Leveraging the Diaspora for Africa’s Economic Development

Abstract

African countries need to engage their diasporas in industrialized countries to provide much needed human, social, and financial capital to help with their economic development. For Africa’s economies to successfully transition from their current state of commodity-dominated production to high value-added production, governments in the continent must design and implement strategies to harness their grossly underutilized diaspora in developed countries. For the most part, the diaspora’s contribution to development has been viewed only in terms of remittances that go primarily to support families. In this paper, we provide a broad overview of some of the diaspora friendly policies that can help engage the African diaspora in the economic development of their respective countries of origin (COOs). Governments in the COOs need to move beyond seeing the diaspora as simply a source for remittances, and engage them in a meaningful way to provide them with a sustainable competitive advantage in the global battle for talent. There needs to be a move beyond simple calls to patriotism, and into engagement that leads to a mutually beneficial relationship between the diaspora and its COO. We conclude by pointing out some of the steps that can be taken in this regard to engage with the diaspora in a mutually beneficial relationship.

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