22 November 2011, Radj Bhondoe
Diaspora contribution to the countries of origin is substantial and increasing. The exact nature and volume of their contribution is widely debated, yet it is an internationally accepted fact that the Diaspora contribution to poverty alleviation is bigger than all efforts and finances of Development Cooperation initiated by rich Western nations put together. However, in my opinion, in the Dutch context, both the development establishment and the Diaspora leaders are not making use of the full potentials of the Diaspora communities in terms of fighting poverty.
Development establishment. Despite the numerous publications, debates, international conferences about Migration and Development, there are hardly examples of policy measures by the development organizations to include the Diaspora in a meaningful way in their work. Concerning the migrants, the established professional organizations are often accused of window dressing (concealing arrogance, negligence and indifference towards the Diaspora). Although in my opinion this is certainly not always the case and varies from organization to organization, a lot more needs to be done by the development establishment to correct this image. After all, the bottom-line is that not even 1% of the official development aid provided by the Dutch government to the NGO sector finds its way to the Diaspora organizations.
Diaspora organizations. The Diaspora organizations are lacking professional structures and collective efforts. While the remittances from the Netherlands are around 2.8 billion Euro, there are hardly collective efforts to tap remittances sources for structural development activities. There is much more the migrants have to offer than remittances alone, such as knowledge about the countries of origin, their networks both in their countries of origin and countries of residence, professional skills, entrepreneurial spirit and capacities, etc. Yet, nothing extraordinary is being done with these qualities of migrants. There are very few – can be counted on the fingers of one hand – Diaspora organizations that work professionally in the field of development. With no serious cooperation in sight between the Diaspora organizations and the development establishment, an increasing number of migrants are saying: “We don’t need them”. How wrong!
I think that both parties need each other. The development establishment is under severe pressure from the government (austerity measures, less funds) and from the general public (critical, focus on result and efficiency). This situation will last longer given the economic downturn and Euro-crises in the EU. There is demand for further cuts in the budget for development cooperation (Wilders mentioned a further cut of 4 billion!). We need innovative and out of the box thinking to cope with this. Migrants have their networks, resources (both in terms of knowledge and finances) and although their assistance is family and consumption oriented, they have proved to be effective in poverty alleviation in their countries of origin. The established development organizations on the other hand are highly professional and have vast networks in various sectors in society. We need to join forces. It’s high time we realize that we need each other now more than ever.