Diaspora Humanitarian Exchange Group
Diaspora Humanitarian Exchange Group
What does DHEG stand for?
Diaspora Humanitarian Exchange Group
Diaspora: People from migrant backgrounds settled outside their country or region of origin (heritage)
Migrants or descendants of migrants, whose identity and sense of belonging have been shaped by their ethnic, religious, linguistic or cultural background
Examples: Kurdish, Armenia, Jewish, Somali, Irish, African diasporas
Humanitarian: hjʊˌmanɪˈtɛːrɪən
adjective
concerned with or seeking to promote human welfare.
denoting an event or situation which causes or involves widespread human suffering, especially one which requires the large-scale provision of aid.
noun a person who seeks to promote human welfare.
ABOUT DHEG
Diaspora humanitarians are typically not included in national and local coordination mechanisms, nor have the platform or opportunities to coordinate or collaborate between diaspora groups. A space that is a critical gap impeding more impactful humanitarian action.
The Diaspora Humanitarian Exchange Group aims to gather diaspora organisations engaged in humanitarian activities to encourage more intra-diaspora and inter-diaspora coordination and collaborations, connecting them to empower their voices. By bringing together diverse skills and knowledge, the conversation about and within diaspora communities can be a positive one.
The Diaspora Humanitarian Exchange Group is a pilot initiative implemented by Shabaka in partnership with the British Red Cross, as part of the Diaspora Humanitarian Partnership Programme, funded by USAID BHA.
What is its aim?
- Enable diaspora groups to better serve communities affected by humanitarian crises
- Different diasporas can have vital knowledge and experience of responding to crises in origin and other countries. Sharing this learning can help other diasporas strengthen the impact of their humanitarian activities. For example, diaspora groups have developed experience from responding to earthquakes in Haiti, Syria, and Türkiye that may be useful to others, despite very different contexts. Similarly, diaspora humanitarians may have experience of responding to complex emergencies and conflicts – such as in Syria, Ethiopia, or Myanmar – that may be useful for Sudanese diaspora responding to the recent crisis in Sudan.
- By sharing knowledge and learning of crisis response, diaspora groups can enhance the impact of their own humanitarian activities as well as helping others.
What are its objectives?
In Summary: it is a safe space to share and learn among diaspora groups involved in humanitarian action
- Support information and skills sharing for diaspora humanitarian responders.
- Provide a safe space for diaspora humanitarian responders to share information and skills from field experiences and locally–led initiatives.
- Facilitate inter-diaspora initiatives as well as partnership opportunities between diaspora communities and other organisations to better prepare for, respond to, and recover from a crisis.
Why was it started?
With humanitarian crises lasting longer and affecting more people than ever over the last 60 years, rhetoric and business ‘as usual’ in the humanitarian field will not address the current and future challenges to humanitarianism. There is a need to make humanitarian responses faster, more efficient and more empowering, including by involving communities not only as beneficiaries but as real partners, notably through community engagement. Diaspora humanitarians are typically not included in national and local coordination mechanisms, nor have the platform or opportunities to coordinate or collaborate between diaspora groups. There remain very unequal power relationships between institutional humanitarian partners and diaspora humanitarian actors, and their humanitarian activities all too often operate along parallel tracks. Diaspora humanitarians have traditionally not been integrated into mainstream humanitarian activities, and they can be considered recipients or beneficiaries by traditional humanitarian actors rather than partners.Therefore, an important first step is to build trust within and between diasporas on an equal footing that can support locally-led humanitarian action. By bringing together diverse skills and knowledge, the Diaspora Humanitarian Exchange Group aims to bring together diaspora organisations engaged in humanitarian activities to encourage coordination and collaboration between them. This Exchange Group will contribute to addressing a critical gap impeding more impactful humanitarian action, helping to reduce silo working and duplication of efforts.
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