 Good afternoon. I'm Mara Tekic, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. If you're watching live, please continue to send in your questions using the hashtag Diaspora Voices. You can follow the conversation on Twitter using the widget next to the video player and the tweet button just below it. Thanks and welcome to this event jointly organized by the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and our partners, the Secretary's Office of Global Partnership and the Bureau of International Information Programs in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. This is the second event in a series of diplomats and diaspora web chats. We're delighted to be celebrating the achievements and rich cultural heritage today of the Latino and Caribbean community throughout the hemisphere. This is timely. President Obama just yesterday hosted a Hispanic Heritage Month reception at the White House and among the many points he made, he talked about Latinos experiencing the fastest income growth and biggest drop in poverty of any group in the United States. As the community continues to make such achievements, we have the basis for very good discussion today about creative partnerships and ways we can work together to deepen and leverage connections between the diaspora and countries of heritage. We also have with us here in the studio Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Francisco Paco Palmeri. Tuning in from the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador, we have Ambassador Jean Mainz and with us from our Embassy in Brasilia is Ambassador Liliana Ayaldes. Please let me make clear that today's subject is partnership. We're focused on identifying creative ways we can partner with the diaspora to advance diplomacy and development objectives. We're not discussing U.S. policy in the hemisphere at this time. So today's goal is to focus on diaspora as a natural structure for linking the U.S. with countries throughout the Western Hemisphere. The conversation is about creative ways state can work with diaspora groups and connect diaspora communities here with communities back home to deepen bilateral relations and help advance our shared vision for a hemisphere that's prosperous, secure and democratic. What do we have at our disposal to accomplish this? Connections, convening power, media exposure, and other resources. In fact, yesterday at an event here in Washington D.C., we announced a grand opportunity for diaspora groups who are taking on the challenge of the U.N. sustainable development goals. For the last 10 years, state has focused on diaspora outreach. In 2009, state created the Secretary's Office of Global Partnerships to build public-private partnerships that strengthen diplomacy and development outcomes by serving as a convener, catalyst, collaborator and cultivator. We've been focused on events over the past few years, including the global diaspora summits and global diaspora weeks. And across state, we will continue to encourage diaspora partnerships to tackle the challenges that lay ahead. Secretary Kerry asked that we add a new element to this effort. He envisions productive partnerships, public-private partnerships with diaspora communities in the U.S. from all over the world and cooperation on specific projects. The Secretary's Office of Global Partnerships is working closely with USAID on IDEA or the International Diaspora Engagement Alliance to leverage the global connections of the diaspora community to promote sustainable development. IDEA's Challenge Grant will award grants ranging from 50 to $100,000 to support diaspora-driving partnership ideas or projects that support the SDGs. The application process for the Sustainable Diaspora Goals Challenge is live. Go to www.grants.gov, enter the keyword diaspora and submit a statement of interest by November 30th. The SDG Challenge winners will be announced during Global Partnership Week in March of 2017. We see equivalence, in fact, between the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Sustainable Diaspora Goals. All sectors are eligible, education, exchanges, health, environment, entrepreneurship. Today's event is to give the Latino and Caribbean diaspora a head start on this competition. We're looking for ideas from diaspora communities on specific partnership opportunities. And so let's begin the discussion. To do so, I'll turn the floor over to our speakers, some of whom are members of the diaspora for brief opening remarks. We'll begin here in the studio with Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Paul Mary. Poco, please introduce yourself and share your thoughts about deepening linkages between the Latino and Caribbean diaspora and regional audiences to advance our regional objectives. Thank you, Mayor. And Buenos tardes a todos. I'm a Colombian American and very much myself a part of a diaspora community. And I know how much my family has done to connect back home and to stay in connection with our home communities. And so I think this is a great opportunity today to talk about how different groups, different members of the diaspora and the Caribbean and throughout Latin America can talk and think about ways to engage from the United States back to their home communities. I know we all share many of the same goals for our home communities. We want to see them develop economically. We want them to have safe and secure communities. And we think and know the United States can play a catalytic role in helping advance those goals. So as we talk about this conversation today with all of you out there in the Twitter Sphere, we're looking forward to getting at your questions. There are great ideas on how we can promote jobs, entrepreneurship. We have some exchange programs already set up through the US government, whether it's our 100,000 strong in the Americas program or the young leaders of the Americas initiative that President Obama has launched and for whom we have about 250 young people from around the region here in the United States for the next three or four weeks. There are lots of great ideas, but also in a more immediate way, the response to Hurricane Matthew in Haiti has shown how diaspora communities are critical elements in responding to natural disasters. And so these are all ways that the diaspora community can engage. And I hope our conversation today helps facilitate and encourage you to think about those ways that you can engage. We can't just depend on governments to solve problems. We need our non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, the private sector and you in the diaspora community as individuals contributing to this process. So I'm looking forward to a lively discussion today with all of you out there. Thank you. Thank you, Paco. Ambassador Mainz, what's your perspective from El Salvador? How can we work together to join Salvadorans with the Salvadoran American diaspora here in the U.S. to combine efforts to promote prosperity and security in El Salvador and the larger region? Well, thanks for letting me be here. It's a privilege to serve as the U.S. Ambassador here in El Salvador. So to all the Salvadorans who are watching this live, it's great to be here and thanks for sharing your beautiful country with me. And so a few things for the diaspora in the United States, about 20% of Salvadorans actually live in the United States. So it's a huge number. About 17% of the economy of El Salvador is from remittances that folks in the United States, Salvadorans in the United States send to El Salvador. And about 80% of the exports of El Salvador go to the United States. So the diaspora community is a huge driver of the positive things that can happen in this country. And that's really where we need your help. You know, if you were to Google El Salvador right now, probably the top two things you would see come up are the homicide rate and gangs. And the U.S. diaspora community know very well that while those are happening here and there is, you know, a very difficult security environment, there are many positive things that are happening day in and day out in this country. And that's where you can help. So one of the ways you know, we're asking you to help is to join us on social media. You know, go to the embassy Facebook page, go to our Twitter account. And when you see positive things happening like a Salvadoran, a young Salvadoran participating in President Obama's leadership initiative, when you see young people doing incredible things and making a difference, share those stories with your own networks, and you can be part of the positive change and help changing the narrative about El Salvador. The other thing we're looking at doing in partnership with you over the coming weeks and months is many of you in the United States will have had experience with a website called GoFundMe.com. And we are working with an NGO here and they are going to start a GoFundMe.com project for El Salvador, where we can upload projects related to security, education, culture, all those things, and communities across the United States can pick up those projects and be a part of the positive change. So you'll see that coming up with us as well. We'll also be launching the first US El Salvador Friendship Day. And so you'll see that start early in 2017. And you as the diaspora community, we really hope to partner and take full advantage of the leverage of the positive energy and of your connection to the communities in El Salvador. We need your help to do that. And we are your strong partners here at the US Embassy as are your 16 Salvadoran consulates in the United States. Thank you. And it's really a good testament to how the US government stands ready to bring these communities together. Exactly what you've just told us. I believe we have Ambassador Ayyaldi also joining the conversation. But she may not have yet arrived. So I will turn to her now. I think she is available now, Ambassador Ayyaldi. Could you provide your thoughts as well on engaging the Brazilian community? Oh, the Brazilian diaspora. There you are. How can we foster creative partnerships between Brazilians and the Brazilian American diaspora? Any experiences or lessons learned to share regarding diaspora engagement from your personal or professional experience? Certainly. Well, it's a pleasure to join you in this conversation. Being here in Brazil has given me the opportunity to see how our two countries, both being continental sized countries and very large in their population and very diverse in their in the composition of their of their population and have had a shared legacy of immigration. How that has shaped us in a way that we have lots of similarities in our vision, in our aspirations, and therefore we are able to build these bridges across the economy, certainly culture and the sciences. We find a lot of Brazilians that have actually are we don't have an exact number, though we know a lot of them are concentrated in states such as Florida, New York, Massachusetts and California that have and they've gone there for different reasons, whether it's through work of joining their families to study or to visit. And those have increasingly build more mutual bridges across the different sectors between our different peoples. And those are very, very strong family ties, family ties draws us together. But we see things that are very promising, such as on the business side, not only do we have Brazilians that are founders of US companies and that that investment of Brazilians into the United States, that is increasing. We have, for instance, David Neumann, who is a Brazilian American, who helps found Jet Blue, which is the airline in the States, as well as Asul, which is the airline here in in Brazil. And we have other examples of this, of these of this commercial engagement that goes back and forth, either independently or to other venues such as our Brazil US Business Council that promotes advocacy between our two countries of where we can have our two private sectors working together and having a bilateral voice with governments. And so that has been very successful in trying to engage our different communities here and there in commercial and economic initiatives. But it goes beyond that on the education side, we've had quite a large number of Brazilian students going to US universities, and those have replicated that those ties by having families going back and forth as well as strong institutional tries with the universities, whether there's with research with the professors, and that is the science and technology is an area that there's a lot of promise, certainly much more potential. Just to give you a sense of the flow, just in the academic year of 2014 and 2015, we had over 24,000 Brazilian students studying in the United States and conducting research and and doing internships. And of course, that is that says a lot about our cooperation and the potential for joint research, particularly in in innovation and issues that may be responsive to global challenges. We are the two largest food producers in the world. So there's a lot of research going on in agriculture. We join Brazil in partnering on global climate change commitments. And therefore, there's there's a lot that we do together. And we count on the diaspora, of course, to to to join in this. And then I would be remiss if I did not mention a very important area where the diaspora has played an influential role in an American culture. And that is, of course, on the diversity of their music and and their different elements of their culture that has influenced our own music and cultural tradition. So I think that the back and forth nature of Brazil and the United States and the potential that that plays for for contributing to economic growth and prosperity of our two countries is is is untapped and certainly is poised to grow even more. Well, great. Thank you, Ambassador Ayalde. That really gives us a sense of how large the challenge is to tap into this vast potential of diaspora collaboration. Now we'll take some questions from our online viewers. Please keep tweeting your questions using the hashtag diaspora voices. You can use the Twitter widget next to the video player. So for the first question, I'd like to ask Ambassador Mains and Ambassador Ayalde, how has working with diaspora groups specifically impacted your work as an ambassador? Is there a specific instance that stands out to you as being critically formative or impactful? Well, I think one of those has been just on information. So with the number of unaccompanied minors that are traveling to the United States, you know, we desperately need the diaspora communities to help get accurate information out, particularly on programs where people can legally go to United States. So there's the Central American Minors Program. And that is, you know, where a diaspora community can have a huge impact to ensure that young people don't have to take a very dangerous journey. And those who are eligible can do that legally. And that's one of the ways I think as an ambassador, that link with the diaspora community to get accurate information out from people that people trust, because most people trust their neighbors, they trust their friends, they trust people leaders in their communities. And so getting in contact with those and providing people with correct information really is very helpful to us here at the U.S. Embassy. Ambassador Ayelde? From the, from my perspective, I think taking advantage of some of our diaspora communities in the United States that can help further get an understanding of Brazil and whether it's doing business of the politics. And we have, for instance, the Wilson Center, the Brazil program there headed by the Brazilian American Paulo Sofero, who has a deep understanding of what it, what, what, what the country is going through, what the potential is, and how we can really take advantage of partnering together on a number of fronts. Science and technology is one that comes to mind, but certainly on a number of commercial fronts that are of mutual interest, whether it's the internet use, Brazilians have the highest number of internet users, certainly on the social media, after the United States, whether it's Twitter, Facebook and so forth. So there's a lot that we can do together. And having our diaspora in, in, in the United States, being able to hone in on similar characteristics of reaching out to Brazil and connecting with Brazil, because there is a difference in just the history and the way that of the Brazilians and getting that understanding is very important in advancing our agenda. So I think we do have a number of venues that we could capitalize on whether it's think tanks and others. It's very good. And for Pdaspal, Mary, are there some thoughts that come to mind that diaspora groups can take to facilitate this type of collaborative or working relationship with the U.S. government? Well, I think both of our ambassadors just talked about real significant ways that the diaspora can engage. And when we talk about the diaspora, that can be a single person connecting to a single community back home. But one good place to always start is go to the U.S. Embassy webpage. Go to the, and reach out to your own embassies here in the United States. But our embassies are poised to, as Ambassador Mainz pointed out, come up with new creative ways to help members of the diaspora channel that energy, those financial resources that they're willing to put into that, or to put into play their own ideas. The GoFundMe idea coming out of San Salvador is a wonderful way. But then what Ambassador Ayala just said about connecting to some of the broader non-governmental organizations, the think tank community, to hear about what's going on in your country is another way that you can find a path to making a contribution. Yes, and I would add that we have major large-scale initiatives going on with the region that were mentioned earlier, 100,000 strong in the Americas, working very hard to increase educational exchange across these borders. We have found that this initiative has already achieved an increase of over 20 percent for U.S. students going abroad to study in Latin America and over 24 percent increase coming to the United States. And this brings us much closer as we increase these educational opportunities for young people. Also, we have the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative, which was mentioned earlier, focused on entrepreneurs throughout the region. Another opportunity for the diaspora community to engage and be part of it, and we'll be looking for ways to increase that engagement. Web pages, Facebook pages have these ideas and so much more as we've been talking about. We have a question from at Starfish Global. How can we facilitate growth and business relationships between entrepreneurs in Central America? I think that's a question for Ambassador Mainz. So there are many ways to increase the business relationship. One is to get involved with your local Chamber of Commerce. So there is a Salvadoran Chamber of Commerce and then obviously here in San Salvador we have the American Chamber of Commerce. And we do a lot, spend a lot of time trying to connect new businesses with existing companies in those areas where we think they're good matches. So that's one of your first best stops because they have a lot of information about industries that are already working well and can also help you with rules of the road of how to do business in El Salvador and even beyond El Salvador and the broader Central America strategy. So I would look out for those two opportunities first and then see where we go from there. Another question, are there existing initiatives enabling Latino entrepreneurs to connect with young entrepreneurs throughout the region to help them get their business going? We have through the Department of State a number of small business development programs that are working in countries like El Salvador, in countries throughout South America and Brazil. Where small business operators in these countries can get access to resources. We've built these programs on the model of the US Small Business Administration because we know some of the best and largest source of job creation in communities are from locally based entrepreneurs creating small business opportunities. So yes, I think you will find both at the State Department and the Western Hemisphere web page access to information about small business development opportunities as well as in our embassies in the region. Yes, and there are programs such as We Americas that focus on women entrepreneurs and allowing them to have more access to markets and various kinds of know-how. We incorporate into many of our programs opportunities for mentoring younger entrepreneurs, younger leaders and that's quite common throughout. You will find this in many embassies and so we would encourage the diaspora to get involved in this mentorship connection can be very powerful for the diaspora with communities back home. It is a truism though that some of the most entrepreneurial members of our Western Hemisphere partners are people who have emigrated to the United States and once here have been very successful in setting up individual businesses, small businesses, businesses that grow into larger businesses as Ambassador Yaldi pointed out with some of the Brazilian business leaders here in the United States. These private sector partners are also can be great leaders from the United States and providing the expertise and the knowledge of how to get businesses started and how to be successful in a very competitive global environment. It's very true and they can also function in a way to improve the business climate in their former countries back home because they've been working in the U.S. climate and they've seen what a kind of business environment that encourages investment, taking risks, sometimes failing, moving on to succeed. That kind of experience enriches the opportunities back home for younger entrepreneurs and others who want to build more effective economic growth. From Ambassador Yaldi, what are some of the most effective ways you have seen diaspora groups engage with the U.S. government on behalf of their home countries and people? Well, one of the things that has a highlight is when students go studying in the United States and then they add on some sort of an internship where a lot of it is about getting to know each other's culture, whether it's in the business sector or in the science sector and so allowing students to be exposed to that and bringing back some of that. To be able to build on that mutual understanding and the diaspora community can be our biggest advocates to be able to get those bridges strengthened and a mutual understanding back and forth. So what came to mind was those internship programs in the sciences particularly that were built around some of the scholarship programs that we've had in the past. Yes, the scholarship programs can be very exciting and gratifying to watch as they develop and bring in young people. Is there a history of multiple diaspora groups representing different communities working together to accomplish a collective goal? Absolutely. I'm just thinking about last year's earthquake in Ecuador and in my home state of Connecticut there's a large Ecuadorian community and different communities in Danbury in the western part of the state and in New Haven Connecticut in the central part of the state and one of the most obvious examples is in response to natural disaster groups come together from different communities not just the members of that nationality but there's an enormous spirit of generosity among immigrant diaspora groups and you can see Colombians and Peruvians and Brazilians and Central Americans coming to the aid of countries during a natural disaster. That's a particularly poignant example of how people do that. We have a question from Luis Torres from the Dominican Republic who asks what are the most important contributions of the diaspora from our region the Caribbean living in the United States? I'll take that. I think the Dominican diaspora is one that is very very active and very very concerned about what's going on on the island very interested in helping their home communities but in a more general way the the Caribbean does suffer from natural disasters at a slightly higher rate than many other parts of the globe because of the hurricane belt and some of the development challenges because these communities are small communities in the English speaking Caribbean and so they're very active in trying to spur sustainable development projects in their home communities whether it's in the environmental sector or the energy sector we see groups on the on the island of Hispaniola on both sides on the Dominican Republic side on the Haiti side but also groups in in Jamaica and the Bahamas, Barbados you see these communities really focusing on how they can build sustainable projects that will enable their their home communities to continue to grow economically. Indeed and we have you know they have a rich tradition in fact of building all types of businesses and entrepreneurship between the U.S. diaspora Caribbean community and the Caribbean. Ambassador Mainz why is it important for posts to work with diaspora communities and what is the value added benefit of this type of partnership? I think you've seen good bit of that so could you tell us some more about it? The diaspora communities in the United States from El Salvador are probably probably the biggest asset that we have it is an incredibly supportive group there you know I spend a lot of time out at the airport here picking up various visitors and not a single time have I gone to the airport and not seen a flood of groups coming from the United States all in their same color t-shirts coming down with either an NGO or a church group working on projects here and most of them members of the diaspora communities and so the impact of people coming in this country never forgetting where they're from and while you know they're making tremendous contributions in the United States many are rising to political positions of importance in their in their cities in the United States never losing contact and forgetting their heritage and their roots and that you know you can do that and it's a tremendous benefit to your home community and so while sending remittances is important also getting involved in broader projects whether it's education or taking back a community park or any of those efforts are really critical which is why we did decide to go and do the GoFundMe type projects so we could put up those projects and the diaspora communities could see that they could play an even more active role than they're already playing and contribute in ways that go beyond even their hometown in El Salvador but even include a broader project a broader theme to the economy so I think you know the diaspora communities that work in El Salvador and come back all the time are very involved a critical part of this economy but more importantly a critical part of the society and continuing to build this country there are two things that people always tell me about people from El Salvador two characteristics is one you know comments on the people how incredibly nice and genuine they are and the second quality is the hard work ethic and I think with those two qualities it really shows the potential of this country which is what everybody wants which is people what people living here want which is what the United States wants and what the diaspora communities living in the United States also want we have a shared vision for that and all of us have an important role and that's I also wanted to piggyback on the comment about faith communities that play a back home but also as a vehicle for diaspora members here in the United States to engage in real projects that can make a difference in their home communities you know by joining a group that's going down like you pointed out we see very frequently throughout the region and these faith communities really often go to some of the most isolated and neglected areas of countries and really display a commitment to the social inclusion and addressing those issues of communities that maybe are a bit neglected back home and it comes from deep seated personal beliefs and faith traditions and that's another great way members of the diaspora community can get other people who maybe aren't from their home country to join in the effort at their churches and many do like to do that so we're talking a lot about how the diaspora contributes socially, culturally, economically I wonder if Ambassador Yalde having been so engaged in a major education initiative could talk a little bit about how the Latino diaspora contributes to efforts to expand inclusive education back in Brazil and throughout the region well through different programs that we sponsored we certainly have stressed our interest in making sure that there's a diverse representation it reflects our own values and this is a way also of having people coming from different parts of the country representing different parts of Brazil participating in these programs that then we'll go back and generate those relationships and that engagement and that follow through beyond the actual scholarship or education programs so the value of making sure that it's diverse and it's multifaceted it's very enriching and of course those were hopeful that those individuals will who have formed by the way very strong alumni associations and continue to have very strong ties among themselves but among those they have come in contact in the United States those will be future leaders that will have broader perspective about our bilateral relations and the influence that they can have in shaping policy and certainly economic and other kinds of engagements we have a question for everyone to join in on it's from at civil strategies how is state evaluating public-private partnerships for return on investment we can all talk a little bit about it they recommend that all partners jointly design monitor and evaluate I think Paco would like to jump in I think that's an excellent an excellent issue for anyone out there who's thinking about trying to go back home and start a project or engage with an existing project this idea of return on investment is something every person making a contribution should be aware of we've got here at the State Department an office of global partnerships that is promoting the diaspora movement they do do some work in ensuring that the kinds of groups that are promoting projects are vetted to a certain degree but it is something that I think everyone should be very aware of that you want to make sure that contribution you're going to make is directed at a real need and produces a tangible result and I think to be honest we're very much in the State Department we're a facilitator of projects and connecting people to projects through embassies but because a lot of times these are private enterprises you know conducted by non-governmental sources we don't really get in the business of doing formal evaluations and so any individual seeking to join a project really needs to go in with their eyes wide open I don't know if either of our ambassadors have had specific experiences based on work their AID missions that may be done in the field looking at how some of the projects that are carried out by the Asperger groups or non-governmental groups how they how they fare with respect to return on investment well I'll just start with that I think you're exactly right Paco it's one thing is to make sure you really do your homework and know what the commitments are of all parties so if you're going in and making a commitment you know make sure very clear with whether your legal representation or others what all parties are agreeing to officially do and how you're going to be able to hold them responsible and frankly whether the legal system in that country is sufficient enough to support those things going forward they're very complicated and I think each country is in a different position on where they are in terms of having success with public-private partnerships and to what degree and so if you are considering that I do again agree with Paco to really do your homework and also talk to those in country who have gone down that road and try to see how you can be best successful at your venture we are have come to our final question and I think we'll we'll want to comment on the fact that we've only really touched the tip of the iceberg on this issue I think it would require much more discussion perhaps even a full seminar it's a very in-depth issue of how the diaspora community can be engaged that said let's close with one last point from everyone where is the best place to start when interested in engaging with embassies Ambassador Mainz we're in doing very specific things so for all those who are out there listening if you do one thing today go to our embassy facebook page or that of your country and like that page and follow it we post a tremendous amount of information about scholarships ways you can get involved and also it allows you again particularly for El Salvador to try and take an active role in helping change the narrative about how people in the United States are viewing your country and what image they have and so if you could do one thing today that would be the one thing I would ask Ambassador Ayalde well we have a very very broad agenda and a lot of engagements ranging from the commercial to the science to the cultural and anybody who is interested should go to our Facebook, our Instagram our Twitter we have a enormous amount of information we value everyone's input we want that diversity of perspective so we invite everyone to join us and look us up on social media I think those are right from the horse's mouth and I think it's worth checking out the idea program here at the State Department and don't forget to also check if you're a member of a Diaspora community with your own home nations embassy or consulate near you as well as another possible source but our embassies really are catalysts for making things happen out there and when you've got two great leaders like you've hopefully seen and enjoyed today in this web chat we've got really great teams in the field who can help you realize what you want to get done yes thank goodness for social media it opens up so many possibilities we have Facebook and we have other platforms as well for people to engage and do come by and visit us in many American spaces and by national centers throughout the region so I want to thank those who participated by sending questions and ideas on Diaspora engagement and partnerships we can tell you if you are interested in ideas web page the link is attached it's www.diasporaalliance.org you can sign up to receive updates and stay informed about future events with respect to the Diaspora and if you are someone you know is working with the Diaspora on the UN Sustainable Development Goals don't forget to check out the brand new grant opportunity that we shared with you today and you can check out the link on Twitter please keep the discussion going on Diaspora Voices hashtag Diaspora Voices I think I can speak for all of us here I am very encouraged and impressed by your involvement today thank you ambassadors it's been very good to have you and thank you P. Daspal Mary