Ambassador Brian G. Bowler, Chairman Permanent Representative of Malawi to the United Nations,

Ambassador Tete Antonio, Permanent Observer of the African Union to the United Nations,

Excellencies,

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

I feel honored and privileged to be associated to this special meeting on the consultations between the African Union and the African Diaspora in the United States. Allow me at the beginning to kindly extend my gratitude and appreciation to Ambassador Tete and the Permanent Observer Mission of the African Union to the United Nations for organizing such an important event in line with the development strategy of our continent. Being African in the Diaspora myself, I care strongly about this issue, and I salute this initiative to establish the foundation of a solidarity platform to facilitate dialogue and strengthen the framework of engagement between the African Union and the African family in the United States in order to promote and sustain African Renaissance.

Excellencies,

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

The importance of the Diaspora in Development cannot be emphasized enough. The international community, the international development institutions and the United Nations have acknowledged the value and critical role of the Diaspora in the particular context of development. Drawing from successful development stories in emerging countries from the South is a testimony of the concrete benefits of an active solidarity extended by the Diaspora.

In Africa, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is the blue print for Africa’s development in the 21st century, it provides unique opportunities for Africa to address the critical challenges facing the continent including the Millennium Development Goals, and also promotes the involvement of the Diaspora in the development of Africa through its various priority sectors, for example in its efforts to improve of education and health.

You may also appreciate the relentless efforts of the African Union in regularly engaging with the African Diaspora across the world, which it considers as its sixth region, to facilitate its systematic contributions to the development of the continent. The series of Conference of Intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora since 2004 and the regional consultations such as the one we are currently attending bear witness to this.

Excellencies,

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

One could hardly think of a better and more inspiring time to reflect on Africa’s relationship with its Diaspora in the United States. In January last year, the son of a Kenyan immigrant to the United States was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. President Obama’s election, historic in so many ways, shows that the emancipation of African people in the United States has come a very long way.

It also coincides with a political and economic renaissance on the African continent that has been on-going since the rise of the new Millennium. African institutions and efforts of regional and continental integration have been renewed and strengthened. After registering steady economic growth until 2008, Africa has reached a crossroad in its development strategy. Indeed, the global food, fuel and financial and economic crises have raised serious concerns about the continuing vulnerability of the continent to world shocks beyond its control. In this regard, the focus has shifted to the strengthening of African domestic economies, improving domestic resource mobilization, increasing policy space and ownership, and reducing the exposure to external shocks. 

There is thus no shortage of challenges that remain to be solved. Africa still suffers from unacceptable levels of malnutrition, hunger, poverty and disease, and various parts of the continent remain affected or threatened by conflict and war.

Addressing these challenges is where the engagement of Africa with its Diaspora can be most fruitful for both sides. The flow of people, ideas, culture, productive resources and investment benefits and inspires our communities on both sides of the Atlantic and can help us overcome them in very concrete and specific ways. We can also draw on and learn from a long and proud history of such exchanges. They are all ultimately based on the demographic flows that have shaped our shared history over the centuries, but they extend to the cross-fertilization of ideas and the inspiration that activists and scholars such as William Dubois, Marcus Garvey, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. drew from Africa, and the support and solidarity that was lent to Africa’s struggle for independence in the 20th century by activists and communities in the Diaspora.

Today, we live in a globalized world where these links are stronger than ever. And they provide us with incredible opportunities. Allow me to give you just a few examples. Remittances of migrants represent an important and sizeable part of Africa’s financing needs and represent the most important source of household income for many families. In 2009, more than US$ 20 billion were transferred to Africa according to World Bank estimates. Yet, efforts should be increased to channel part of the remittances towards development projects.  

Similarly, the Diaspora community is ideally placed to take advantage of the countless opportunities for investment that a fast-growing continent offers. In mobilizing resources for Africa’s development, it is critical to build a coalition for action, which along with traditional donors, has to include Africa’s new strategic partners, civil society, philanthropic organizations, the private sector, the media, regional and subregional institutions and the African Diaspora. The facilitation of foreign direct investment and the transfer of skills, technology and resources that goes along with it is one of the key contributions that we as the international community can make to this process. Of course the Diaspora cannot do it all on its own. It needs to mobilize the support of its large networks of friends and sympathizers of the Continent. African Governments in turn should encourage Diaspora support by improving political, economic and corporate governance.

Lastly, the perception of migration as a tool for development is still relatively new and controversial. However, for countries with weak institutional and human capacity, the Diaspora represents a pool of highly qualified citizens abroad. African Governments and institutions need to integrate migration policies into their development strategies in order to enhance the impact of remittances, to ensure the effective mobilization and utilization of the resources from the Diaspora, and to leverage the Diaspora’s capital and entrepreneurship for private sector activities. The regional economic communities on the other hand should consider promoting migrant integration, reintegration and intraregional labour circulation as part of their regional economic integration and cooperation agendas. Other receiving countries should also work to enforce the respect of the human rights of migrants by signing the UN Convention on the rights of migrants and their families.

Excellencies,

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

My Office’s mandate is to mobilize support for Africa’s agenda, as set by Africans. Nobody is better placed to lend such support to Africa in fulfilling its own priorities than the African Diaspora. For this reason, I am convinced of the importance of this project, and I can assure you that I will take every step necessary to harness and facilitate dialogue and engagement between my Office and the structures of the United Nations and the African Diaspora.

Africa needs you and you need Africa.

I thank you.