INVITATION
MME participation - exploring barriers, exploding myths, seeking solutions
Saturday 14th September 2024 , Great Hall, Parliament Buildings, Stormont
Raising awareness of democratic participation in the Migrant & Minority Ethnic Community
I would like to formally invite you to an event to mark the International Day of Democracy 2024.
NILGA is working in partnership with the MME Thinktank and the Northern Ireland African Caribbean Leadership Consortium (NIACLC) to organise and hold an event in Stormont, bringing together politicians, political parties and people from migrant and ethnic minority backgrounds from across Northern Ireland. This event will be held in the Great Hall at Parliament Buildings on Saturday 14th September, to coincide with the International Day of Democracy which is on a Sunday this year (15th September), and just ahead of Good Relations Week 2024.
Further to the recent disturbances across Northern Ireland, Ireland and other parts of the UK, which were particularly unsettling for the migrant and minority ethnic population, it has become ever more apparent that visible participation and representation, are vital components in our efforts to build a united and inclusive society.
The event itself is an outworking of a leadership project developed by a group of the Fellows, exploring and identifying barriers to the democratic participation of MME communities in Northern Ireland. This Project originated out of an Oxford University Co-Design Workshop facilitated by Fujitsu in 2022.
Fellows were assembled into groups and asked to use their knowledge to define an individual challenge they would like to tackle, for which design thinking could be applied. Three final challenges were ultimately selected out of 24 proposals. One of the selected challenges was the proposal I put forward on Migrant Representation –
How can we increase the number of people from Migrant and Ethnic Minority community involved in NI politics in the next 5 years?
Invited delegates will hear from a range of speakers, in an interactive agenda designed to build understanding and confidence in the political system and key participants. There will be time and space for networking and informal discussions as well as more formal information provision and exhibitions, specifically in relation to encouraging voter registration, encouraging voting in elections, encouraging interested people to stand for election in local council, Assembly, Westminster elections, encouraging participation in political parties.
All the political parties in Northern Ireland have been contacted with participation from elected representatives expected. As you can see from the attached agenda, it is hoped that each party will be able to provide delegates with a ‘three minute manifesto’, articulating why someone from Migrant and Minority Ethnic communities should be interested in their party.
There will be an in-depth discussion with some of the current MME elected representatives, recent MME candidates and others to look at why people from MME communities should get involved in politics, and to learn from experiences to date.
Kindly note that registration is essential for catering and security purposes through the Eventbrite link on the flyer attached.
I sincerely hope that you will be available to attend the event.
Yours Faithfully,
Alfred Abolarin
Founder: MMEThinktank, NIACLC; ACSONI
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