BY MENGESHA AMARE
Residing outside of homeland is not a curse rather a blessing as citizens of a given country enjoy undertaking well-paid jobs, tasting luxurious life and receiving practice-oriented education that fundamentally helps boost knowledge and expertise.
The role played by diaspora in the development, poverty reduction, reconstruction and growth of countries of origin has enabled tremendous change in local communities. True, diaspora expertise and contributions must be better leveraged to deliver on the target set of Ethiopia.
The lessons and proficiency citizens have drawn from other countries is all the time witnessed lucrative to help the country of origin come up with sophisticated science and technology outcomes, practice-oriented theoretical undertakings which enable individuals and nations to set up their own centers of excellence at home that principally revolve around problem-solving approaches.
All Ethiopians residing abroad have all the time been contributing what they can, to the change and development the nation has been fueling in full swing. They are always heard of saying that the issue of development and advancement should come first and merging what they possess to help back Ethiopia towards its hit.
Apart from this, the Ethiopian Diaspora and citizens of Ethiopian origin have never slept for a fraction of a second as their mind always hubs their homeland though there are some who waver about the change and development of their country.
No matter how different their political ideology and political affiliation and patriotic stance would be, Ethiopian Diasporas and foreigners of Ethiopian origin have always eyed at their motherland and wished it a flourishing future year by year and work for it to be a center of change to which citizens of other counties come, in search of work and stable living atmosphere.
Cognizant of the fact that the combined effort of all is significantly useful in bringing about real change across the nation regarding the social, economic and other decisive aspects, Ethiopian diasporas and foreigners of Ethiopian origin are now committed enough more than ever before to stand by their fellow citizens at home via supporting the efforts of the government in all aspects.
It is well recognized that an agency by which the Diaspora financial support, skills, knowledge and expertise contributions are made channeled through a well organized entity was set up.
This agency is aimed at meticulously following up the overall activities of Diaspora members, bringing their values in experience, knowledge sharing moves and other aspects with a view to backing them whenever gaps are witnessed.
It is also working hard to help assist the Diaspora build their capacity and confidence in due course of contributing their share to their country and its people.
Selamawit Dawit, Diaspora Agency Director General, of late, stated that the diaspora has so far been doing a lot of meaningful works that have optimistically impacted the development and radical change of the country in all aspects.
For instance, the Ethiopian Diaspora has so far contributed over 76 million dollar to the effective completion of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Besides, they have contributed over 100 million dollar to the effort geared towards rehabilitating the displaced citizens from different parts of the country.
According to Selamawit, apart from the overall unity of the society at home, the country will bring about the desired change within the shortest time possible if the Diaspora has moved in unison and make a synergy of their money, skill, knowledge and expertise to contribute their share to the national agendum to change their motherland.
The national project following “Dine for Sheger,” targeting at radically reforming Addis Ababa, which is the seat of a number of international organization, embassies, consular offices and other decisive international organizations, to “Dine for Ethiopia” are now well assisted by the all-encompassing supports of the diaspora.
“The diaspora is always willing to stand by their country to help it bring about change and lasting solutions to the problems it has faced for years and would like to see a democratic, affluent, stable and quick-witted nation state,” Selamawit stated.
As the ongoing effectiveness of existing economic and social policies of the country depends on a better understanding of transnational dynamics involving diaspora, a number of appealing situations are being made to invite many more foreigners of Ethiopian origin or the diaspora community to come to homeland and invest more, she added.
In the realm of economic, political and social policy, inward and outward migration patterns interact in complex ways with bilateral or multilateral dynamics.
Not only is the diaspora community a development or change partner at home, but they are also unsung ambassadors by which the country is informally promoted and introduced to the rest of the world well, she added.
Ethiopia has to well underscore and put into actions the importance of knowing about Diasporas, about their policies since more coherent macro-level diaspora policies are of significantly useful in helping it achieve the desired goal with regard to diaspora involvement.
Selamawit also said, many developing countries have seized the opportunities embodied in these flows and have reaped huge rewards through strategic diaspora engagement schemes. Ethiopia is one of the countries which have targeted their diaspora communities for trade, investment and technology, knowledge and expertise transfer.
There are significant opportunities for developing in the areas of investment, innovation and inclusion with the growth of the diaspora economy and calls for a strategic approach to improve the development potential. And the huge potential embedded in diaspora savings and financial instruments enables Ethiopia to back its activities for development and growth apart from cementing diaspora bonds.
“Developing countries like Ethiopia have to be encouraged to further strategize the channeling of remittances to pump the finance into the intended target leveling leeway to embezzlement and broker interference. The other is to strengthen a wide range of initiatives targeted at reducing the transaction cost of remittances” she added.
As to her, the remittance money market is a conduit not only to poverty reduction but it is in effect the lubricant that is opening access to the banking services.
This era of sophisticated technology calls for dynamic, competitive and increasingly digital money transfer of the remittance.
“The diaspora community is considered not just as sources of finance for progress, but also as development partners. While the diaspora may have the capacity and patriotic mind-set to contribute to national development, concerted efforts must be made by all stakeholders to develop policy objectives that could facilitate diaspora mobilization,” Selamawit said.
Generally, capacity gaps, poor policy choices, lack of clearly defined objectives, poor implementation of plans, as well as weak and inaccurate data on the diaspora are expected to be well addressed in order to fully understand the socio-economic attitudes, and possible areas of interest for collaboration.
In so doing, it would be possible to properly exploit the benefit that could potentially be milked from foreigners of Ethiopian origin and the Ethiopian diaspora.
The Ethiopian Herald January 20/2021
