SAMEEP (Students and MEA Engagement Program)

SAMEEP (Students and MEA Engagement Programme) is an initiative of the External Publicity and Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). It was launched in December 2017 to reach out to the student community in various towns and cities across India. It’s an outreach mission by the MEA to take India’s foreign policy and worldwide engagements to school and college students across the country.

Objectives of SAMEEP

• Familiarise college and school students with the functions and role of the MEA, achievements of India’s foreign policy and critical elements of foreign policy.
• Unite students at the grassroots level to think from the start regarding foreign policy. 
• Introduce Indian foreign policy and global responsibilities to students.
• Encourage students to consider diplomacy as a viable career.
• Bring foreign policy to the masses, speak to college students about foreign policy, and comprehend foreign plans better.

Benefits of SAMEEP

• SAMEEP will give students a basic understanding of India’s foreign policy and its accomplishments and growth.
• It will encourage students to consider diplomacy as a career option since students have little or no knowledge about this field.
• It will assist students in understanding India’s position in the world and how the MEA achieves its goals through delegation with foreign governments.
• It will provide employment opportunities in a foreign country and knowledge of the generation, maintenance and formation of international relations.
• It provides a project possibility in a foreign region and gives expertise on the manufacture, maintenance and formation of foreign customs.

Implementation of SAMEEP

The SAMEEP initiative is undertaken with the help of MEA officers and involves their visits to colleges and schools in their states or hometown during leave. It is voluntary for MEA officers to visit colleges and schools. The MEA officers would involve learners in colleges and schools in the MEA’s work to provide them with a realistic understanding of India’s interaction with the rest of the world, how diplomacy is carried out and its foreign policy priorities. They can communicate and interact with school and college students and explain MEA’s work, India’s foreign policy and diplomacy so they can consider it a viable career.

The purpose of the MEA officers would be to recruit college and high school students for a diplomacy internship and provide them with a detailed brief overview or information on India’s foreign policy preferences and how diplomacy is conducted.

The government will give the officers a scripted presentation, but the officials can add their own experiences to the script. Their goal is to invoke students’ interest in India’s role in the world and global goals and encourage them to opt for diplomacy as a career option. IAS officers have also returned to their original postings to assess progress and make recommendations under a similar approach.

The Union Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched an interactive programme called ‘Ask the Spokesperson’ on social media. As a result, students and the Union Ministry will be able to operate the SAMEEP initiative activity efficiently and successfully. The team of officers will answer questions on the SAMEEP initiative, foreign policy ideas or programmes. As of March 2020, 44 programmes have been organised under the SAMEEP initiative since its inception in 2018.