Washington, D.C., October 14, 2008 -- A Consultative Meeting with African governments, Africa Union, USAID and other donor partners on Mobilizing the African Diaspora for Development was held at the World Bank during the 2008 Annual Meetings. The meeting was chaired by Obiageli Ezekwesili, the World Bank’s Vice President for Africa Region.
In her opening remarks, Ezekwesili outlined the evolution of the partnership between the Bank and the Africa Union (AU) on the initiative. The partnership was formalized by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on September 26, 2008. Ezekwesili highlighted the support the African Development Bank, European donors, particularly France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, the USAID and CIDA have given to the Diaspora agenda that she described as an ignored but vitally important aspect of Africa’s development. “The agenda is not symbolic, it is substantive,” she said.
The vice president urged African ministers to take concrete steps to create room for the participation of the Diaspora in their national sectoral development programs such as in health, education, energy, and agriculture. She called on African governments to “recognize even more the importance of creating enabling environments to truly mobilizes the Diaspora and leverage their contributions to national development through remittances and virtual or real return program and work on Diaspora policy frameworks.”
Ezekwesili said the Bank would offer support to governments “where there is a clearly demonstrated demand and country ownership” through, for example, robust but selective analytical advisory activities, and consultations on Country Assistance Strategies. The Bank’s financial team is already working on reducing the cost of remittances and improving data on remittance flows to African countries. Assessment work is underway in several countries, for example, Uganda and Nigeria. The Diaspora is involved in selected Bank lending operations, for example, Tourism Project in Ethiopia currently under preparation.
The deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Erastus Mwencha observed that the AU considers the Diaspora its sixth constituency and the organization has created space for the Diaspora in its governance structure. “They have a place at the table and a voice,” he said. Together with the Bank, the AU is working to identity key sectors in which the Diaspora can participate.
The President of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, underscored the support his organization is giving to the initiative. He highlighted study of role and impact of remittances that the AfDB with the support of the French government has undertaken. “Reducing transaction cost and volatility embedded in remittances is crucial,” he said. He announced that his organization is looking into how the economic slow down in the developed world might affect remittances.
The Administrator of USAID, Henrietta Fore, enumerated the various forms of engagement with the Diaspora that UASID has established over the years and new ways of engagement that are taking shape.
The French Deputy Minister for Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Development Partnership, Kacim Kellal, presented the newly created ministry's mandate and explained that his government has increased its total budget allocation ten fold since the establishment of the ministry two years ago. The ministry is collaborating with the World Bank in three specific activities: contributing to a Trust Fund to mobilize migrants for a total amount of three million Euros over three years; contributing 375,000 Euros to the Bank's flagship report on Remittances in Africa; and contributing to the 2009 Development Market for Diaspora in Europe. The ministry favors concrete projects, individually or collectively, led by migrants and will continue collaborating with the Bank on this.
Thierry Tanoh, Vice-president, Sub-Saharan Africa and Western Europe, IFC described the African Diaspora as a key source of know how and capital and outlined the various ways the IFC engages the Diaspora in its programs.
Ministers from Mali, Tanzania, and DRC, described their countries’ engagement with the Diaspora and the steps they were taking to create a more enabling environment. These included consideration of dual citizenship, opening up national pension scheme to include the Diaspora and assuring the Diaspora of tax exemption on their money and safety whenever they decide to remit these moneys back to home countries for investment.
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