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For the November update, the CD4D team reports about the number of assignments, study visit of a Sierra Leonean delegation, Iraq orientation session, and the Ignite Conference 2018.

Panelists at the IGNITE Conference 2018 from L to R: Nina Staal, Ramman Ismail, Alain Nkurikiye, Jawid Dehpoor.

 

Number of assignments

For the month of November, 3 CD4D participants started their assignments. One went to Sierra Leone, one to Iraq and one to Somalia. We also welcomed back 3 of our participants, of whom one is from Afghanistan and two from Somalia.

Study Visit in the Netherlands from Sierra Leone Delegation

For the duration of a week, a delegation from 4 Sierra Leonean higher education institutions and Office of Diaspora Affairs attended a tailor-made training in the Netherlands. They learnt about the importance of entrepreneurship at esteemed Dutch universities as well as education mechanisms in the Netherlands. Read about their story by clicking on this link.

Iraq Orientation Session

With one Iraqi diaspora professional already on assignment, CD4D’s new Iraq element is off to a good start. In the Netherlands, the CD4D team members and an Iraqi diaspora organization organized an outreach event to potential candidates for capacity building purposes. More than 45 interested participants attended the event and learnt about the areas to which they could contribute as diaspora experts. Their enthusiasm led to a large sum of applications to take part of the project and we are started to develop workplans.

SPARK IGNITE Conference

The IGNITE Conference is an annual conference organized by SPARK and supported by the IKEA Foundation, International Finance Corporation, Islamic Development Bank and Municipality of Amsterdam. The event brought together stakeholders ranging from refugees to entrepreneurs to the private sector and governments to improve higher education, promote sustainable economic empowerment and strengthen leadership among young people in fragile states. IOM The Netherlands hosted a workshop on the Global Migration Film Festival during which the “CD4D in Afghanistan” documentary was shown and discussed about as well. Alain Nkurikiye, Founder of Wajenzi, and Jawid Dehpoor, KEIHAN Foundation, represented IOM and CD4D in Afghanistan respectively. The themes revolved around migrant entrepreneurship and the importance of diaspora contributions.