Diaspora Empowerment and Engagement

The objectives of the project is to support the government in its efforts to mobilize Togolese diaspora for the development of Togo and is implemented by the NGO MARS.  MARS organized information and awareness-raising workshops with state actors of development and civil society actors, to adhere to the project. MARS implemented a database of Togolese living in Germany, France, Benin and Ghana, and finance and accompanied five projects of migrants.

In technical papers such as this one, Syndicate members were invited to identify and propose ways to resolve key conundrums currently posing challenges to international migration governance. To hone their proposals, they benefited from the input of advisors with experience in bridging policy and research, whether as senior non-migration scholars, former policy makers or prominent practitioners. The papers are short and crisp contributions that provide evidence-based, innovative ideas to improve international cooperation on fostering safe, orderly and regular migration.

In 2015 Mauritius set up a diaspora scheme. It has been set up with the aim to attract members of the Mauritian Diaspora back to Mauritius to participate in the economic development of the country. It is open to any diaspora member who is willing to return and participate to the development of the country. It provides a package of incentives and benefits, such as income tax exemption, import allowances, a waiver on custom duties, exemption of payment for registration fees for residential property and a status.

The CSO Regional Development Agencies of Morazán and La Unión in El Salvador worked with some municipalities and diaspora in the US to support youth in starting up their own businesses and cooperatives, which included access to social finance.

This case study draws on good practice from projects supported by the UN Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI) in El Salvador and explores how to establish youth-led businesses at the local level, with support from the diaspora, as a vehicle to promote local development and provide alternatives to irregular migration.

In order to materialize the role of the Diaspora as a pillar of the development of the country, the Diaspora Week was established by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

The Philippines Alert level classification system essentially classifies the degree of threat and of immediate danger that the migrant worker is facing. The system serves as an advisor to all affected Filipino workers by instructing them on what to do to keep them safe and secure in times of crises. n accordance with the established protocols on international relations, the Crisis Alert Levels, with their respective indicators and deployment status, are:

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Policy on Cooperation with Diaspora is the state-level framework policy prepared by a multi-sector working group chaired by the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 Diaspora for Development (D4D) project is a four-year intervention funded by the Swiss Government in the area of M&D in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The project is implemented from December 2016 to December 2020 by UNDP BiH, in cooperation with the IOM BiH and the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sector for Diaspora).

This case study forms part of a series of case studies on good practices, lessons learnt and recommendations extracted from the projects supported by the UN Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI) to enhance migration management for local development. The experience of the JMDI shows that the most effective initiatives are anchored with local or regional authorities and carried out in a multi-stakeholder and participatory approach, including migrants and migrants’ associations or diaspora.