News Release No. 2008/115/AFR Contact: Beldina Auma Tel: 202-458-7307 E-mail: baumaowuor@worldbank.org WASHINGTON, October 13, 2008 – A Consultative Meeting on “Mobilizing the African Diaspora for Development” was held yesterday with African governments, Africa Union, the African Development Bank, USAID, IFC, France and other donor partners at the World Bank during the 2008 Annual Meetings. The meeting was chaired by Ms. Obiageli Ezekwesili, the World Bank’s Vice President for the Africa Region. 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 mobilize the Diaspora and leverage their contributions to national development through remittances and virtual or real return programs 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 -- a tourism project in Ethiopia is currently under preparation. The deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mr. 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 a study of the role and impact of remittances that the African Development Bank, with 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 to Africa. The Administrator of USAID, Henrietta Fore, enumerated the various forms of engagement with the Diaspora that USAID 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 3 specific activities: contributing to a Trust Fund to mobilize migrants for a total amount of 3 million Euros over 3 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. Thierry Tanoh, vice president, International Finance Corporation (IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank) described the African Diaspora as a key source of knowledge, technical expertise and capital, and outlined the various ways in which IFC engages the Diaspora in its programs. Ministers from Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and Tanzania, 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 a 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. Ezekwesili outlined the evolution of the partnership between the Bank and the African Union on the Diaspora 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, the USAID and CIDA have given to the Diaspora agenda, an agenda she described as an ignored but vitally important aspect of Africa’s development. “The agenda is not symbolic, it is substantive,” she said.
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