Diaspora Emergency Action & Coordination (DEMAC) will host a gathering of diaspora humanitarian stakeholders at its annual international conference taking place in Geneva, Switzerland from 30-31 May 2022.
This year’s event will focus on the theme: “Enhancing Coordination in Humanitarian Settings”; and will be held in person after ease of COVID-19 restrictions. However, DEMAC will ensure that Swiss COVID-19 safety measures at the time of the conference will be followed, which can include a vaccination requirement, testing, masking and social distancing.
Over two days, the spotlight will be on diasporas – featuring discussions with civil society, NGOs and the institutional humanitarian system on current topics of diaspora engagement in humanitarian response.
According to DEMAC which is hosting the event in partnership with USAID and the Danish Refugee Council, in order to create and strengthen strong networks across the globe between various actors, the objective of the conference is to:
- “provide a space for relevant actors to come together and exchange on the latest developments in the sector;
- connect the community working on and/or in diaspora humanitarianism; and
- provide a platform to engage and build ties with each other.”
It also went on to say that “some of the essential questions to be discussed will be around how diaspora engagement can be further reflected and integrated in the humanitarian system, and what could make it attractive for diaspora actors to engage with the ecosystem.”
The conference, which will mainly be by invitation only has a programme line up featuring forward thinking Panel Discussions, Keynote Speeches, a Strategic Advisory Board Meeting, Networking Session and many others; with English as the language of communication.
Diaspora access to funding, a dialogue on trust, transparency and local ties, as well as lessons learnt from diaspora emergency response in the Ukraine crisis will all be on the table for discussion.
For the full conference programme, see HERE.
DEMAC is a global initiative which aims at enhancing mutual knowledge and coordination, communication and coherence between diaspora humanitarian actors and the institutional humanitarian system. Furthermore, DEMAC seeks to increase engagement and visibility for diaspora organizations in the humanitarian system.
For more information about its operations, visit DEMAC’s website.
Written By: Theresa R. Fianko
Additional information: DEMAC
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