The Imperative to Use Data for Evidence-Based Policy

WHY DATA MATTERS


The Technical Committee Experts Meeting on the  African Diaspora in, Pretoria, South Africa on February 21-22, 2011 was convened as a preparatory meeting for Global African Diaspora Summit. Among the  assembled 93 persons, not counting South African officials, none of the attendees represented an AU Member State transnational network.

The purpose of the explanation is demonstrate that the AU Diaspora Projects, all determined before the experts met, were miscast as a Global African Diaspora project to demonstrate the efficacy and viability of the sixth region its measurable contributions, including remittances.  

Caribbean and Latin American countries have their own programs. The operations of the AU Diaspora Legacy Projects essentially lie on the collaborative engagement of the African citizenry living outside their Member States, including in Africa.


Mr. Marius Fransman,  the t hen South Africa's Deputy Minister, Department of International Relations and Cooperation of the South Africa, delivered the keynote, urging the participants   "t o  tease out  programmatic issues that would enable a framework of action through whi ch Africa can assist the well-being of its Diaspora and in which the African Diaspora can play an effective and sustainable role in the economic advancement of Africa and enhance the pursuit of regional political and economic development of Member States of the Union and accelerate and consolidate the integration and development agenda of the African continent."
He spoke based on the information policy makers received. 

But the facts on the grounds contradicted what is supposed to be Global African Diaspora Projects:

1)  Professional Data-base . About a week before the TCEM,  headlines were in various outlets dated February 14, 2011.

"The World Bank's African Diaspora Program is launching its Database of Professional Skills in the African Diaspora. This database will capture the diverse talents, skills and experiences of professionals throughout the global African Diaspora, so that they may be utilized to further Africa ' s development agenda. "
  
IBM was identified as the multinational to develop the African Diaspora Skills Database. 
 
In a report titled Connecting the Caribbean with its Diaspora by the Caribbean Counc il,  the Jamaican government was setting up a comprehensive database of its professionals and investors living overseas. 

2)  Development Market Place for African Diaspora was identified as DMADE for Europe at Joint AU Ministerial meeting in September 2011 in New York. However, different versions of the project were already launched by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Western Union in 2009 according their statement  (READ)   " to encourage sustainable economic growth and employment by supporting African diaspora entrepreneurs. "

The World Bank launched its version in North America in 2009: READ and in 2008 in Europe.

Both programs operated on the lines of  North Africa and Sub-Sahara Africa,which is contradictory to the AU Vision. But none was operated from the Global African Diaspora narrative.  The last program by USAID and Western Union was in September 2015.

Meanwhile, Caribbean and Latin America have identical Diaspora Market Place programs that are unrelated to the African Union.
Latin America Diaspora Market Place and Caribbean Diaspora Idea Market Place
Latin America Diaspora Market Place and Caribbean Diaspora Idea Market Place

CARICOM has a  Marketplace program called Caribbean Idea Market (READ)     for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises supported by US, Inter-American Bank and other partners.  Latin America Diaspora has the Latin America Market Place  (READ) .

3) The African  Institute  for Remittances (AIR): AIR is specific to Member States Diaspora population.  Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean, which reached $68.3 billion in 2015, are not included in  remittances to Africa.  There no recorded volume of remittances sent by Historical African Diaspora to Africa.

The aim of AIR is to facilitate cheaper, faster, and more secure remittance flows from Europe to Africa. The core objectives of the African Institute for Remittances project are to: (a) Facilitate the process leading to the creation of the Institute, and; (b) Build the capacity of the Member States of the African Union, remittance senders and recipients and other stakeholders to develop and implement concrete strategies and operational instruments to use remittances as development tools for poverty reduction. 

This project was actualized by World Bank and the European Commission.

E xperts admits that more remittances are sent through informal sources and difficult to track.

AIR is one of AU's Continental Monetary and Financial Institutions. Others are The African Investment Bank, The African Credit Guarantee Facility, The African Monetary Union and the African Central Bank. All are Fast Track Projects in the first Five Ten-Year Strategic Implementation Phase of Agenda 2063. 

Western Unio n's sponsorship of Development Market Place for African Diaspora, a competitor in the remittance industry was perceived as a conflict of interest.
 
In April 2014, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) made headlines with calls for the Financial Conduct Authority to investigate Western Union and Money-gram.  The virtual duopoly operated by both multinational companies in Africa is stifling competition, according to Mr. Kevin Watkins, the then ODI director. 




4) African Diaspora Volunteer Corps: CUSO International operates several volunteer programs, including in  Caribbean, Asia, etc. These are independent programs not operated by the African Union. 
  
Note: One of the recommendations of the AU Institutional Reform Committee is the establishment the African Volunteer Corps to bring   real value to the lives of African citizens who feel disconnected from the AU.

5) African Diaspora Investment Fund: No African Diaspora Investment Fund (DIF) materialized as intended. Various countries are establishing their national  Diaspora Investment Funds. 

Latin American nations and CARICOM also have Diaspora Investment programs. 

Legacy Projects 
Based on Agenda 2063 Timelines, the followings were expected  to be implemented.
  1. AIR is  under the AU Commission of Social Affairs. It was launched in October 2015 and hosted in Kenya. The commencement of AIR was expected to take place in 2017 with full operations by 2020. A significant percent of Member States Diaspora population is still unaware of the existence of AIR. 
  2. Technical committee on the implementation of legacy projects was expected to be fully functional by 2015. 
  3. Diaspora Skills Inventory: Framework was expected to be updated in 2016, with data capture following in 2016/18 and website operational from 2019. 
  4. Diaspora Volunteer Force: Framework was expected to be updated in 2015; implementation structures are put in place by 2016 and launch done in 2017. 
  5. Diaspora Market Place: Concept was expected to be updated in 2015; installation of innovation platform and sensitization of the Diaspora done in  done 2016/17 with commencement in 2018.