In Lisbon on 9 and 10 November 2019, the EU Global Diaspora Facility (EUDiF) organised its first activity, the ‘Diaspora Consultation: Southwest Europe’.
The event gathered participants from 14 diaspora organisations based in Portugal and Spain to discuss their interests, needs, opportunities and challenges as development actors in their countries and regions of origin. Between them, the participants have connections to nine different countries in Africa and Latin America.
Vasco Malta, Director of Department of Migration Policy, International Relations and Enrolment of Migrants of the Portuguese High Commission for Migration officiated the inaugural diaspora consultation. The European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO), the project’s funder, was represented by Programme Manager Ron Hendrix who presented the EU’s perspective on the potential of diaspora for development and the DEVCO’s interest in supporting diaspora development actors via the EUDiF. ICMPD’s Head of Programme - Global Initiatives, Oleg Chirita, presented on diaspora and the global development agenda, before Senior Project Manager Aurélie Sgro introduced the EUDiF initiative.
The consultation was held at the National Immigrant Support Centre (CNAI). During the event, participants shared stories about their work in both their country of origin and in the EU, ranging from the creation of networks and the promotion of alliances to the protection of women’s rights or humanitarian support to targeted local groups. Through participatory activities, the group identified common interests, needs, opportunities and challenges and developed recommendations in response to the needs and challenges. The Lisbon event is the first in a series of consultations across Europe which bring together diaspora organisations with heritage in all regions of the world. The next will be in Brussels in February 2020. Results of the consultations feed into other EUDiF activities, including forthcoming capacity building and meetings with DEVCO partner countries.
EUDiF is a new project implemented by ICMPD with the objective of enhancing development collaboration between EU-based diaspora organisations, countries of origin & the EU. The project runs from June 2019 until the end of 2022 and will, inter alia, conduct a global mapping of diaspora engagement, deliver capacity building, organise consultations and exchanges with diaspora and countries of origin, and deploy diaspora expertise for development projects. For more information on the EUDiF, please contact EU-diaspora@icmpd.org.
Read more about why ICMPD believes in the impact of diaspora engagement for development. Follow EUDiF on Twitter @diaspora4devEU and keep up with future consultations via #diasporavoices.