This project was undertaken by the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Africa Region and Development Prospects Group at the World Bank with the objective of examining the incidence and impacts of migration and remittances across sub-Saharan Africa, a region where relatively little is known about migration trends and the impact of remittances upon development.
Banks can play a stronger role in keeping transfer fees low for migrants through the creation of special services with features that aid migrant’s remittance transfers. An example of such services are the joint checking accounts offered by the Moroccan Banque Populaire. Through their own branches and agreements with banks in European countries, migrants in Europe can make deposits into the account which can then be accessed by family members in Morocco.
The "Colombia Nos Une" ('Colombia Unites Us') program was created by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through its Directorate of Migration Affairs, Consular and Citizen Services, specifically targeting Colombians living abroad.
It aims to :
The Home Development Mutual Fund (abbreviated as HDMF), more popularly known as the Pag-IBIG Fund, is a Philippine government-owned and controlled corporation under the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development responsible for the administration of the national savings program and affordable shelter financing for Filipinos employed by local and foreign-based employers as well as voluntary and self-employed members. It offers its members short-term loans and access to housing programs.
The main goal of the African Guarantee Fund (AGF) is to increase access to finance for small and medium enterprises – which is especially relevant for returning migrants. The AGF’s key mandate is to assist financial institutions to increase their financing to African Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) through the provision of partial financial guarantees and capacity development assistance. AGF’s products and services provide financial institutions with the means which they can leverage in bringing their African SME financing interventions to the required scale.
The African Institute for Remittances (AIR) is a specialized technical office of the African Union Commission (AUC) established to assist the AU Member States to:
(a) improve their statistical measurement, compiling and reporting capabilities on remittances data;
(b) Promote appropriate changes to their legal and regulatory frameworks for remittances, payment and settlement systems as well as use of innovative technology so as to promote greater competition and efficiency, resulting in reductions of transfer costs; and
The purpose of the project on Mainstreaming migration into national development strategies is to enable the governments involved and their United Nations Country Team partners to develop a context-specific, evidence-based, participatory, and holistic approach to migration and development at the national level, based on guidance provided by the GMG Handbook on Mainstreaming Migration into Development Planning that was endorsed by governments at the 2010 GFMD in Mexico.
In projects’ context and with international partners support, some major changes took place:
This website offers both comparison of remittance costs on 26 corridors from France, and editorial space for diaspora to communicate on their activities and exchange ideas on the blog.
It has contributed to fostering competition between remittance operators through increased transparency and information. It is also widely used by diaspora members as a platform to share information.
Remittances from migrants are a major source of financing for the economies of developing countries and of the recipient populations. They are of great benefit to large segments of the population which, without these resources, would live in conditions of abject poverty. Consequently, remittance flows tend to remain stable even when the migrants’ countries of residence are beset by economic and financial crisis. They seem to be less volatile than official development assistance and foreign direct investment.
In 2009 the Swedish government appointed an independent Parliamentary Committee on Circular Migration and Development, with the task of examining the link between circular migration and development by mapping circular migration to and from Sweden and identifing factors that influence migrants’ opportunities to circulate.