Dialogue & Advocacy

Our Afghan diaspora engagement aims to promote enhanced dialogue and empower the diaspora community by fostering increased agency both within the diaspora itself and in its interactions with civil society in their home countries. Our objective is to strengthen coordination, foster greater collaboration among organizations, and facilitate a higher level of engagement and influence for the diaspora in Europe and other regions worldwide.

2023-Ongoing

Strengthening exchange with civil society inside Afghanistan

DRC's Afghan Diaspora Engagement aims to empower and support the constructive role of transnational Afghan civil society in support of Afghans affected by conflict and displacement.

Spanning from June 2023 to May 2024, this project will provide a safe platform for meaningful exchange and dialogue between civil society inside and outside of Afghanistan. It will foster mutual understanding and increase influence, focusing on two thematic pillars:

DRC Afghan Diaspora Conferences 2019 & 2022

2022-2023

Promoting human rights and rights-based approaches with a focus on Afghan women and girls

This project focuses on “Promoting human rights and rights-based approaches with a focus on Afghan women and girls and is part of a broader project led by DRC Afghanistan focusing on Resilience and Economic Assistance for Communities Towards Recovery (REACT), funded by Danida.'

Main activities

(i) Providing technical and financial support to strengthen the ability of Afghan women in the diaspora in efforts to promote the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan to European policymakers and donors

Recent support

DAKDIF Conference: Afghan Women as Change Agents, 21 September 2022.
Professional Development Course on Evidence-Based Advocacy for the Afghan Diaspora, Copenhagen, 3-7 November 2022. Co-organized with ADSP, MMC and CAPRS.
Advocacy Toolkit for Diaspora Organizations, January 2023
Enable participation of Afghan women in various conferences, and events to advocate for the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.

(ii) Increasing knowledge on the nature and impact of Afghan diaspora engagement with special focus on the role of women in the diaspora.

DEMAC Diaspora Humanitarian Engagement – Second Afghanistan Real-Time Review, 2022

Participants from the Professional Development Course on Evidence-Based Advocacy for the Afghan Diaspora, Copenhagen, 3-7 November 2022. Co-organized with ADSP, MMC and CAPRS.

Afghan Diaspora - Advocacy Toolkit Launch & Discussion - FULL

A panel to discuss the value of diaspora advocacy

Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

2020-2022

ADEE - Afghan Diaspora Engagement in Europe

This project strove to improve coordination, increase collaboration across organisations and facilitate higher level of engagement and influence for the Afghan diaspora in Europe. 

Main activities

Established an Afghan Diaspora Advisory Board (ADAB) to inform both the content and execution of the following activities.

A series of webinars on the peace process, access to asylum in Europe, and the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.
A 3.5-day Professional Development Course on Advocacy for Afghan Diaspora to strengthen participants’ capacity, expertise, and knowledge in advocating for the rights of Afghans in need of protection.
A dialogue between Afghan diaspora women and Members of European Parliament event to provide a platform to Afghan diaspora women to voice their concerns and start a dialogue with key European Union stakeholders.
An online advocacy workshop for Afghan diaspora in Europe to discuss and underline their advocacy priorities
A 2-day Afghan diaspora European conference with the two following objectives:

A 1-day online development training on development policy towards Afghanistan to enable the diaspora to direct their proposals and demands to those responsible actors and institutions. Strengthening relationships between leading organizations in the diaspora as well as with civil society actors in Afghanistan to improve coordination, share best practise, help start new collaborations and strengthen the diaspora response to Afghans in need. Civil Society Actors will be present or will participate in hybrid-formats.
Providing a platform to assert the importance of the diaspora for the future of Afghanistan, explore opportunities for collaboration on the humanitarian & development response, and allow Afghans in Europe to voice key messages to EU institutions and member states related to humanitarian and development needs, access to protection, respect of human rights especially for women, girls, ethnic and religious minorities. The first day focused on “Getting together”. It will be internal and focus on how the diaspora can better coordinate and collaborate, The second day will be: “A call for action” and will bring external actors to the table for exchange on the role of the diaspora.

6. A 1-day online development training on development policy towards Afghanistan to enable the diaspora to direct their proposals and demands to those responsible actors and institutions.

2018-2019

Our initial engagement had the following 3 components aiming at setting the analytical framework for our programming.

A study & mapping of the Afghan diaspora in Europe in collaboration with the Maastricht University: “Afghan diaspora in Europe”.
A series of national consultations to better understand the needs of diaspora organizations.
The first Afghan diaspora conference in Europe, discussing the finding from the study and discussing key thematic that came out of the consultations.

2019 was also the beginning of our collaboration with the Vienna Institute for International Dialogue and Cooperation (VIDC), who also held a conference in 2019 resulting in the : “Guide to Afghan Diaspora engagement in Europe”. Our first joint event was an online workshop on Covid-19 in Afghanistan in 2020. We will continue collaborating with VIDC and other relevant organisations supporting the Afghan diaspora, to ensure best possible outcomes for the Afghan diaspora.  