 Welcome everyone to this session. And I'm very happy to be here first of all, thank you for your patience. We will having some technical issues, which is very, very funny since the presentation today is going to be about digitalization. So first of all, let me welcome you all. It's such a pleasure to be here. It's a dream come true to be honest, to be in this space, to share with you, to learn from you, to share best practices, specifically in this topic that is very relevant today for diaspora organizations. So my name is Larissa and I'm the Transnational Communities and Digital Communications Officer at IOM Headquarters. And it's a real pleasure to be here with three outstanding speakers. Today we have a very interesting session where we will be discussing different areas on digitalization and diaspora engagement. As you know, COVID has shown us that the digital world is key for development and to connect people. So digital innovation has of course reshaped also the diaspora engagement landscape in terms of the format and also the intensity of the flows. People are more and more interconnected. But of course we have to be mindful that there are also challenges. For instance, in terms of privacy, in terms of digital literacy, and of course there are other very interesting things that are happening in terms of diaspora engagement in relation to for instance, the younger generation being more engaged in social media, in sending messages across the globe and really having this interconnectivity. So we know that diasporas are key in this summit and we have joined efforts with different partners and thank you so much, especially to the Networking Institute to make this possible. And it's my pleasure to introduce you to our first speaker. It's actually the host of this session. So I'm very happy to introduce you to Dr. Ausaf Sayid from the government of India. Dr. Sayid is a career diplomat belonging to the Indian Foreign Service and he has handled different areas of work in his 33 years of diplomatic service, including political, economic, consular and cultural work. It's such a pleasure to have you here with us today. And just welcome you all to this very exciting talk. Dr. Sayid, the floor is yours. Thank you very much. Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, it's indeed my great pleasure to address all of you this afternoon on the Global Diaspora Summit 2022 on the theme, Digital Diaspora, Technological Tools for Engagement. As you're aware, India has a large diaspora in the world with a size of 32 million, comprising of 13.45 million non-resident Indians who are essentially Indian passport holders and another 18.68 million persons of Indian origin. The Indian diaspora is contributing meaningfully to the sustainable development of the countries of their residence, as well as giving back to their homeland in terms of remittances, in terms of technology transfers, knowledge sharing and a skill transfer. The Indian diaspora we regard as a living bridge for our foreign policy and we have been constantly engaging with them and very actively so. Diaspora, as you may be knowing, it's a fairly well-spread across the world, right from Caribbean islands to Southeast Asia and Africa, North American Europe, in some places such as Seychelles, they are even the first settlers in that country. There has been a dramatic transformation in the digital ecosystem in India with the number of internet users in more than 750 million last year. This number is likely to increase to 900 million in another four years time and further increased to around 1.5 billion by 2040. Thus, India is currently the second in the world in terms of active internet users. So technology, as we all know, is a great enabler in various aspects of life and India has been a leader in the use of technology, particularly for the delivery of services to make them universally accessible and available to the doorsteps of the people. One of the best examples I can give of the digital transformation in India is the issue of 1.3 billion Aadhar cards, which are 12 digit unique ID numbers on the lines of the social security numbers in the USA and they are linking with the permanent account number, PAN cards, which are for taxation purposes and the ration card for the distribution of food grains. This is basically to ensure smooth, fast and transparent delivery of government services to different sections of the people. India is one of the leading countries which has used its technology prowess to engage with its diversified diaspora, both in the pre-migration as well as the post-migration phases. We have developed an integrated e-migrate platform to facilitate overseas job and pre-departure orientation, including grievance reversal mechanisms for all migrants. We are also in the process of integrating our e-migrate platform with similar platforms of all major manpower resource importing countries to facilitate seamless migration through the established channels across the world. On similar lines, I would also like to highlight the passport services program, which is the passport saver program, PSP. It's a very ambitious program that links all of India's 202 missions and posts abroad with all the passport issuing offices in India to simplify and smoothen the passport issuing process. The use of the mobile applications called MPassport is another technological tool adopted to ease the process of obtaining passports. Incidentally, in India, the passport issuing ministry is the Ministry of External Affairs, unlike many other countries where it is the Ministry of Interior. But India will soon be issuing the ICAO compliant chip-based e-passports to its citizens. We are also working down the line for cloud-based e-passports, thereby doing away with the passport booklets. Currently, we are also thinking of indigenization of the chip operating systems and security for our e-passport solutions. So this is again an example of how we have used technology to upgrade services for the Indian diaspora abroad. On the similar lines, I can mention the Councilor's Services Management System called MADAD in Hindi, which translates to help in English. A portal which was launched in 2015 for Indian citizens to log and track the grievances relating to their councilor services offered by the Indian embassies and councilor post abroad. The portal is intricately linked to several departments in India, government officials, and the whole idea is again to expedite the grievance redressal mechanism. And since its launch, the portal has helped in resolving 70,000 grievances of Indians residing abroad. Indeed, these new technologies have the innate ability to empower diaspora in different ways and can be leveraged for diaspora engagement and improving the platforms, improving the services across various platforms and also strengthening the connect between the diaspora and their homeland. For instance, I may make a mention of my Gulf platform, a very innovative platform which is both web-based and app-based, which was launched to build a partnership between the citizens and the government with the help of technology for the growth and development of India. In this platform, anyone can log in and give their suggestions. And in some cases, these suggestions are actually directly put up to the Prime Minister and these are actually also go and these suggestions go into the policy formulation of the government. Likewise, the Ministry of External Affairs has launched a global migrants engagement portal, which is called the Global Pravasi Rishita Portal, which has been devised to maintain and updated database of the Indian diaspora and to connect them with various new and existing government schemes, benefiting them in various areas of interest and to provide access to information about various events organized by the Indian Diplomatic Commission so that we encourage greater participation from the Indian diaspora abroad. On the similar lines, we also have the Global Indian Students Portal to help Indian students studying in foreign countries and to create a database to enable them to take informed decisions relating to the choice of education in those countries. Besides this, we have various schemes which are operational, which connect the Indian diaspora to the roots and also to satisfy their urge to contribute to the other land. Many such schemes starting from simple online quiz programs such as Know India quizzes to discover India program known as the Know India program, which is particularly directed towards the youth to also programs, so sponsored pilgrimage programs across India and also mainly to scientific engagement programs which are some of which are global initiative of academic networks, which we call as GIA and Geyan and also Wajra, which is the visiting advanced joint research program to also some other programs where we connect the academicians among the diaspora with the academic institutions of higher learning in India such as the Pravasi Bharti Academic and Scientific Sampak and Shod Kanga. These are some of the programs where we have been involving the diaspora and particularly those who are in the scientific and research field to engage with their homeland. As many of you are aware that all overseas citizens of India are eligible to obtain OCI cards, which gives them almost the same privileges as the Indian citizens. We also celebrate the achievements of the Indian diaspora by organizing the Indian diaspora day or the Pravasi Bharti Divas every alternate year and this Black Ship event is being organized continuously since the year 2003 and this provides an important platform for the overseas Indians to not only network amongst themselves but also to engage with the government for mutually beneficial activities. Suffice to say that the Ministry of External Affairs has been proactively using the social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp and many other platforms to assist the migrants in distress. It has become an important voice for migrant workers overseas and to bridge the gap between the government and the migrants. The social media had also been very effectively used during the biggest evacuation exercise which India had undertaken which was called VBM which is the Vande Bharat Medium and for those of you who are not aware of it this was the largest evacuation exercise in the human history where technology was very effectively used and to mobilize people pass on the information and thus our effort was to engage and use the emerging and newer tools of technology to ease the conditions of our workforce abroad and also to facilitate them in making transfer of remittances of their earnings and also for scaling, rescaling and upscaling of them. And the fact that we are using this technology various tools of technology has also been noticed and appreciated by our diaspora but we do also feel that there are challenges because the same access of technology is not available globally. There are countries where there are difficulties internet speeds, the availability of other tools but nevertheless, I think in general the diaspora groups have benefited from using technology they have formed professional groups, linguistic groups connected across geographic boundaries and then devise ways and means of contributing to the sustainable development not only of India but their countries of residence in terms of social and educational upliftment of communities. Many diaspora groups have also adopted villages in India for these purposes. So there are many strategies which have been adopted. We have been engaging the Indian diaspora through other means also like stepping up our cultural diplomacy through promotion of Indian art and culture through promotion of yoga, through promotion of traditional systems of healing. Overall, our effort is to use the soft power and to create a positive narrative for Brand India and to complement these efforts some of our Indian diplomatic missions have also introduced their own innovative methods in digital technology by creating digital portals. For instance, I give you an example during the pandemic some diplomatic missions have started what is known as virtual appointments so that instead of coming to the embassy diaspora members sitting anywhere can ask for a virtual meeting through Zoom or other platforms and take up their issues. So ladies and gentlemen, we have as I said very enthusiastically embrace the new digital technologies not only to engage with the diaspora but also to see if these technologies can be utilized to solve some of the problems which are there. Of course our collective effort and our success using the digital technology would actually depend on how seriously we look at the evolving technologies and how we can further absorb these technologies to engage with the diaspora and how the diaspora itself is keen and willing to absorb the emerging digital platforms which are there but nevertheless, I feel that this particular session would help us in further deliberating on this very, very important subject. And with these words, I welcome all of you to this knowledge sharing session and look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thank you very much for your kind attention. Thank you very much Dr. Saeed for this very impressive presentation and overview of what India is doing all the spectrum of services and connection in terms of engaging with diasporas digitally. It is very impressive everything that you have shared. You go from the services to information sharing to capacity building and I was very interested specifically on the horizontality that you have been creating with your diaspora community. The fact that you listen directly to their asks thanks to technology is something that we have seen also in IOM that is key for the further development of policies and programs really integrating that feedback from diasporas and what they need. I think it was very interesting to hear from you and of course we have to also bear in mind that agency is very important. Also diasporas are choosing how to engage with whom to engage and to what extent they want to engage which tools they are using. And in all of this environment we also have of course the private sector that is key you also mentioned it in your intervention and very important now very important enterprises like Facebook and services that are out there and it's the perfect way to introduce to our keynote speaker today who is joining us from the United States. Her name is Samhar Aray and she comes from Metta Facebook. So I will just introduce her very briefly. Samhar serves as the head of diaspora public policy for the Metta's Africa Middle East and Turkey public policy team. And she's also the founder of the diaspora African Women's Network. So it's a real pleasure to have you here with us today and I will just leave you the floor for your keynote. Thank you so much. Thank you Larissa and it's an honor to be here. Good morning, good afternoon everyone. My name is Samhar Aray and I'm here on behalf of Metta formerly known as Facebook. Metta is the global company that many of you are probably familiar with through the apps and products and tools you use. But before I get into some of the thoughts that we wanted to share today I'd like to introduce my background a little bit for people who have not heard of this story of why Metta is focusing on diasporas. My family is from Eritrea, East Africa and I am so pleased to be following a session that was also led by my sister from a different mother at a different family, but my sister, my country woman, sister Almaz Nagash of the African diaspora network. But my story is similar to many of yours. My family had to leave during a period of conflict and the war for independence from Ethiopia. They came to the United States for education as many migrants do looking for opportunities and they intended to return home. But as the war intensified, they realized that they had to stay in the United States, continue their studies but also begin their lives or resume their lives and deepen it. So I was born in a period of extensive diaspora advocacy and organizing. I was taken to demonstrations and meetings and whatnot realizing the role of diasporas in advancing peace, conflict resolution and promoting economic development. So it's in that vein as a second generation Eritrean-American that I have really pursued the topic of diasporas in development and the protection of diasporas as well as civil society as a whole in advancing development. So over the years as we've watched the debate and the discussion around migration, diasporas and development, one of the most pleasing outcomes with the global compact on migration is the focus on objective 19. The reason that we're here today is to discuss the role of migrants in advancing development. And for Meta, we are, yes, a private sector entity. We're a company but we are also very global and mindful of the way that our products and our tools really bleed into the daily lives of users around the world. So I wanna share with you a couple of thoughts and I want you to join me in this conversation as we discuss what digital diasporas and tools for engagement, technological tools for engagement really mean. I want you to think for a minute of a time that you received a message from a relative. Maybe it was a call to say hello or it was a message to wish you a happy birthday. Maybe it was a video call when relatives were finally together after years of being apart. Or maybe it's a group chat where a bunch of friends from your high school or friends from your neighborhood all want to find a way to reunite again. These are examples of ways that we know diasporas are engaging in their family, in their community, in their personal networks. But we also know that diasporas are engaging because of causes, because of initiatives focused on supporting their ancestral homeland. And there's times that diasporas will want to organize and engage to pursue social, economic or civic causes to support their ancestral country. These examples, they happen every day. And for many around the world, we know that they happen every day on their phone and on their computer. Those examples I just shared with you probably took you back to a conversation to a message that made your day more enjoyable. But it's also a very good chance that those messages were received through social media and through our products in particular. We're very aware that Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp are critical lifelines and tools to keep diasporas connected, to help build community, to amplify voice, and to raise awareness about issues that many diasporas and communities in our ancestral homeland care about. It's also important to note, we know that our tools are used around the world for businesses and governments and other sectors and other segments of society. And so we also share our message as a consideration for the governments and the ministers and embassies that are with us today around the ways that our products and tools can continue to strengthen your own diaspora policies and initiatives. So let me walk a little bit through what we mean when we say digital diasporas. There's many reasons and ways that diasporas seek to connect, remain connected and engage with their ancestral homelands and their local diaspora communities. Whether they're first generation immigrants who continue to follow the news and daily events in their hometown, or they're children of immigrants like myself who are trying to learn and preserve cultural heritage that they're so proud to be a part of, or they're multi-generational diasporas who have not had the opportunity to connect to their ancestral homeland but are seeking ways to do so. We know that diasporas engage with their communities and ancestral homelands digitally and in person because it's an extension of their lives and even their livelihoods in some cases around the world. So we say we know this because that's what's convening us all here today. But for Metta, we're also looking at how this hyphenated experience plays out in the digital context. And we know that this hyphenated experience extends to entrepreneurs, to community organizers, to faith-based communities, to underrepresented communities, to women who have now had more empowerment and more room to voice their own ideas and lead in their own ways. But we also know that this is new because of the sheer volume and growth of social media over the last decade in particular. It's dovetailing quite, it's quite interesting how they are dovetailing at the same time the advent and rise of the discourse around diasporas and development and the accessibility and utility of social media for diasporas. So when I asked you to think about those examples, for me, they oftentimes, the images that come up for me are getting a WhatsApp phone call or getting a direct message on Facebook Messenger or reading news about our home countries on our Facebook newsfeed. We know and understand that our platform and products and tools serve as critical lifelines to keep communities connected, to reconnect people to their home countries, to amplify voice, to preserve diverse perspectives and narratives, and also open lines of communication between people in different countries, between governments and their diasporas and vice versa. And with over three million users worldwide, we're beginning to learn how our products serve as the primary means for diasporas. This lived hyphenated existence and the reliance or utility of our products is what we call the digital diasporas experience. We are looking at the ways that diasporas are able to drive social, economic and civic impact digitally through our tools. We've discovered a few recurring themes with diaspora engagement that our tools have been able to further or to support or strengthen. We've also begun to identify opportunities and ways to strengthen and continue to protect the diaspora experience on our platform. And we've also identified a few ways that non-diaspora entities can engage with diasporas on our platform. So I wanna go over a few of those things today. Now, this list is not exhaustive, but before I begin, I want to first reaffirm the definition of diasporas from a meta perspective. For meta, we have more or less adopted the IOM's 2013 definition of diasporas prior to this massive migration growth that we've seen over the last decade. I think the focus on immigrants and their descendants who maintain material and effective ties to their countries of origin is our primary foundational approach of looking at how diaspora communities maintain or develop ties to their ancestral homeland, but through our products. And so we're thinking of the ways that diasporas are exploring their relationships through a digital and specifically social media lens of our products. Secondly, for diasporas, for the Africa, Middle East and Turkey team, the team that I work on, we are examining the role of African, Arab and Turkish diasporas outside of the region of the constant of Africa, the Middle East region and the country of Turkey. This is the region that I technically have the mandate over, but what we're doing is really building a framework that applies to all diasporas in understanding the role that they have from outside of their country of ancestry and the role that they have in shaping outcomes, social, economic and civic outcomes in region. We know that for governments, there is a keen desire to engage and deepen relationships with their diasporas and incentivize engagement that allows for economic growth, social prosperity and continued stability. And so we also examine it how governments engage with their diasporas abroad and this is also a global point, not limited to the Africa, Middle East and Turkey region. So that's how we view the diasporas. But in terms of the diaspora engagement that we have seen most notably and continue to learn from on our platform, this is really, it varies between Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, but overwhelmingly. Number one driving reason that diasporas utilize our tools is to first and foremost, build community. The goal is to build community that represents their identity, their areas of interest, their affinity and building community extends beyond the borders or their locale that they reside in. And so building community as a member of the diaspora can look like many things. It can look like your national origin. It can look like you're a network of alumni from a particular high school. It can look like a affinity group for professionals. It can look like a organization geared to protecting underrepresented groups. It can look like a social cause organization aimed at filling and closing a social gap in their ancestral homeland or in the country that they reside in. But building community remains the number one driver. Secondly, another area we see some very high levels of diaspora engagement is around areas and opportunities for social impact. Social impact is an overarching umbrella of various ways that diasporas seek to provide to maintain, excuse me, seek to make positive social impact in their ancestral homeland. This could be through the organizations that I referred to earlier, the idea of a diaspora nonprofit organization, the idea of a diaspora network, the idea of a diaspora initiative aimed at raising awareness around an issue. I always go back to gender because of the continued challenges of equality for women and also the representation of underrepresented groups. Through the use of our tools like Facebook Pages, Facebook Watch and Live, which allows organizations to have conversations in real time with their audience, through Instagram's use of not just the posts that you may see if you go to an Instagram account, but also the videos, which we call Instagram Lives. We see that there are efforts at driving social impact through a wide range of our tools. Secondly, rather thirdly, in addition to social impact as a whole, we also see that diasporas are utilizing our tools to amplify voice and to advocate. And advocacy is applied by many different efforts, most notably through rights-based organizations and initiatives that are focused on protecting basic human rights, amplifying the needs of underrepresented groups again, but also amplifying voice of different perspectives and narratives. We understand the critical role that human rights actors, that civil society organizations, and individuals who seek to shape and influence and share their creativity have on our platform. A few other examples, which we've heard from in previous sessions today, include examples of diaspora philanthropy, where fundraising, charitable giving, these are all activities that diasporas are using our platform for, the African Diaspora Network and India Sporup, two American US-based diaspora initiatives that serve the African diaspora and serve the Indian diaspora, are aimed at mobilizing resources and the time, talent and treasure of diasporas. Much of that work is done on platforms like ours and also extends to initiatives that serve communities locally in the United States or where the organization resides, but also the ancestral homeland. Of course, you're hearing me talk a lot about nonprofits and public interest issues, but we also recognize that diasporas exist as businesses and as entrepreneurs. So Meta as a whole has a deep focus on amplifying the role of small businesses on our platform, but this couldn't be more true for diaspora SMBs or hyphenated SMBs. There are a number of examples we have with small businesses, small and medium enterprises in the United States or in Europe who are diasporic, who are aimed at serving customers in the Africa, Middle East, Turkey region or vice versa. They are diaspora organizations, diaspora businesses sharing and selling products and services that come from the continent. So we have an example of how business is being driven through our platform. And again, Instagram remains one of the top spaces for diaspora SMBs who are seeking to share their products and services, as well as entrepreneurs who want to provide their own services and ideas through the multiple platforms. Now, the last two examples I have are the ones I'm most excited about because they continue to be the most impactful ways that I think diasporas help drive development overall, but also to know that our products and tools or part of it is really inspiring. First, it's really the job skills and knowledge transfer, the job skills training and the knowledge transfers. We find that there are diaspora businesses and organizations and entities who utilize Facebook Watch, Facebook Live and who utilize our groups feature on Facebook. Again, these are all elements of our product, which we're happy to go into more. But hopefully, these are also... You also, these also bring a bell for you. But we do see how the transfer of knowledge and skills is occurring between diaspora-based entities targeting audiences in their ancestral homeland to help encourage skills building, capacity building, economic development, helping small to medium enterprises reach a wider audience. We know that while there's much to be said about accessibility of the internet in many countries around the world, where there is access to internet locally and where the connection and connectivity remains strong, we have seen bridges being built by diasporas on our platform. The last one that is quite dear to me, near and dear to my own heart, just because of the sheer nature of this issue is the role of diasporas in disaster response and the way that diasporas mobilized their resources through our platform. We see diasporas using our tool to respond to crises as they happen, whether it's a natural disaster or a man-made disaster. We know that diasporas are the first responders and run to our platform to organize, to raise awareness, to share information, but also to mobilize. And one of the tools we have, which we're working very hard to continue to make accessible around the world is the notion of charitable giving and allowing nonprofits registered charities to conduct fundraisers on our platform that are geared to responding to crises locally or around the world. You've probably seen an invitation to donate to a fundraiser. You might have even seen a nonprofit invite you to support their fundraiser. In this case, we are seeing a number of diasporas fundraise if, for instance, floods were to hit Sierra Leone or a typhoon was to hit Bangladesh or if an emergency train accident hit victims in India. We've seen some of these storylines in the news, but what we don't see is the way that diasporas mobilize and organize. And so through tools like charitable giving, through tools like the safety check-in to let people know that you're safe, we are seeing diasporas help amplify the needs of local actors and also conversely, diasporas communicating to their own homelands that they're okay if crisis hits. Now, the diasporas in disaster response is not limited to the activities of diaspora users. And this is where I think there's a lot more work and opportunity that we have. We also know that embassies around the world utilize our platform to communicate to diasporas. And so for the dignitaries and the delegates who are here on behalf of embassies, we invite you to consider how you're utilizing your Facebook page if you have one to reach diasporas during times of crisis, during times of response. Wonderful examples are with the government of Haiti and over the years, how Haitian embassies around the world have reached their diasporas during the unfortunate times of predictable crises, such as hurricanes and through disasters that are unpredictable or man-made. We know that that embassies regularly communicate to their diaspora citizens abroad. And we want to ensure that the pages and the tools are being utilized to the best of their abilities so that messages can be reached to diasporas. So I've shared a little bit about what digital diasporas means to us and what it looks like on the platform. I wanna close out with just a couple of points. One, you're probably wondering, how do we do this work? What does this mean? Well, I am a part of the Africa-Middle East Turkey public policy team. This is one of many public policy teams that Meta has for our global work. There are teams dedicated to different countries around the world, practically every country. And it's really an opportunity and a priority for Meta to understand what the public policy challenges and opportunities are, what the operating environment looks like inside a country, but also globally, understanding the trends and the developments happening that relate to either technology or business or development or issues that are as fundamental as free speech and expression and human rights protections. So our public policy team engages with different governments and civil society actors inside the country. But what we know is also diasporas are also critical stakeholders in the civil society ecosystem. So when we say civil society, we are recognizing diasporas as a part of civil society. Even though they live outside of the country, they continue to shape outcomes, in many cases economic, in some cases socially and in some cases civically. So we consider the diasporas a stakeholder in public policy objectives, but we also recognize that they have a unique set of circumstances and needs. So my team engages with diaspora stakeholders of African Arab and Turkish descent, as well as because we are the lead team on diaspora issues at Meta, we work with other diaspora communities and public policy teams that have opportunities. So our Philippines office, our India office, two examples of offices that already engage with diasporas due to the sheer nature of investment on diasporas in country and in the diaspora. But our job is to listen and learn from diaspora experiences, identify challenges and opportunities and help make the product more useful, impactful and safer for users around the world. And so that is when I think of what's top of mind for our team is really around amplifying the digital diaspora experience and working to make sure that it's as safe and as effective as possible for users, but also for other users who may be recipients of that content. So top of mind for us is the future of what this continues to look like. We know diasporas will continue to engage digitally, but how can we keep them safe? How can we amplify their voice? How do we ensure diasporas understand how to correctly use the platform? When it comes to the threats and risks of platforms with users as many users as we have, there's always daily risks of misinformation, risks to personal harm, the sort of negative and more risky sides of human behavior can unfold on our platform. And we recognize the need to ensure that diasporas like every other user understands our community standards, understands the rules and the parameters of operating on our framework, understands the risks of what violating those standards looks like and understands what the goals and objectives of a platform like ours are so that it isn't misused. The other thing that's top of mind in addition to privacy and safety of our users is the future of not just the internet, but the future of social media. And as meta, we've unveiled our vision for the future in the metaverse and the idea of the world being digitally connected and thinking deeply about two things, the digital divide that is at risk or users around the world who don't have internet access, but also the critical role of diasporas in building that bridge for the future with the metaverse and helping continue the examples that I shared earlier of diasporas in disaster response, of diasporas in development, of knowledge sharing, of skills transfer, how we do that virtually in the metaverse. There was a fantastic example I saw of an Armenian-American young man who took our headset, which is called the Oculus, and he shared it with his, I think, 101-year-old Armenian grandmother. And when he gave her the headset, it had, he had set up the visuals for a church in Armenia that she had gone to growing up. And when she put this headset on, it looked funny at first because she's an elderly woman with this headset. But the minute she saw the visuals of the church, it brought back not just the feeling of home, but it brought back all of her senses as if she was there inside the church. It's a reminder of how the future with the metaverse can preserve our cultural heritage, can preserve our different identities, our different experiences lived and shared as people of the diaspora. And so we want to make sure that diasporas can continue to help connect and build those bridges as much as we focus on how we make tools like ours accessible to local communities around the world. I'm noting time and I want to end with just a deep note of gratitude to all of you for joining us, but especially to the IOM and the government of Ireland for inviting us and hosting this GDS, a deep honor to the government of India for hosting this session. And also just of many years of work in this space, I wanna extend deep gratitude to the Networking Institute and to Kingsley Akins and Martin Russell for their continued partnership and support and leadership on this issue. Lastly, I will always note that for the women of the diaspora around this call, particularly the women from the global South, your work continues to inspire and open new doors that we know are needed for our societies around the world. And for the women of the African diaspora in particular, your work is phenomenal and I remain proud to be a part of the community. So thank you again. And I look forward to hearing from our next guest. Thank you. Thank you so much. It was such an inspiring talk. I'm so grateful to be in this panel and to learn from your experiences specifically from the private sector. You have touched upon so many topics. I will try to summarize them, but it has been incredible to listen to your experience. I really appreciated the part on the emotional. You highlighted the emotional level of engagement in the digital world that sometimes is not that much unpacked. And I really like the responses to crisis that you mentioned. I absolutely concur with you. When an earthquake hit my homeland, the first thing I did was to check on Facebook, how were they? To check to have that connectivity. So you're absolutely right on highlighting that emotional level, the connectivity level and also the fact that diasporas are sharing their experiences through the digital world, but also taking into consideration their multi-layered identities. Women are choosing how to engage. You mentioned the case of the African women, but from which country? At the regional level, at the local level. So all of these layers are really interesting to unpack. And I think at IOM we are also conscious of that, of the global level that you were mentioning, we have specifically developed a tool, a platform that is called diaspora and I will invite you all to look at it and join. I also really like the purpose that you mentioned. Why are people engaging? What's the purpose behind? Is it to collect money? Is it to create emotional ties? Is it to reaffirm their identity? All of this is wonderful to really unpack it in this area of diaspora engagement. And I also enjoyed a lot the fun part of it. So younger generations are using more Instagram, Facebook, leaders. I think it's more, it's tailored, right? So META has also all of this spectrum of how people decide to engage and to create their own content. I think that's very valuable overall at all the levels we have been discussing. And also the purpose, I also highlighted the advocacy. Absolutely right, there are so many movements that are growing in the digital space and connecting people even globally. So it goes beyond borders. So thank you so much for highlighting that part also. Finally, the only thing that I want to mention is that multi-stakeholder approach that you mentioned and how you're developing tools and addressing the user experience and putting diasporas in the center of this development. So with that, I will finally give the floor to our last speaker who I'm also really excited to listen to from his experience directly from a diaspora organization. So it's a pleasure to introduce Dr. Kumar who is the president of the Vedic Hindu Cultural Center of Ireland. So another very exciting way of engaging which is the cultural side of diaspora. Sometimes we don't really think about it but I think it's crucial, right? It's the fuel that keeps diaspora engaging. It's the fuel that keeps us connected and engaging in the different spaces. So thank you so much. Again, Samhati has been a pleasure to learn from you. Dr. Kumar, the floor is yours. Thank you very much, Teresa, for giving this introduction. After listening to a very technical person and to Dr. Said, it's very difficult to come into their shoes. I'll be just speaking on very general way of involvement. So my topic would be mainly digital diaspora technological tools for engagement. So dear friends, we are delighted to know that international organization of migration is organizing global diaspora summit on the issues relating to diaspora migration. I feel privileged to be a part of summit. We have to understand the meaning of digital diaspora before understanding the role of technological tools influencing the digital diaspora. As Samhati has already summarized, the diaspora means a group of people who spread from one original country to the other countries. And digital diaspora is defined as distinct online networks, share opportunities, spread their culture, influence homeland and host land policies, or create debate about common interest issues by means of electronic devices. All technical technical tools like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, TikTok came in the last two to three decades. I remember when I arrived in Ireland, I was speaking from Dublin, there were very few immigrants when I arrived. Only foreigners seen here were either doctors or engineers. There were quite a few business community as well. It was a tough time to connect with the people and to get a feeling of diaspora at that time. We were meeting in social, cultural or religious gatherings. There were few active volunteers who were ringing everyone and trying to bring community to these functions. Then came the emails. Then came the emails. We could connect everyone with one click and then came the Facebook, now known as Meta and WhatsApp, which is helping in the same way. Now the recent advancements in communication technologies have led to the proliferation of new virtual formations and of digital diasporic networks. These digital formations have facilitated and transformed the possibilities of diasporic affiliations. When digital technology tools applied to migrant culture, diaspora becomes more relevant as it allows the bonding which strengthens the ethnic ties and bridges the gap in the community. With these tools, one can reach beyond the specificity of groups, ethnicities or even nations. Diasporas have the capacity to influence policy changes easily and quickly to show their solidarity through lobbying and to strengthen social bonds, professional networks and relationships. These digital tools have made this summit possible. Effects of technological digital tools on immigrants and diaspora. These digital tools have changed the ways we live our lives and has changed the thinking process of mind. Diaspora was never so connected as they are today. Digital connectivity offered mobile phones which has effect on every aspect of migration. It provides access to formation, access to information, pre-migration, during journeys and in destination countries, facilities, remittances and helps migrants to stay connected to the families. We should try to improve knowledge about the benefits of migration and ways to gain from migration by the use of technology. Digital India campaign by government of India is also helping in advancements of technological tools and Dr. Said has already explained few, has given us few examples of these advancements. There's a lot of scope of expansion of digital diaspora. It needs proper policies to engage the diaspora by the government measures aimed at engaged maintaining and developing a relationship with their diaspora policies to include the rights and protection of diaspora. It will lead to strong relationship and facilitating diaspora contributions to host countries, social and economic development. There should be diaspora support programs to connect with the host country. The skills which diaspora has learned better in the migrant country should be able to transfer easily to the host country. Diasporas to be taken as new partners in the global development policy. It will be a win-win situation for all the diaspora, the host country and the migrant country. Ireland is not behind in using technological tools. All organizations are connected digitally by making groups. Their meetings and get-togethers are organized by using different social platforms. This digital technology is a boon in... It was a boon in COVID times, although everyone was confined to home, but digital pay forms were more active and were being used as lifeline for connectivity. Every individual, personally and on the group level, is being benefited by this technological tools. On one click, information can be disseminated easily. As we all know that everything comes with a price, these technological tools collect a lot of individual data. Hackers can hack and misuse the data which happened recently with HSE in Ireland and before that it happened with NHS in UK. That leaked information is still causing havoc. In some instances, profiles can be made with fake names and can be used in few different ways. Terrorists are using these tools to spread their agenda. So, international community has to come out with stringent laws against all these crimes. By far, technological tools are very beneficial for the diaspora and for the immigrants. In a nutshell, advantages are much greater than the disadvantages. Thank you very much. Thanks. Thank you very much, Dr. Kumar, for highlighting all the benefits of having this interconnectivity across the world and having access to these tools and what diasporas can do with all of these, I would say, very evolving tools also. So, I would like to start the conversation. We have 20 minutes to do so. So, to make it a little bit more interactive, I have seen a couple of questions and I will give the floor, if you are willing to do to unmute yourselves just to make this a little bit more conversational. I think it's always more engaging that way. So, can I just ask Tracy O'Connor to unmute yourself if possible? You were having a question on specifically the voice of diasporas. So, maybe we can start the conversation from there if it's okay. Sure. Thanks, Larissa. Thank you. Thanks Dr. Kumar and Dr. Said for your contributions today. I'm based in Dublin and I was a diaspora outside Ireland for about nine years and I'm home quite a long time. But I was interested to note, Dr. Kumar, when you mentioned about the impacts that diaspora have on changing policy, I wonder was that in relation to policies in their host land or in their homeland? And I wonder how much of a voice diaspora actually have when it comes to changing policies in their homeland because it seems that they're kind of removed from that container of the land. And I'm wondering if any of you have any background information on that. Thank you. Thanks very much for asking this question, Tracy. I definitely feel that it does and it can change the policy. The way I, like with this technologies, we can always connect the people very quickly and then we can have the meetings with the hierarchy which was not there before. And when we connect the political people, when the political people know that there's a big diaspora which can affect them politically as well and they're very happy to change the situation which we have done in Ireland in the past that our local politicians who have happened to be ministers as well and when this diaspora was here, they didn't know whom to reach, how to reach, where to reach. So I was organizing the meetings with our local politicians who were ministers as well with the local people of the diaspora who were collecting about 100, 200 people in one meetings and we had few meetings all the time and then people were directly talking to with the ministers and their secretaries in those meetings and about 80-90% problems were solved. So this was the way we were affecting the people and people were very happy as well and the government was happy as well that government could reach the people and people were happy that they were reaching where they can get problems solved. In the same way to the host in the country from where they came, they can make these type of forums as already explained by Samar that in the normal times they can adopt the villages by coming together and change the environment and change the situation. They can send remittances which can be very helpful to their homeland country. So these type of things one can see and then they can be in touch with their own embassies and then through the embassies with the government that whatever our needs are. So some of the needs I have already explained that it should be seen as a global developmental policy and it should be given more legal status so that we can be more involved to help ourselves in our homeland country as well. Tracy, if I could also just add to Dr. Kumar's points. I think diasporas are shaping policy outcomes in a range of ways. So much of this depends on there's two things. There's whether the government has created policies to incentivize that engagement or whether there's outside pressure from diasporas to consider a policy issue. So a lot of times you'll see diasporas shaping outcomes around health disparities or opportunities for economic investment, creating jobs. It really depends on the environment of the ancestral homeland, the willingness of the government to open its doors and many governments are willing because they don't want their migrants to be disconnected. And it's just about identifying where that alignment exists and where there is not alignment where there may not be a policy prioritization by the government. There are a number of examples of diasporas pursuing it through advocacy on an issue. So I think policy is a tough word because it means so many things, right? So within social policy there's all types of issues with housing and jobs and education and health. And then economic, it's everything from job creation to remittances to investment. So unpacking the policy opportunities is quite intense. But governments such as India and many other governments who I think are here on the call have begun to develop policies specifically targeting diasporas engagements to change and improve and strengthen policies. I think the challenge will always be that diasporas because they don't live at home. In your case, you're a returning. So congratulations and what a wonderful experience to come back home. But because most diasporas are not able to return in the way that they imagined and that's also a little bit of realization of policy advancement versus sort of this ideal thing should be versus what is actually feasible right now. So yeah, over the years with the different governments and countries I've worked on and with in the diaspora communities, that's kind of been the breakdown. Thank you so much. Thank you. We have quite a number of questions in the chat. I will give the floor very briefly to Dr. Russell, Martin Russell to do his question. I think it's much more engaging this way. Samara, how are you my friend? Time for a cheeky question. Look, I think what's interesting to me, I think it's actually quite a transformative moment for diasporas engagement where when a global technology peer like yourself step into the place in the sense of diasporas engagement. So I'm wondering, you know over the last 10 years we've been kind of saying private sector, private sector need to get a little bit more active. So do you see other global technology companies missing anything in the sense of the opportunities around diasporas engagement? Or is it actually on us to think about how do we actually articulate and communicate the opportunity to these peers? Because we're beginning to see more conversations through such companies, but I think it's critically important as you showcase because of the different tools that you have to get those companies involved. Yeah, great to see you Martin and I'm very, very happy to hear your question. A couple of things. I think the reason META focused on diasporas in this way and the way that we've committed ourselves to is because we understand our user behaviors and realities especially from the African Middle East and Turkish world. I think it's the same for APAC I think there's a number of Asian countries with diasporas abroad and those countries and governments probably exist coexist in a very fluid way. I know that parts of META already do diaspora work. It just isn't built and packaged in that way. So first and foremost it's really how we view our users and how we understand our users existing in such a global reality. And I think technology is probably one of the first you'll love this Martin. I had a epiphany a while back when I started at META because for many of you I spent most of my career in public sector and making the move to private sector was just unheard of. But I think there are certain industries that are so relevant to the diaspora experience and to the homelands that we come from and there's these moments where industries get the light bulb and for me those industries were telecom when you think of how quickly the telecom industries understood the way we make long distance calls when you think of what's the word, what's the word I want airport, airplanes, travel the travel industry understood how we are we go home two to three times a year that is a massive consumer based and the other one was remittance sending, you know the FinTech space understands diasporas and even before it was FinTech just Western Union Moneygram and I think tech is the next is the sort of 21st century industry I don't know where my colleagues and other companies are on this but given the sheer size of our product and reach it's imperative that we apply that because as an African I'm technically American, I am American but I identify as Eritrean, right but I don't live in Eritrea and I don't have the lived experience of someone inside Eritrea so in many ways I am behaving and operating as a Western diaspora American but I have an African focus it's again the complications of being in the diaspora and those complications define our user behavior and what one company may think a Western user may want may actually be true for someone in another country that is not in Europe or the US so that's why we focus on members of the diaspora particularly from the Global South who live in the West because the sensibilities and utility of this function goes far beyond what an average user may use which is building community promoting business, amplifying voice but for diasporas it's life saving and it's critical so I appreciate your question Martin but I think we view and we don't view our users as consumers or customers right we understand this is a user experience for their lives for their just relationships so that's what we want to deepen and help protect Thank you so much Semhar for that response we also have another question I think it's also addressed to you from Sandra Boulos so if you want to unmute yourself please Yes thanks a lot I hope you can hear me I'm Sandra I'm from the Swiss Agency for Development and Corporation and yeah thanks for these great presentations and I would have a question yes to her it was very interesting to see the different opportunities that diaspora the different reasons that diasporas use to use the platforms of meta and also that you showcased also the risks around using these platforms and obviously that's a huge challenge and in that way I was wondering like how do you how do you support the users or specifically also diaspora to mitigate these risks that are linked to also the digital platforms Thanks Thank you for that Sandra it's a huge question it's a huge issue for us so generally speaking misinformation or harm on our platform is reducing and mitigating harm is priority number one regardless of the user but for diasporas I think it's also particularly important because the impact of diasporas content is not only for their local and personal networks but it's quite global just naturally so in terms of mitigating risks around harm and misinformation we do a few things one we have multiple teams focused on fighting misinformation on our content policies on ensuring that our policies actually make sense or can be protecting user experiences and so public policy and other teams we all work jointly to assess sort of where the company stands on these issues what is the challenge and the risk and then you know secondly we engage with users to help them understand what they can do to fight misinformation and what they can do to ensure that they're not promoting misinformation I'm sure there's times where you've seen something on your facebook newsfeed that says this is a pop up may show up or it may say to learn more about for instance COVID-19 please click here those are some of the sort of automated examples but we spend quite a lot of time working with users and diasporas stakeholders in particular to explain to them what the community standards are community standards is basically the company's policies and parameters for acceptable behavior on our platform and what is deemed a violation and those community standards really cover the wide range of violations everything because what is never easy to say is just that human behavior can also be quite harmful and you see very difficult things on our platform that we want to keep away or keep off or prevent people from being able to do so for diasporas these community standards are critical for two reasons one it's informing them that these are the rules and policies and this is why your page may be taken down or maybe penalized this is why your ability to post may be reduced there is usually a way for diasporas to understand community standards in advance now granted I'll say two things it's quite dense because it's a wide range of issues so this is a 72 page report of community standards policies which are supposed to show you the extent of how harm exists but our teams we sit with diaspora stakeholders and walk them through the major parts of the community standards and secondly we've worked tirelessly incredibly hard to begin translating the community standards in multiple languages because we also realize that diasporas they're not going to post in one of the five or one of the recognized human languages or post in English they're going to post in their native languages as well so we've been working with a number of top priority countries and communities in different languages around the world to ensure that audiences can also understand it in their indigenous language I will tell you from my experience with African diasporas many communities write and post in their native language or in some sort of blended version with English and in my case because I'm in the US so reducing harm and fighting misinformation is a major strategy the last thing I'll say is we also work with diaspora organizations who have networks and a platform to help disseminate this information so for diaspora organizations who want to promote fighting misinformation and help communities learn how to be safer on our platform we regularly partner and so there's an opportunity there to help inform and raise awareness about staying safe on our platform Thank you so much for raising these very important and critical questions on digital governance I think we have a lot of work to do all from our respective organizations and we're here to listen from the experiences so thank you so much for sharing that I will open the mic to and ask to open the mic to Dr. Charles Hennessy who has joined us please you have the floor Thank you very much for this wonderful session and thanks I am for bringing my attention to it and thanks for such a wonderful presentation and display of knowledge of diaspora engagement and the other colleagues as well indeed you said it all that's most of us in the diaspora I'm originally from Sierra Leone in West Africa I've been in Switzerland for the past 18 years and I work in many countries across Africa in almost all the continents through my Afro-European medical research network normally something has to push it to action in the diaspora either from personal experiences in family or just the frustration that something is not working in many of the blue and middle income countries you need to jump on board or by just tagging along or listening to wonderful presentation like this and indeed with the diaspora we have a lot of contributions to our continent of origin and because most of us we know the two sides of the world it is normally said the best pilots that can fly to a particular country is the one who knows the route very well which is very correct each time on a flight landing in the UK if it was British airways I feel extra comfortable this pilot knows this route very well and so same way goes for the diaspora we in terms of diaspora in terms of disaster like I said we almost always rise to the occasion on the forefront because we know the local condition we know where the gaps are we know how exactly to contribute physically or even virtually and we are good in raising funds like I'm doing now for mobile clinics I run all over Africa and indeed we impact our countries of origin we impact the diaspora in the countries where we stay and we are normally giving a lot of chances and based in Switzerland and the Swiss authorities give a lot of platform for the diaspora to help our continents of countries of origin for example the Swiss African Forum we are recognized in Switzerland we run a lot of programs and we act as think tanks when it comes to specific intervention especially during the COVID pandemic in reaching out to our population with the key information that they need and even at the World Health Organization in the area of acute shortages of healthcare workers they recognize the power of the diaspora in engaging so that we can also help in the continents of countries of origin by the Global Health Workforce Alliance taking trends of us around the globe and most of our host countries have seen the potentials of the diaspora I'll be flying in next week Tuesday to help shape the healthcare delivery system of Sierra Leone in their first ever head survey they recognize the power of the diaspora how we can engage how we can look at resources, human material and financial from both sides of the aisle so we can look at how we can look at resources for change and I'm very much happy that this forum has provided us the platform so such of engage us especially the IRM as effective partners in bringing some of these services down to low and middle income countries and what my short question also is the use of the embassies and countries to reach out to the diaspora because every country has got so many areas around the globe and I believe the health information sector in Sierra Leone and the IRM in Sierra Leone also to see how we can map out the diaspora professionals and my minister of health in Sierra Leone in fact has created a special office of the diaspora for healthcare workers to harness the resources of the healthcare worker because it's a lot we can do so I would like to see how much we can actually engage and accelerate or upgrade this initiative from Sierra Leone in reaching out to the healthcare workers to help them and to help them build the healthcare professionals. They are like low-hungry and who can be a professional or other professional I'm not only by health it's more holistic but by looking at the doctors and nurses as a first-line also thank you very much for the opportunity. Thank you so much Dr. Thank you very much Dr. Charles for asking this very important question and here in this shoes I speak as a former ambassador and a former consul general in major diaspora countries. This is the consul general in Chicago and also ambassador mostly in Saudi Arabia where we have large diaspora groups there. One of the things definitely the embassies and the consulates do is to reach out to different groups, professional groups. We realize the strength of diaspora in the sense that they have been living in those countries for years together and sometimes decades together and in the process they have, you know, amassed a great vast knowledge in terms of the domain specialization where they are working. So what we typically do is to reach out to the specialized groups, let's say the engineers, the chartered accountants, the doctors, the business people and many groupings are if there are groupings which are already existing to reinforce these groupings to engage with them. The idea being to learn from them and to take suggestions what could be the areas in which we as the host government could concentrate based on their experiences. In some instances what we have also done is that where such groupings didn't exist and where we realized the potential in the particular segment, for example the research and science and technology or academics, then we have encouraged, you know, the Indian diaspora people working in those things to form groups and then engage with the embassies and consulates. You are very correct that since the reach of the consulates and the embassies is quite broad, it is quite easy if they are very proactive and engage with the diaspora. We generally encourage both the ambassadors and the consulate general and other diplomatic staff to mingle, travel and typically when they travel out to each province, we expect them to engage with the universities, engage with the diasporas. That way we broaden our network and this is how also we learn about the skills. Sometimes unique skills of the Indian diaspora or the other diaspora for that matter and those skills sometimes may not be available and may not be aware until you go and reach out to them in person. For instance, we reached out when I was there in US, a professor who was doing a unique kind of research, you know, we are using nanotechnology to enhance the efficacy of the Indian traditional medicine. So unless and until we reach out, we may not be aware of, you know, the kind of talents which are available. So you are very correct and endorse what you say is that Indian, the embassies and the consulates of all countries which are having big diaspora can play a very, very important role in assimilating the diaspora in decision making and also influencing their host countries. Thank you. Thank you so much for your response and for this very exciting session. I learned a lot from you. I love the multi-stakeholder approach. It's fascinating to have this open and horizontal dialogue with all the actors involved. So I just want to thank, before giving the floor to Dr. Saeed for the closing remarks, want to thank you all again and specifically to the government of Ireland who has been supporting and leading this process of bringing us today together. So with that, I will give you the floor, Dr. Saeed, for the closing remarks. Thank you very much. Dr. Larisa Lara, first of all, I would like to thank you for moderating this session very, very effectively. At the outset, I would like to thank the government of Ireland for organizing the important session on the global diaspora, organizing the global diaspora summit itself. And of course, we will be looking forward to the main sessions from Monday onwards. I enjoyed the keynote address from Samhar from the Facebook perspective, being an avid user of all the Facebook tools myself and having been connected to the diaspora, especially during the difficult COVID times. I understand and realize the importance of social media and companies like yours, you know, in playing a very important role and providing these tools also and replacing these tools also at the disposal of governments to reach out to the diaspora. At the same time, from the diaspora perspective, I appreciate Dr. Hemant Kumar for sharing his perspective and his vision of how the diaspora could connect both their origin, country of origin and the country of homeland. So together, I feel that and very, very interactive question and session which we had covering different aspects. It was a very good amalgamation of perspectives involving the government, the private sector and the end user, which is the diaspora and how the three different entities can be connected using the technology to create a digital diaspora. And looking forward, we are looking forward to continuing this discussion in the hybrid form in the beginning of next week. So thank you very much, all of you for joining this session and making this very useful for our audience. Thank you.