Review meeting on Ghanaian Diaspora Project held in Accra

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has underscored the need for the country to improve on the mobilisation of remittances from the Ghanaian Diaspora to enhance the local economy and accelerate development.

The Chief Director of the ministry, Mr Leslie Kojo Christian, said the complex nature the world was assuming, with a myriad of economic challenges, made it crucial for countries to mobilise all their human resource capital, both internal and abroad, for national development.

He was speaking at a meeting to review the Ghanaian Diaspora Engagement Project in Accra yesterday. 

The project seeks to link the Ghanaian Diaspora to the development of the country.

The review meeting sought to collate the experiences, ideas and challenges encountered by the various facets of the Diaspora engagement process and make public the vision of Ghana in respect to Diaspora engagement.

In 2010, the government incorporated migration management for national development into the Ghana Shared Growth Development Agenda, the country’s medium-term policy framework.

That was done in recognition of the importance of the contributions of Ghanaians abroad to national development.

The government launched the Ghanaian Diaspora Engagement Project in 2011 to mobilise and associate the Ghanaian Diaspora to local socio-economic development.

Diaspora engagement project review

The project is intended to engage, as much as possible, all Ghanaians abroad, as well as people of African descent who are willing to contribute to the socio-economic development of Ghana

Following from the implementation of the project, the government established a Diaspora Support Unit  in 2012.

The unit, a platform to engage Ghanaians in the Diaspora, was upgraded to the Diaspora Affairs Bureau (DAB) in January 2015 to widen its mandate and scope of operation.

The upgrading of the unit was to promote dialogue among the Ghanaian Diaspora, the government of Ghana, civil society groups and the private sector by supporting the institutional engagement of the Ghanaian Diaspora here in Ghana and reduce the bottlenecks encountered by the Diaspora when dealing with institutions in the country.

Diaspora engagement policy 

Mr Christian said the bureau was currently coordinating the formulation of a Diaspora engagement policy to ensure the mainstreaming of Diaspora contributions to the national development agenda.

Addressing the opening session of the review meeting, the Director of the DAB, Mr Emmanuel Enos, said migration and development issues were priority issues in international policy and political agenda.

He said Ghana had long recognised the role of its Diaspora and the contribution of an even larger Diaspora of African descent who were willing to engage with the country.

According to him, those acknowledgements led to the initiation of the homecoming summit, among other initiatives by previous governments.

Writer’s email Doreen.andoh@graphic.com.gh