Africa

The Federal Government of Nigeria has set aside July 25 of every year as national diaspora day in recognition of the contributions of Nigerians in diaspora towards national development.

In 2023, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) and the University of Ibadan (UI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the establishment of the Centre of Excellence for Diaspora Studies.  The Centre is to serve as Africa Diaspora Resource Research Centre, and it will be managed by the Diaspora and Transnational Studies Unit of the Institute of African Studies.

In 2019, Ghana successfully hosted The Year of Return, Ghana 2019, a year-long programme of activities to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first recorded enslaved Africans in the State of Virginia in the United States.

These activities included visits to heritage sites, healing ceremonies, theatre and musical performances, lectures, investment forums and relocation conferences. The aim was to promote Ghana as a tourist destination and investment opportunity as well as to encourage resettlement in the motherland for the Africans in the diaspora. 

The International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) is an inter-governmental organization of the countries in the African Great Lakes Region. Its establishment was based on the recognition that political instability and conflicts in these countries have a considerable regional dimension and thus require a concerted effort in order to promote sustainable peace and development.

Among the main divisions we find one concerning humanitarian social and environmental issues and one related to gender, women and children. 

The overarching goal of the Making Migration Safe for Women programme, implemented by UN Women, is to ensure that migration is safe for women migrating from, into and through Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali and Niger and international norms and standards for protecting and promoting migrant women’s rights are strengthened. 

This UN Women guidance document was developed based on a gender-responsive survey instrument conducted by UN Women, together with the National Statistics Service of Niger and IOM Niger, in Niger in 2023 for collecting and analysing gender data in migration, as part of UN Women’s Making Migration Safe for Women Programme. 

The guidance is organized into three main sections:

• Why a survey on the situation of migrant women?
• Survey objectives and methodology
• The four stages of developing and implementing the survey

The Africa Climate Mobility Initiative is a people-centred and evidence-based Initiative, aiming to generate political momentum around a common policy agenda and to mobilise resources for the implementation of comprehensive and locally anchored solutions to address climate mobility.

The Africa Climate Mobility Initiative’s cornerstones are knowledge-building, connecting and empowering change agents and accelerating policy and project implementation underpinned by strategic partnerships.

The pilot phase of MSDG was implemented from  August 2017 to December 2018, during which a Gambian Diaspora Strategy (GDS) was developed and incorporated in the Gambia National Development Plan (NDP 2018-21).

The Development Response to Displacement Impact Project (DRDIP) is a World Bank funded project through Investment Project Financing-IDA Loan to the Government of Uganda of about 50 Million dollars and is implemented by the office of the Prime Minister. 

The Project provides development and direct income support to vulnerable nationals and refugees within refugee hosting districts in Uganda and aims to improve access to basic social services, expand economic opportunities and enhance environmental management in refugee hosting districts.

Zimbabwe’s National Diaspora Policy provides for a comprehensive national framework to formally mainstream the diaspora into national development processes. It aims to develop measures to enhance protection of Zimbabweans abroad, and establish mechanisms for the transfer and repatriation of terminal, pension, and social security benefits for retired returnees through conclusion of bilateral labour agreements with host countries.