On Wednesday 10 March we kicked off a new event series on diaspora engagement in the different regions EUDiF works with.
The regional thematic event series is taking place from March to May 2021. For each of the five focus regions, we run twinned events: first, an open webinar themed according to the trends highlighted by our global mapping. The public event then feeds into a government stocktaking meeting that promotes peer-to-peer exchange on the theme and other shared regional interests.
We are running these regional events to complement the diaspora consultation series that we continue to organise in Europe. We believe strongly in combining safe-spaces with multi-stakeholder events at which we can bring together actors from different organisation types and regions to share and compare experiences and interests.
Together, the two series help us scale up the conversations on diaspora-engagement for development in advance of our first forum, which will be open to all those in Europe and our partner regions who are interested in diaspora and development.
Regional events
At EUDiF, we work with the partner regions of our donor, the European Commission’s Directorate General for International Partnerships. For this event series we have adjusted the regions to make the most of thematic discussion opportunities and in order to work with partner organisations in each region. Exact dates and thematic focus per event are tentative and will be updated as we announce our co-host partnerships.
- GUAM: Youth engagement [10 & 12 March]
- Middle East & Central Asia: Skills transfer [6 & 8 April]
- Latin America & the Caribbean: Digitalisation [20 April]
- Africa: Diaspora & mentoring – 360 potential [4 May]
- South & South-East Asia & the Pacific: Potential of labour migration [18 May]
Do you have a project on one of the proposed themes? We would love to hear from you! Email eu-diaspora@icmpd.org
First event: GUAM
On 10 March, we held the first public webinar for the GUAM region (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova).
The GUAM region is very active on youth engagement, which was the theme of the day. In fact, of the 20 youth-focused diaspora initiatives highlighted in our global mapping, 7 are from the GUAM countries. Read more in the youth spotlight collection.
The public event featured presentations on the Council of Europe, Georgia’s Youth Ambassador Programme, the Eco-village Valeni project in Moldova, Ukraine 2050, and research on the potential of the Azerbaijani youth to accelerate change for global sustainability.
The government stocktaking meeting took place two days later, with representatives from different ministries of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Moldova, sharing youth-focused initiatives.
Top-takeaways from the regional events are coming soon, but in the meantime, we encourage you to read our new publication reviewing diaspora engagement in the Eastern Europe & Central Asia region, including GUAM.
Explore the GUAM diaspora engagement factsheets: