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  Objective and significance of the pilot projects  As countries move to second-generation reforms and focus on long-term growth agenda, they increasingly reach to their Diasporas as an entry point to articulate and implement such agendas. This trend is all the more remarkable because it is present in countries of all sizes and income levels. On requests of the governments, K4D Program has provided advisory services to develop relevant pilot initiatives in Chile, Mexico and Argentina.  One of the successful examples and a source of inspiration for middle-income economies is GlobalScot- a highly innovative and successful program to form a network of about 850 high-powered Scotts all over the world. The program uses their expertise and influence as 'antennas', 'bridges' and springboards to generate a surprising variety of projects in Scotland. In a similar way, the role of Indian and China Diasporas in accelerating innovation in home countries is a matter of common knowledge (although a simplistic notion of such roles appears to be notoriously imprecise and misleading).  A new generation of programs focuses on so called 'brain circulation networks' - leveraging the talent abroad through a variety of networks rather than trying to reallocate the talent physically back home. Public effort to structure such brain circulation network reveal two broader issues:  - Developing new modes of inter-agency collaboration. This is especially important in LAC countries where such collaboration is notoriously difficult. Practical modes of such collaboration are different from country to country. In Chile, for example, Fundacion Chile brings together relevant agencies which need to participate. In Mexico, CONACYT (National Science and Technology Agency) has instituted a practice of Saturday 'without ties' meetings to develop joint projects with NAFIN, Secretary of Economy and Ministry of External Relations. It appears that informal character of the meetings facilitated project-based and non- bureaucratic collaboration.  - Triggering institutional change in a relatively short span of three-four years. In Taiwan, venture capital industry was co-developed by venture capitalists in Silicon Valley of Taiwanese origin and the government. The effort took about five years. Projects one can develop with high-positioned members of Diaspora are relatively small. Institutional changes often take a generation to take effect, yet in this case innovative institutional approaches can show results in much less time. In fact, design of such demonstration projects is a central focus of all pilots.      
 Country pilots: Chile, Mexico, Argentina Chile: ChileGlobal - a search network model: constructing a small but powerful network similar to the one in Taiwan, Scotland or South Korea  Over the course of the summer, initial 100k US dollars financing from CONICIT (National Science and Technology Agency) was renewed for another three years (with a total financing of about 300,000 USD), and a presentation was made in July to the World Bank innovation team. The objective of the project is to assemble a team of influential Chileans abroad and develop innovation/ technology projects with their support. Around 60 of such individuals came to San Francisco on June 10-11 for an initial meeting. The follow up meeting was held in New York from June 22 to 24 2006 and turned out very successful. (See the materials (PDF, 4Mb) of the meeting, in Spanish) Visit the website of the network here.    View a new contest organized by ChileGlobal: Diseño Para la Innovación (PDF, 367Kb)
 For more information, download the presentation "Why GlobalChile? Networks of Talent Abroad for Technological Development of Chile" by Yevgeny Kuznetsov, the World Bank. (PDF, 733Kb -English and some Spanish)  Mexico: Red de Talentos - constructing a platform for inter-agency collaboration  Mexico has done very little to leverage expertise of 1 million of tertiary- educated Mexicans in the NAFTA area, so the potential of this pilot is significant. Mexico ' network of talent abroad is developing under the leadership of CONACYT. (National Science and Technology Agency). The objective of the project is to assemble a team of influential Mexicans abroad and develop innovation/ technology projects with their support. Recent meeting of Mexico' network of Talent was held in Mexico City on June 20 and 21, 2006. See the report (PDF, 29Kb) on the meeting and the current status of the initiative. The website of the project is www.reddetalentos.com, some areas of which are 'for members only.' Argentina: Bootstrapping approach: Diaspora-driven initiative assisted by few key government individuals  Argentina is a country with a glaring gap between enthusiasm, creativity, commitment and institutional resources of its Diaspora of highly skilled and a failure of a concerted action to leverage Diaspora resources into relevant projects at home. A number of meeting were held between SECYT (Secretariat of Science and Technology) and Ministry of Labor to explore how to move forward with two-three specific projects in the area of business innovation.  The problem, predictably, is not a lack of funds to finance these projects – for instance, Argentina National Technology Fund, FONTAR, has a member of underutilized windows which can provide resources for such initiatives - but the lack of credible commitment to convert good ideas into good projects. A small team of consultants was hired to act as focal point to design meaningful demonstration with Diaspora involvement.  After the November elections, a closed-door workshop will be held (facilitated by the Ministry of Labor) to present the project to the government and private sector champions such as Techint. Co-financing of the pilot itself will be sought from MIF (Multinational Investment Fund – a grant arm of IDB).       New project:  Mendoza Emprende: Enhancing Youth Entrepreneurship in Argentina by leveraging its Diaspora
The World Bank, in partnership with Endeavor Argentina and ECODAR, is implementing a pilot project in the Argentine province of Mendoza that seeks to enhance the youth's entrepreneurial capabilities by engaging the Argentine professional Diaspora. The activity is expected to contribute to the transmission of knowledge, the strengthening of networks and relationships, and the building of social capital between the youth residing in Argentina and the Argentine professionals residing abroad.  Argentine Diaspora members provide personalized and free technical assistance to teams of young entrepreneurs that participate in a province-wide business plan competition. The technical assistance provided by approximately twenty Diaspora members is complemented by the support of an equal number of local mentors and by workshops carried out by Endeavor Argentina on financial planning, business planning, marketing, trade and logistics among other topics. More than 150 young entrepreneurs are expected to benefit from this project. The finalists will present their idea to investors. The government of Mendoza has expressed interest in granting seed funding for the winning projects and replicating the experience in 2009. For more information, please visit the website  The Website for the Argentinean Diaspora: www.ecodar.org
  Comparative Analysis of the Pilot Initiatives  A central issue runs through all experiences: centrality of home country institutions to take advantage of the potential of the Diasporas. Armenia and Argentina, for instance, have highly entrepreneurial and successful talent abroad (and which is eager to get involved) yet they fail to take advantage of it because of major institutional weakness at home. Chile, in contrast, has a comparatively modest Diaspora of highly skilled, yet home country institutions such as Fundacion Chile provides effective focal point to convert Diaspora' enthusiasm into tangible projects of business innovation, higher and vocational education, S&T and other projects. So-called pragmatic Diaspora initiatives rely on individual champions to develop home country institutions. It is the role of  pragmatic springboard for institutional development at home that makes Diasporas so potentially powerful and promising.   A table summarizing and comparing the institutional design of the three LAC pilots. Predictably, while having the same goal, the pilots are developing very differently. (PDF, 11Kb)  Global Mobility of Talent from a Perspective of New Industrial Policy: Open Migration Chains and Diaspora Networks.Yevgeny Kuznetsov, World Bank, and Charles Sabel, Professor, Columbia  Law School. The  paper summarizes broader conceptual and institutional framework for the pilots. See pp.13-16 of the paper on governance dilemmas of the Chile  and Mexico pilots (PDF, 108Kb)   
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