– The IN Level:
Civic engagement is defined as working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values, and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting a community’s quality of life through political and non-political processes.
We believe that meaningful activism IN MENA is an antidote to inequality, with rich potential to empower underrepresented and marginalized communities that have too often been excluded.
– The FROM Level:
The focus on ensuring active political and civic participation and activism of diaspora communities FROM MENA in both countries of origin and residence elevates the importance of engaging diaspora social capital. HuMENA adopts a three-pillar approach to engage the diaspora in change-making and human rights promotion back home, hence transforming emigration from a challenge for a local community into an opportunity.
The approach is based on studies conducted by HuMENA and other organizations working on diaspora engagement worldwide that have shown a massive gap in connection and cooperation between local civil society and the MENA diaspora.
The three pillars for engaging the diaspora in change-making and human rights promotion back home are:
- Mainstreaming emigration in local policymaking;
- shaping diaspora involvement through the establishment and/or expanding and activating already established transnational advocacy networks
- supporting meaningful diaspora engagement through joint projects and activities with local civil societies in MENA
– The FOR Level:
We believe that empowering people to make their voices heard is not enough and that we have to go beyond just listening to people; instead, we need to press governments in the region to build institutional systems that incorporate people’s voices in the decision-making processes and thereby increase the responsiveness of government policies to people’s real needs. To do so, HuMENA effectively engages with and strengthens networks and connections between local civil society in MENA, the marginalized, the vulnerable, the disadvantaged, the MENA diaspora individuals and organizations, the regional and international organizations, the donors, the transnational advocacy networks, and the international community, FOR MENA.
