kind of coordinate the needs in Ukraine with what the diaspora can deliver and I think it's a very very positive and interesting example of how you can engage in the constructive coordination of aid efforts with the government of Ukraine I think also what's really interesting there is that there's no conflict as such between the government of Ukraine and its diaspora going to your the labels the generations the con I mean there's such a diversity and a lot of diaspora are in the unfortunate position of not being in good standing with their origin heritage country governments that obviously shifts the picture completely in terms of their engagement policy level etc so I think not to forget that that there is big differences there and then what you mentioned the generational issues that which I think are extremely important and we've been working specifically with Afghans and Somalis for over a decade now and what has been so interesting to see is how second third generation etc are challenging the first generation as well it's in many of our collaborations it's this it's the generation that passed that the younger generations putting some of the conflicts within diasporas on the table as well we've had Somalis asked to have seminars on generational conflicts within the Somali diaspora extremely interesting goes back a little bit to having built the trust that you can actually convene around that kind of conversations that often really have the the potential to bring a diaspora in quotation marks further so yeah that that that was my final remark back to the trust thank you so much and Mohammed just a few more well we actually have one only one minute so please just jump in and look like a session well thank you Bashar and Mingo and I think I should also thank two two gentlemen Mr Eric Hernandez and the corn from Mexico and every every cost very interesting actually to learn how Mexico's institution works and I find it very very fascinating also from every cost and I look forward to also engage with them and I say diaspora is is definitely a tool for development and also collaboration and for whistiveness for both policymaking and and immunitarianism thank you thank you very much thank you so much and thank you to the distinguished speakers to all the participants and for all your inputs and comments and I wish we had more opportunity to hear from every single person here with us today with that session discussion I will say we'll close the session for now and we hope that there will be going to be more sharing in terms of the discussions and the finding and for the rest of the day so enjoy please the rest of the summit I know there's really fascinating sessions I myself looking forward to seeing later on and I wish you a great day ahead and with that thank you we'll close the session thank you so much thank you everyone was a pleasure