Developing a Diaspora Engagement Policy to Integrate the Diaspora into Ghana's National Development Agenda

The role of the Ghanaian Diaspora in national development has, in recent years, won unprecedented recognition from the government at the highest levels. The Government values the ideas, skills and contributions of Ghanaians abroad, just as those living in Ghana, much more than any other natural resource and therefore, considers the entire Ghanaian populace as its basic first priority. Government has therefore, taken steps to leverage Diaspora knowledge, experience, skills and financial resources to complement those at home for accelerated national development.

This proposed 12-month project aims to contribute to Ghana’s socio-economic development through the provision of key support to the Government's efforts to integrate the contributions of the diaspora into its development agenda. The primary specific objective of this project is to devise a comprehensive diaspora engagement policy for Ghana. This would be achieved under the management of the Diaspora Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration of Ghana.
Other activities envisaged under the ECOWAS-Spain fund include: Diaspora mapping, building of a reliable and comprehensive database of Ghanaians in the diaspora, knowledge and skills transfer for national development from the Ghanaian Diaspora and elaboration of a Ghana Diaspora Investment strategy.

The expected results of the proposed project will be broken down into two broad categories:

1. Comprehensive and coherent diaspora engagement policy developed and subsequently validated for Ghana that would serve as a guide for mainstreaming diaspora-related issues into the government’s overall development agenda at all levels.
a. Cooperation between government institutions and social partners enhanced through stakeholders meetings on policy development and implementation,
b. Policy formulated, revised, and validated by all major stakeholders involved in the policy development process at the national level (government, civil society, and the private sector),
c. Policy implementation roadmap developed and validated by key stakeholders.

2. Capacity of the Diaspora Affairs Bureau and the Stakeholder Committee strengthened to coordinate and manage diaspora-related issues in Ghana:
a. Targeted training workshop for the DAB and Stakeholder Committee for National Diaspora Engagement on the central coordination and management of diaspora-related issues organised,
b. Diaspora Affairs Bureau staff have greater capacity to play a central coordination role in the national Diaspora Engagement Policy framework, resulting in the creation of more programmes on diaspora-related issues,
c. Policy development study tour to India to learn from India’s experiences in developing and implementing diaspora-related policies,
d. Comprehensive evaluation report on the outcomes and lessons learned from the study tour compiled as a result of deliberations during stakeholders meetings and utilised to serve as a guide in the development and implementation of Ghana’s diaspora engagement policy.

Currently, the funding for the policy has been released and the Ministry is at the final stage of concluding the contract for the commencement of the project.

For more information:

• https://ghanaemberlin.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/DAB_CONCEPT_PAPER.p…

GFMD 2014-2015 Roundtable 3.2 "Private sector-Government Partnerships to support migrant/diaspora entrepreneurship and job creation, with a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises​"

Local – Centre for Migration Studies, University of Ghana, MoneyGram International, Fidelity Bank, Ghanalinks Magazine.
International – ECOWAS-SPAIN Fund on Migration and Development, International Organization on Migration(IOM), German Federal Enterpris