Citizens and Diaspora Organizations Directorate, CIDO Citizens and Diaspora Organizations Directorate (CIDO) The Citizens and Diaspora Organizations Directorate (CIDO) is the competent unit of the African Union Commission that is charged with the responsibility for mainstreaming the participation of non-state actors in civil society affairs of the Union. The Constitutive Act of the Union places critical emphasis on “creating a people oriented community” in the Union based on a partnership between governments and all segments of society. CIDO is designed as a catalyst and vehicle for realizing this objective. Its commitment is to ensure that the African Union represents not only African Governments but also the totality of its people. Its mandate is to mobilize the energy and contribution of all relevant socio-economic and political forces in society and harness their efforts in promoting the development and integration agenda of Africa and its people. As part of this mandate, CIDO is in a process of constant interaction and engagement with all relevant groups and actors in society on a continuous basis. It also seeks effective ways to evolve, refine and consolidate concrete modalities and mechanisms of collaboration between the African Union, Member States, and Civil Society Organizations to support this objective. Concurrently, it streamlines capabilities and instruments for this purpose with a view to creating durable and viable partnerships across all sectors of the African community. CIDO serves therefore, as the official liaison office of the AU Commission in particular and the AU system in general for CSOs from African and the African Diaspora community all over the world. The overall mission of CIDO is to manage and coordinate AU engagement with the wider African society. Accordingly, it solicits and locates civil society and Diaspora activities and concerns in the wider AU policy frameworks, galvanizes them in development and support of AU activities, integrates them in policy programmes and advocacy efforts and associates them with decision-making processes. The process of involvement that CIDO promotes is holistic and covers the broad range of policy formulation, policy implementation and its monitoring and evaluation process.