North Macedonia has one of the highest levels of "brain drain" in the world according to the World Economic Forum. Emigration is causing an increasing shortage of highly skilled persons in sectors critical to human development, in particular in the area of academia and research. The National Strategy of the Republic of North Macedonia for Cooperation with the Diaspora 2019 - 2023 acknowledges these challenges and formulates measures and activities to establish cooperation between institutions in the country and experts in the diaspora, with the support of international organizations and other actors, and to strengthen municipal capacities for engagement with diaspora. The overall objective of the project is to contribute to diaspora engagement in North Macedonia through support to Government-led diaspora engagement initiatives. This will be achieved through two Outcomes. First, highly skilled diaspora members and members of Government and higher-education institutions in North Macedonia will be engaged in 'brain gain' initiatives (Outcome 1), including the development of a needs assessment of the affected sectors (Output 1.1), a mapping of the highly skilled diaspora through the usage of big data, to inform and guide national diaspora engagement policymakers' future interventions (Output 1.2), the provision of temporary return opportunities to highly skilled diaspora members working in academia, in a gender-sensitive manner (Output 1.3), and cooperation and networking capacity strengthening between national academic institutions, associations, and/or scientific organizations in North Macedonia and diaspora partners (Output 1.4). Second, municipalities will adopt a comprehensive and gender-sensitive approach to developing diaspora engagement initiatives through strengthened capacities in this area (Outcome 2). Municipal staff will first be provided with the tools and knowledge to engage with the diaspora in a gender-sensitive way (Output 2.1), and outreach and information materials that consider specific aspects of gender and ethnicity will be developed and disseminated to local municipal diaspora offices (Output 2.2).