Puheenvuoro 11: African diaspora has huge, underutilized capacity for development

Cucu Wesseh

There is a valid notion, which argues against bad practices and policies of exclusion and the “sideline” individuals of immigrant origin. I believe that notion or thought synchronizes with various conspiracy theories that claim the existence of orchestrated tendencies, which limits the utilization of the African Diaspora and it inherent social capital.

To put the former into relative perspective, it becomes necessary to navigate the existing circumstances of the Diaspora movement; investigate and ascertain the realities of North-South development cooperation and partnership.

Thus, for the purpose of clarity and understanding it becomes apparent to question the following: Why are development programs and policy initiatives in Africa counter-productive to the good intentions?

Answers to this tangible and relevant question are multiple and complex to exhaust in simplistic terms. There are numerous interpretations in explaining the negative or low impact of development in the Global South vis-à-vis migration and the role and of the African Diaspora.

It is apparent that the challenges of development and economic growth in the Global South of Africa, Asia and Latin America are somewhat similar in pattern and procedures, but different in terms of unique country-specific cases of historical developments.

Thus, as we navigate development circumstances and investigate the realities of sustainable outcomes; we witness a series of wrong priority and bad governance and inappropriate allocations of resources.

It is against this back-drop that Africa`s challenge to develop and rise to competitiveness through utilization of its full potential and enormous social capital; i.e. human capacity is eminent.

Particularly worth mentioning is the migration dilemma and the role of the African Diaspora vis-à-vis participation and contributions to sustainable development partnership and collaboration.

Development partnership and sustainable initiatives in Africa are supposed to bring out the best possible results in terms of economic growth, decent human development and functional infrastructures that support the promotion of democratic institutions for good governance.

In the wake of latest out-break of the deadly “Ebola” virus in the West-African sub-region of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone; it ironical that the enormous reservoir of Diaspora expertise is not being adequately employed in contributing to development aid effort in the fight against the current health care crisis in West Africa.

Hence, this unique challenge confronting the research community and development aid agencies to do more than better in exploring to utilize the vast talents, skills and capacity of African Diaspora Intellectual Capital to advance the promotion of human development, economic growth and social prosperity.

Finally, it is necessary advance and device coherent mechanisms relative to effectiveness and efficiency; functions and benefits of the inclusive roles and contributions of the African Diaspora vis-à-vis the significance of knowledge transfer to development partnerships.

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