1
Africa and Development
African Diaspora as a non-state actor for Development Aid in
Africa?
Master Thesis Political Science
Specialisation: International Relations
Supervisor Dr. R.M. Sanchez
Second reader Julien Jeandeboz
23
rdSeptember 2014
Ama Carr
2
Acknowledgments
First of all I will like to thank God for giving me the discipline and strength to finally finish my thesis, it has been a long time coming. Furthermore I will like to thank my supervisor Dr. Rosa Sanchez Salgado for her guidance, patience and all of her critical feedbacks which really helped me a lot. I will also like to send my gratitude to all the people that granted me an interview; I thank them for their time, information and especially for their honesty.
Last but not least I will like to thank my family members and friends that gave me the support and the push to finally finish my thesis and all of the people that offered to proof read my thesis. Thank you and God bless you all!
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Abstract
The thesis is dedicated to the African Diaspora in the Netherlands and other European countries. This is a group that has not been getting enough research attention by; academicians, policymakers of development aid in Africa; the government of the western world and the government of their homelands.
The African diaspora is an upcoming group in the Netherlands, especially the second generation. They are going to school and because they speak the language their chances on the labour market are much better than that of their parents. There is little written about the African Diaspora and their activities towards their homeland and how they contribute to the development of Africa. That is why I choose to do a research about African Diaspora and their contributions towards Development Aid in Africa. My goal for doing this research is to investigate if it is possible to incorporate the initiatives of the African Diaspora whereby they boost the economy of Africa and they create more job opportunities. Hoping that this will have more effectiveness in reducing poverty in Africa than Foreign Aid Assistant whereby we give money to Africa for projects that does not have a long duration when it comes to boosting the economy. This thesis investigates about the African Diaspora and their contributions towards the Development of Africa. And it also looks into the policy of the policy makers of Development Aid. Do they include the African Diaspora as a non-state actor when it comes to making policies on Development Aid for Africa?
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Table of Content
LIST OF ABBREVIATION ... 5
LIST OF TABLES AND GRAPHS ... 6
1. INTRODUCTION ... 7
1.1.1 Development aid in Africa ... 7
1.1.2 Aid in Africa ... 8
1.2AFRICAN DIASPORA... 11
1.3AFRICAN DIASPORA IN THE NETHERLANDS ... 12
1.4RELEVANCE OF MY THESIS ... 13
1.5DEVELOPMENT THEORIES ... 14
1.6RESEARCH METHOD ... 17
2. HOW DOES THE AFRICAN DIASPORA CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR HOMELANDS? ... 19
2.1WHAT ARE THE ACTIVITIES THE AFRICAN DIASPORA DO TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR HOMELANDS? ... 19
2.1.1 Remittance ... 21
2.1.2 Transfer of skills and knowledge ... 23
2.2.REMITTANCE FUNDS VERSUS FOREIGN AID ... 23
3. GHANAIANS IN THE NETHERLANDS ... 27
3.1DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF THE GHANAIANS IN THE NETHERLANDS. ... 27
3.2WHAT IS THE GHANAIAN DIASPORA IN THE NETHERLANDS DOING TO CONTRIBUTE TO THEIR HOMELAND? ... 29
3.3REMITTANCE FLOW TO GHANA ... 32
4. HOW CAN THE AFRICAN DIASPORA PLAY A ROLE WHEN IT COMES TO THE POLICY-MAKING OF DEVELOPMENT AID IN AFRICA? ... 34
4.1HOW CAN POLICY MAKERS AND AFRICAN DIASPORA WORK TOGETHER WHEN IT COMES TO DEVELOPMENT AID IN AFRICA? ... 35
4.2THE ROLE OF THE HOMELAND GOVERNMENT... 38
5. CONCLUSION ... 39
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 42
5
List of Abbreviation
AU African Union
AFIDEP African Institute for Development Policy AID Agency For International Development CBS Central Bureau Statistics
CEO Chief Executive Officer G-8 Group of Eight
GDP Gross Domestic Product IMF International Monetary Fund
IOM International Organisation for Migration LDC Least Developed Countries
LOA (Landelijk Overleg Afrikanen) National interaction Africans MDG Millennium Development Goals
MPI Migration Policy Institute
NCDO (Nationale Commissie voor Internationale Samenwerking en Duurzame Ontwikkeling) National Commission for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development
NGO’s Non-Governmental Organization ODA Official Development Assistance
OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
US United States
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List of Tables and Graphs
Graph 1: People in Sub-Saharan Africa living on less than $1,25 a day between 1981 and 2010.
Table 1: People living on less than $ 1,25 a day segmented into Regions Table 2: Africans in the Netherlands divided into males and females
Table 3 Dutch ODA disbursements (gross), total (constant 2008 USD millions) Table 4: 1e and 2nd Ghanaians in the Netherlands Male and Female
Table 5 Remittance Flow from the Netherlands
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1. Introduction
“As the wealthiest nation on Earth, I believe the United States has a moral obligation to lead the fight against hunger and malnutrition, and to partner with others.”- President Barack Obama
“Foreign Assistance is not an end in itself. The purpose of aid must be to create the conditions where it is no longer needed.”- President Barack Obama
1.1.1 Development aid in Africa
Talking about Development Aid, what does this really mean? When we look in the dictionary development can be described in different ways, but it all comes down to improvement or making a better life. And aid is described as providing or attending to the need of someone for development. My definition of development aid is: Coming to the need or providing for others so that they can have a better life.
The History of Development aid began after the Second World War the then American president Harry Truman inaugural speech in January 1949, there is when he talked about development and underdeveloped, and his aim to develop the world and eradicate poverty.1 However if we go back in history development was something deep in the roots of the Western civilisation. The idea of development is intertwined with notions of progress and evolution, which has had a marked effect on Western culture ever since the Renaissance, with the idea of development is intimately bound up with the rise of capitalism and modernity in nineteenth-century Europe.2 Since the Second World War, development has been seen and used as a tool for economic progress, social and political change in the countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and the South Pacific. These countries have been labelled as underdeveloped or developing countries, also known as the Third World or the South.
Arturo Escobar writes in his book Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of
the Third World, about issues of Third World Development. He provides some new insights
with Western models in achieving “development”. Although the results of these western-driven interventions over the decades have not have the outcome that was desired, which is to create a condition whereby Aid is no longer needed. Despite this, Western ‘experts’ keep coming to the Third World with new forms of discourses on development, now addressing objects like sustainable development, women and development and poverty eradication – all ethnocentric and based on western values.3
Africa has been receiving foreign aid over the past 60 years, since the late 1950’s, after the colonisation and Second World War is when developed countries started thinking of strategies to help undeveloped countries.4 Since then every decade or less countries in the western world and international organisations come together to make plans to pull the world poorest continent out of its bad economic situation. After 60years we are still trying to pull the continent Africa out of poverty.
In this thesis the African Diaspora as a non-state actor will be introduced and I will investigate on how they contribute to the development of their homelands and the role they play or can play when it comes to policy making on Development Aid of the Western world.
1
Truman’s speech on 20 January 1949 is given as the date of birth of development by Escobar (1995), Rist (1997), as well as the contributors to Sachs (1992).
2 Rist, G. (1997), The History of Development: From Western Origin to Global Faith. London: Zed Books, No.3,
p.21-22.
3
Cornwall, A. Eade, D. (2010), Deconstructing Development Discourse Buzzwords and Fuzzwords, Oxfam GB, p. 1-19.
8 Therefore the central research question in this thesis is:
How does the African Diaspora as a non-state actor contributes to the Development of Africa and how are their contributions being incorporated in mainstream policy development aid?
The focus of the thesis is going to be on the African Diaspora and their initiatives they make towards their homelands, either it is to boost the economy or to help their families back home. This thesis will also look at the possibilities on how their initiatives is being or can be in cooperated into the policies of government-to-government aid or institutions to government aid in Africa. Therefore the next sub questions can be formulated:
How does the African Diaspora contribute to poverty alleviation or boosting of the
local economy in Africa?
What is the effect of Foreign Aid assistance on the poverty alleviation and the local
economy in African?
Are there policies or initiatives from government or nongovernmental organisations
that incorporate the African Diaspora as a partner when it comes to Development Aid in Africa?
“Insanity is: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” –Albert Einstein
1.1.2 Aid in Africa
The World Bank evaluated the performance of 29 African countries, which had received over more than $20 billion in loans between 1981 and 1991. The bank’s report concluded that only six African countries had performed well: The Gambia, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, “no African country has achieved a sound macro-economic policy stance.” Since then, the World Bank’s list of “success stories” has shrunk.5
The fact that after all this year’s Africa is still depending on foreign aid shows that the continent is still not economically independent. Per capita GDP of Africans living in the southern part of the Sahara declined at an average annual rate of 0.59 percent between 1975 and 2000. Over that period, per capita GDP adjusted for purchasing power parity declined from $1,770 in constant 1995 international dollars to $1,479.6 Most African countries are now more debt laden and more inflation prone with a vulnerable currency.7 After 60 years of Aid more than 50% of the population in Africa (over 350 million people) live on less than two dollar a day. (see table 1 and 2). The questions that come to mind are: Has Aid failed Africa? What can we do differently? What are the alternatives and how can we use these possibilities to improve development aid in Africa?
First of all we have to look at the main purpose of development aid. We have different kind of United Nation development aid projects (for example Millennium Development Goals), all the plans have one mission and that is to eradicate poverty in Africa. The question that comes to mind is; is this just a noble deed from the donor countries or is there a national interest? Should national interest be an essential justification for development aid? Should donor countries gain something from the receiving countries before they give aid? Between 1962 and 1963 there was a research done whereby 54 officials of AID were interviewed.8 The
5
Ayodele , Thompson. Cudjoe, Franklin. Nolutshungu, Temba A. Sunwabe, Charles K. (2005), African perspectives on Aid: Foreign Assistant will not pull Africa out of poverty, Economic Development Bulletin, No.2.
6
See http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD (visited 13th October 2014)
7
Moyo Dambisa. (2009), Why Foreigne Aid is Hurting Africa, The Wall Street Journal.
8
Packenman R. A. (1966) Foreign Aid and the National Interest: Midwest Journal of Political Science, Vol.10, Issue 2, p. 214-221.
9 main question among other question was: Should national interest be an essential justification for development aid? The first 19 officials that were interviewed all agreed that national interest should be an essential justification for aid.9 There are critiques that are sceptical about the noble deed of donor countries and the research of Packenman confirmed their scepticism. There are other examples whereby the donor country gain something or ask something in return from the receiving country. Some donor countries reserve a huge amount of money on paper for developing countries, but when the time comes for them to deliver, then it turns out that there is a list of criteria’s, which must be fulfil by the receiving country before they can get that money. For example, regime change, to be a democratic country, to spend the money giving by buying the goods of the country or also to use that money as job creation in the receiving country for the people of the Western World. For example there is an interview with a Ghanaian entrepreneur “Herman Chinery-Hesse” whereby he talks about how foreign aid assistance from the World Bank and IMF being a hinder to the growth of his business and other local business. The criteria’s from the World Bank aid did not permit the government of Ghana to work with local entrepreneurs they were forced to work with European companies.10
As the quote of the president of America Barack Obama above goes: “Foreign Assistance is
not an end in itself. The purpose of aid must be to create the conditions where it is no longer needed.” This purpose by the president of the US indicates that aid must not be an ongoing
thing there must be an end to it. If we look at the results now, then we have not yet reached our goal. The fact remains that aid is still needed in Africa. Then the question is when must we stop, after 60 years or after 100 years? When we take a look at the main purpose of ODA is promotion of the economic development and welfare to reduce the poverty in developing countries. If we look at the data of the World Bank in 2012 on the economic growth of some of the African countries, there is no any causality that proves that the growth is due to Foreign Aid Assistance.11 Can we now answer the question if Foreign Aid has failed Africa? Let’s look at some facts: More than $500 billion has been spent on foreign aid that is equivalent of four Marshall Aid Plans.12 All of the money that has been pumped into Africa between 1960 and 1997 with the intension reducing the poverty in Africa. After all of these years we most of the African countries are still considered as poor by the World Bank measures. The budgets of Ghana and Uganda, for example, are more than 50 percent aid dependent.13 Development Aid has created dependency, whereby the budget of some countries consists of Aid.
1. 75 percent of the world’s poorest countries are located in Africa. This statistic includes countries like Zimbabwe, Liberia, and Ethiopia and for the past two years, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s second largest country, has also been ranked the poorest in the world.14
2. In 2010, 414 million people were living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Extreme poverty is defined as living on $1.25 or less a day. According to the World Bank, those living on $1.25-a-day accounted for 48.5 percent of the population in that region in 2010.
As we can see in table 1 more than 50% of the people leaving in Sub Saharan Africa lives with less than $1.25 dollar a day, which is beneath the poverty average. This explains why the poverty level in Sub Saharan Africa is so high. Where by African leaders call for foreign Aid whenever they are in crisis, despite all the aid Africa is still a poor continent. Maybe it is about time that we rethink on our policies for aid. Is it the aid that is killing Africa or is it our leaders and corruption that is killing Africa? Instead of The Western World giving Africa
9
Ibid., p. 214-221
10
See the interview with Herman Chinery –Hesse http://www.povertycure.org/issues/foreign-aid/ (visited on 18 September 2014)
11
World Bank Database on financial Development and Structure, 2013.
12
Moyo Dambisa, 2009. Why Foreigne Aid is Hurting Africa, The Wall Street Journal.
13
See OECD/DAC Aid Statistics at http://stats.oecd.org/qwids/#?x (visited 13 October 2014)
10 money to solve their economic crisis, maybe it is about time that they educate them on how to solve their problems.
Dambisa Moyo is really critical and negative when it comes to aid in Africa in her book “dead Aid”; she says that aid has failed Africa. “Money from rich countries has trapped many African nations in a cycle of corruption, slower economic growth and poverty. Cutting off the flow would be far more beneficial, says Dambisa Moyo”.
Now more of African Diaspora economists like David Karanja are being critical about foreign Aid, they say that by giving Aid whereby the Western World does not make it possible for the Developing countries to have a free market where they having equal rights and chances to trade their goods. The critics say that aid is and shall remain a waste of money as long as there is no free market. Do they have a point here when they say that for Africa to come out of poverty free trade is the answer? Countries which have developed in Europe or Asia countries like Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Singapore have all believed in free markets and have done this without development Aid. Is Free trade the only answer?
We should also look at the other problems that Africa is facing, the bad institutions, corruption etc. Free trade can only work in Africa if the government is not corrupt and the institutions are intact and functioning well.
The problems of Aid do not only lie by the donor countries but also by the receiving countries. In recent years, loans provided by the World Bank for various poverty-reduction programs in Ghana have been embezzled by the political elites.15 Africans should fight corruption themselves no amount of aid from the Western World can solve that problem. Imagine if all the Aid money was used effectively, would the economic situation in Africa be much better or not? I am not by what so ever claiming that by using Foreign Aid money effectively, Africa would be debt free or out of poverty. By fighting poverty, u need to fight corruption and at the same time invest in education, job opportunities and entrepreneurship. Aid itself is not a bad thing; depend on the kind of Aid that Africa is receiving. The question we should ask ourselves is can Africa do without Aid right now? What will be the consequences or let say impact when all Aid to Africa stops right now? There are reports that say that some Aid or foreign assistants have really helped Africa.16 We should look at all the schools, hospitals, water wells and infrastructures that have been built through Foreign Aid assistance. Without Aid a lot of these institutions or infrastructure would not have been possible without foreign assistants. The report of MDG of 2007 gives a lot of positive achievements.17 These are outcomes that are there physically that the people in the receiving countries can see and make use of. There are also Foreign Aid assistance whereby the Aid has negative effect on the receiving country like the story of Herman Chinery –Hesse, this is not the kind of Aid that Africa needs.
There are developed countries that nowadays also rely on Aid. Recently Countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal received a lot of money from the EU to boost their economy, due to the fact that they wear in economic crisis and without the help from the EU their crisis could affect the economy of the EU. Like I said early on Aid itself does not have to be a problem, I am not talking about Aid whereby the Aid is given to benefit the national interest of the donor country. The Foreign Aid given should be monitor well to make sure that the money is being used for the original purpose. Letting the receiving countries do their own evaluation is not the right way to go. The African Diaspora in the donor countries can also be used when it comes to the evaluation the Development Aid projects. The African Diaspora they know the country, they speak the language and they know the culture, they can be used to indicate corruption in their homelands. I will elaborate more on the question what can we do differently in chapter 4.
15 Goosie Tanoh, (2005). The leader of the National Reform Party revealed about the embezzlement of Foreign
Aid assistance in the report of CATO Institute’s Economic Development Bulletin.
16
See Millennium Development Goals Report 2007
17
11 Graph 1: People in Sub-Saharan Africa living on less than $1,25 a day between 1981 and 2010.
(Source: Poverty & Equality Databank and PovcalNet)
Table 1: People living on less than $ 1,25 a day segmented into Regions
Region % in $1.25 a day
poverty
Population (millions)
Pop. In $1 a day poverty (millions)
East Asia and Pacific 16.8 1,884 316
Latin America and the
Caribbean 8.2 550 45
South Asia 40.4 1,476 596
Sub-Saharan Africa 50.9 763 388
Total Developing countries 28,8 4673 1345
Europe and Central Asia 0.04 473 17
Middle East and North Africa 0.04 305 11
Total 5451 1372
Source: See World Bank PovcalNet "Replicate the World Bank's Regional Aggregation"
1.2 African diaspora
A Diaspora is a community of people living outside their country of origin. African Diaspora is people living outside the continent Africa that are originally from Africa. There are different definitions for African Diaspora. When we talk about the African Diaspora do we then count the slaves that wear taking away centuries ago also as an African Diaspora or do we only count migrants that left the continent out of their own free will? Here is the definition by the AU.
“People of African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union."18
18
See: Report of the Meeting of Experts on the Definition of the African Diaspora held on 11 and 12 April 2005 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; the African Union defines the African Diaspora.
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 Sub-Saharan Africa (developing only) SSA Number of poor at $1.25 a day (PPP) (millions) SI.POV.NOP1 Sub-Saharan Africa (developing only) SSA Poverty headcount ratio at $1.25 a day (PPP) (% of population) SI.POV.DDAY
12 This definition from the African Union does not really cover it for me. The question that comes to mind is; so are you not an African Diaspora when u do not contribute to the development of Africa? If you ask me, contributing to the development of Africa should be a free choice and not obligatory. My own definition of African Diaspora will be:
“People of African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality”
When it comes to the African Diaspora in this thesis I only worked with data of only sub Saharan Africans. The African Diaspora in this thesis is the African Diaspora that migrated willingly from Africa to the West. That means that the African Diaspora descendent from slave trade or the Asylum seekers are excluded here when we talk about African Diaspora in the thesis. The African diaspora that migrated within Africa are also excluded.
African migrants are part of a large-scale, worldwide transnational community, which is becoming one of the major global forces in the world. Estimating the size of the African Diaspora is complicated. Where a person was born, when he or she emigrated, and how he or she self-identifies are part of the equation. For example, in the U.S. they use your “place of birth to state if you are a migrant or not. That means that children from the African Diaspora that are born in U.S. are not seen as migrants. On the other hand in the Netherlands they classify you as a migrant not only if you are not born here, also if your parents are not born here or even if one of your parents is not born in the Netherlands then you are a migrant. Estimating of the amount of the African Diaspora is more difficult because data are often incomplete. Due to the inefficiency of the institutions in Africa.
Reference work gives different estimations, some say over more than 30 million people have officially emigrated from Africa (exclusive, unrecorded Africans, children and grandchildren) some say over 40 million.19
The African Diaspora has grown to become such an important source of foreign exchange for Africa to the extent that the African Union has designated it as a sixth development "zone".20
Migration has always been a strategy for human beings when it comes to improving their lives. In the early 1990s was when the relevance of migration for development was discussed in international conferences in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 at the first Earth Summit. The topics then were environment and climate change, two years later participants in the Cairo Conference on Population and Development recognized that “orderly international migration can have positive effects on both communities of origin and those of destination. Years later in 2011 at the UN conference on LDC which focused on supporting the development outcomes of migration by increasing mobility between the LDC and The Developed partners, and by lowering the costs of migration, as well as the transaction costs of remittances.
1.3 African Diaspora in the Netherlands
The migration of Africans to the Netherlands has increased gradually since the late 1950s. During the 1960’s the numbers began to increase, due largely to the arrival of African students coming to the Netherlands from different parts of Africa and the labour workers from Morocco. Until the late 1970s, however, there was just a few of Africans coming to the Netherlands. After the 1970’s the amount of Africans coming to the Netherlands gradually started to increase. Migrants left Africa for different reasons from political refugees to economic migrant’s better prospects. The final large group of African migrants arrived in the Netherlands in the 1990s.21
19See http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2011/09/ratha.htm (visited 2 September 2014)
http://homecomingrevolution.com/blog/2013/10/10/african-diaspora-statistic/ (visited 2 September 2014)
20
Rita Edozie, 2012. The Sixth Zone: The African Diaspora and the African Union's Global Era Pan Africanist, Journal of African American Studies.
13 African Diaspora in the Netherlands has a first generation, a second generation and now a third generation. Most of the people from the first generation did not get a high education in the Netherlands therefore they had lower income jobs and most of them do not master the language. The second generation did much better, they speak the language and some of them are highly educated.22
In writing this thesis and building my arguments to answer the central research question, I decided to do a research on projects of African Diaspora in Africa and Development Aid projects of the Dutch government in Africa as a study case. I choose to do a research on African Diaspora apart from the fact that I am one myself, leaving in Amsterdam Southeast where most of the African Diaspora in the Netherlands leave. I interact a lot with African Diaspora on a daily basis. I also use the information of the African Diaspora collected here as data for this thesis. And Ghana is a good example when it comes to linking Diaspora with Development aid. The few scholars based in the UK, US and the Netherlands who have writing about this topic, used Ghana as an example. Secondly I choose The Dutch government because I leave in the Netherlands so I hope it will be easy for me to collect my data and do my comparisons.
Table 2 Totaal Afrikanen in Nederland mannen & vrouwen Totaal
Afrika
Nederland
229 057 263 469 304 869 316 930 132 886 149 210 169 820 168 922 96 171 114 259 135 049 148 008
1996 2000 2005 2013 man man man man vrouw vrouw vrouw vrouw
1996 2000 2005 2013 1996 2000 2005 2013
Source (CBS, 17 July 2013)
1.4 Relevance of my thesis
For the past two decades development aid in Africa has been on the agenda of the G-8 meetings. How to get more countries to reserve more money in their budget when it comes to development aid in Africa. For example The Bush Administration tripled their aid in Africa to $4,3 billion since he took office in 2001. Japan added an extra $200 million to boost the private-sector companies in Africa.23
On the other hand due to the economic crisis some European countries are discussing to cut down on the amount of money that they reserve on their budget for development aid in Africa (The Netherlands for example).
When it comes to development aid in Africa it is an ongoing discussion, whereby the people pro development aid build their arguments on social democratic principles (the rich should help the poor) and the people against it build their arguments on the effectiveness of it and dependency theory. Dambisa Mojo is very critical when it comes to the effectiveness of Development Aid in Africa and has been writing about it since 2009. We have to look at other options to strengthen the effectiveness of development aid. These options brought me to the African Diaspora. There have been researches showing that the remittance that African
22
Information from the presentation from Jeroen Slot, head of Bureau Onderzoek & Statistiek (O&S) on February 22 in Amsterdam Southeast.
14 Diaspora contributes to their homeland and their contribution is a very important source of income for the people in their homeland.24 There is a limited amount of research on African Diaspora. Less research when it comes to the African Diaspora and contribution to the development of their homelands. It is just recently that Dr. Awil Mohamoud has been fighting to put the topic of the African Diaspora and development in Africa on the agenda of the Dutch government and also on the EU agenda. Linking the contributions of the African Diaspora to Development Aid has not received the attention that it deserves and it has not been
implemented in any development goals by the Western world. The Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations is a very good example of this. The African diaspora is nowhere to be found in these goals? It makes it interesting to investigate there are possibilities
whereby we can incorporate the projects of the African diaspora in the mainstream development aid policies by the Dutch government and if it will lead to efficiency and effectiveness of development aid in Africa? Given the fact that poverty in Africa is still relevant, that makes study significant and urgent. It is now very important to improve our understanding of the African Diaspora in the West and their contribution to the reduction of poverty in Africa.
When we talk about Diaspora we mean a community of people leaving outside their country of origin. African Diaspora is a community of Africans leaving outside Africa most of the time in western countries.
Most studies done on Diaspora concentrated on the first generation. My thesis will make deference between the first generation and the second, how we can use the two to contribute to improve development aid in Africa. I believe that there is deference in skills and knowledge when it comes to first generation Diaspora and second generation.
With this thesis I will like to analyse the mobilisation strategies of the African Diaspora for homeland development, with the aim of identifying which ways the home governments can efficiently and effectively reach out to their Diasporas assist them their initiatives for the development of their homeland.
1.5 Development Theories
“Development is important because it produces an economy and more broadly a society and culture, that determines how people live in terms of income, services, life chances, education and so on.”25
Development can be seen from different angels; development of a person or of a country but in both ways it is change for the better for progress or let’s say improvement. When it comes to the development of peoples we can talk in social terms or in economic terms. People can climb up the social ladder through education or through their job they can earn more money whereby their purchasing power increase. When it comes to countries we measure the development of a country with the GNI this is actually what everyone earns or with the GNP and this the total value of final goods and services produced in a year by the citizens of the country.
Over the years development studies has been influenced by academics with postmodernity and deconstructionism views.26 These two theories challenge the mainstream views of objectivity and reality. Post-Modernism is a movement of the late 20th century that is characterized by scepticism, subjectivism or relativism.27 Post Modernism has it’s fundament on suspicion of reason it is a school of thought whereby knowledge that is taken for granted
24
Mohamoud, A. (2003). African Diaspora and Africa Development “Background paper for AfroNeth 5 December 2003”, p. 15-16.
25
Peet, Richard and Hartwick, Elaine 2009. Theories of Development, contentions, arguments, alternatives, p.6
26
Escobar, Arturo (1995), Encountering development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
27
< http://www.globalpolitics.cz/clanky/critique-of-the-critique-post-development-and-points-of-criticism> [8th September 2014]
15 is being challenged.28 Deconstructionism is also a theory that abandoning the notions of absolute truth.
The theories of development can be divided into two groups Conventional theories of development (for example capitalist and liberalism) and the Nonconventional theory of development (for example socialism, dependency theory, and modernization or post modernization).
“Conventional theories accept the existing basic capitalist structure as the best kind of society there could ever be, inevitable, and essentially unchangeable, the only kind of society that can persist for example capitalism is human nature”29 Like the saying goes: “Everybody
for them self-God for us all”
Nonconventional theories are critical theories that are fundamentally based on social democratic principles, whereby the government can intervene to engineer the society. Like the saying goes: “The rich should help the poor”.
In this chapter I will discuss two development theories modernization and dependency. I choose these two theories, due to the fact that development scholars such as Escobar and Sachs both use these two theories to analyse development aid and they are also known as the theories for development.
Modernization
Modernization is a “total” transformation of a traditional or pre-modem society into the types of technology and associated social organization that characterize the “advanced” economically prosperous and politically stable nations of the Western World.30 The modernization theory of development took place after the Second World War. After the Second World War big countries such as Great Brittan, Germany and France were weakened, and then began the rise of the United States as a super power. The US created a plan the “Marshall Plan” to help reconstruct Western Europe.31
Modernization theory of development was also used as a tool to attack the spread of communism.32 After the Second World War the Former Soviet Union was using its influence to spread communist movement. According to the modernization theory, modern societies are more productive, children are better educated, and the needy receive more welfare.33 Modernization theory for development is a theory that donor countries can use to reconstruct the political climate, democracy and cultures of receiving countries. For example UK Prime Minister David Cameron pledge in October 2011 to cut off aid to African countries with anti-gay laws.
Postmodernism school of thought can be seen as a critique of the modern age, based on the philosophical tradition which is based on the Enlightenment, the formation of a bourgeoisie and of a global capitalistic system.34 Postmodernism thinkers believe that the world consists of facts, which present the truth; central to postmodernism is the respect of diversity, and the enhancement of subjective perceptions.
Using this theory to analyse the African Diaspora and Development Aid for Africa, The African Diaspora being a product of the Western World, will go back to Africa with the knowledge and culture of the Western World. And try to use the knowledge and skills or you can say the Western way of doing things to contribute to the development of Africa.
28
See http://www.academia.edu/2373970/Post-development_Post-
modernity_and_Deconstructionism_A_Practical_Program (8th September 2014)
29
Peet, Richard and Hartwick, Elaine 2009. Theories of Development, contentions, arguments, alternatives, p.21
30
Escobar, Arturo (1995), Encountering development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. P. 65.
31 See http://pendientedemigracion.ucm.es/info/nomadas/4/gereyes1.htm (12 September, 2014) 32
Ibid
33
See Smelser, N. Toward a Theory of Modernization. (New York: Basic Books, 1964), p. 268-274.
34
< http://www.globalpolitics.cz/clanky/critique-of-the-critique-post-development-and-points-of-criticism> (8th of September, 2014).
16 Dependency theory
[“Dependency is] … an historical condition which shapes a certain structure of the world economy such that it favours some countries to the detriment of others and limits the development possibilities of the subordinate economics...a situation in which the economy of a certain group of countries is conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy, to which their own is subjected.”35
Dependency theory favours the First World countries and is disadvantages the Third World countries. African countries have a lot of raw materials, but they lack the knowledge, money for the machines and power to turn them into products. They primary export commodities to the rich country, the rich countries then manufacture them into product, which they then turn around and sell them back to the poor countries. For example: Ghana is after Ivory Coast the second largest cocoa export in the world.36 One may ask why Ghana is still qualified as a Third World country, looking at the huge amount of demands of cocoa products around the world. Ghana sells the raw cocoa to the First world countries and then they produce coffee, chocolate etc. out of it and then they sell back the coffee and chocolate to Ghana at a much more expensive price because of the addition of manufacturing cost. The Third World countries will stay poor because they will not gain from their export price; they spend more money on import. And we know that by importing more than you export is bad for the economy growth of the country.
When it comes to Development Aid and dependency theory, bilateral aid in the form of loans from one country to the other or multi-lateral aid from financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF create dependency theory. Loans involve interest; however the economy of the Third World does not grow fast enough to generate enough income for the loan and the interest. Most of the time the loan from the First World is meant for long-term development project. In the meantime the interest over the loan keeps on increasing. Debt leads to dependency, whereby the developing country stays in debt and sometimes has to borrow more money to pay the debt. The developing countries keep on depending on loans. Another illustration whereby Development Aid can create dependency theory: When it comes to Development Aid whereby the developing country received money from MNC and then they are pressured into making political changes and ensuring the support from the developing country for Western strategic interest. For example: Kenya was rewarded with aid for providing US forces with port facilities during the Gulf War.37 The aid giving here only benefits the donor country; because the receiving country owes them money therefore they can insist that future aid is tied. This simple means that, the money that they have received must be spent in the donor country, which may not be the cheapest market to buy your goods.
As it is elaborated early on free trade has been organised in such a way that it only favours the First World countries or also known as the donor countries. This is a legacy of colonialism. Most African countries have achieved political independence but their economies still depends on exporting loans and aid from the West.
35
Peet, Richard and Hartwick, Elaine 2009. Theories of Development, contentions, arguments, alternatives, p.167
36
See UPDATE 1-Ghana signs $1.2 bln cocoa loan for 2013/14 crop purchases, 2013. Available from: < http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/20/ghana-cocoa-loan-idUSL5N0HG39B20130920>. (21 June 2014).
17
1.6 Research method
The methodology of the study is based on a qualitative approach, with this approach I will try to get more insight in the activities of the African diaspora and how they contribute to their homelands.38 The concepts of migration, diaspora and development are key words in this thesis. During the research I will focus more on the initiatives for economic development than humanitarian aid. My interest is more on the activities that the African Diaspora do to boost the economy of their homelands in Africa, because there already enough projects by the governmental and non-governmental organisations that focus on Humanitarian Aid.39 Like I said earlier on my goal for doing this research is to investigate if it is possible to incorporate the initiatives of the African Diaspora whereby they boost the economy of Africa and whereby they create more job opportunities by starting small business.
When it comes to the African Diaspora in this thesis I only worked with the data of Sub Saharan Africans. I did this due to the fact that I had to limit my research and also being biased due to the fact that I am a Sub Saharan African. And also due to the fact that there is more reference work on Sub Saharan African than the other part of Africa. The African Diaspora is a broad concept, just looking at the definition given by the AU that was mentioned earlier on. In this thesis when I talk about the African Diaspora, then I am talking about the African Diaspora that migrated from the Sub Saharan Africa. That means that the African Diaspora descendent from slave trade or the Asylum seekers are excluded here when we talk about African Diaspora in the thesis. Their affiliation with Africa or the way they may look at Africa maybe different than those that went trough a normal migration process. For this thesis 12 African Diasporas were interviewed, that fit into the focus group of this thesis. The interviewed people were not just random selected, but well thought of and selected within my network. I choose them due to the fact that they have worked or still work in Africa or they are very active within the African Diaspora community where they live. Some of the people that were interviewed lives and works in the Netherlands but they have links in Africa they contribute to the development of Africa. Others do activities that strengthen the African Diaspora in the West or Netherlands. And others have immigrated back to Africa to do their own business or to share social capital by working with government institutions or in the private sector. One person that was interviewed is a doctor at the AMC in the Netherlands; he is a health researcher and the coordinator of the health research project Helius.40 His field as a health researcher permits him to go to different Africa countries to conduct health research. He contributes to the development of Africa trough knowledge which makes him a good candidate to interview for my thesis. Dr. A. Mohamoud is an expert on African Diaspora and Development in Africa. He has written a book about this topic and has conducted other researches about this. Three out of the twelve people interviewed have immigrated back to Africa they live and work there. They both have started their own business. One is CEO of Pension Trust Ghana Limited “Enviu”. The other one works in Ghana as a Regional Director of MDF Training and consultancy BV. And the other one has opened her own online shop in Ghana called “Hemoh” (www.hemoh.com). Other two people that I interviewed has done projects with IOM whereby they were send to Africa to go and work there as an African Diaspora to contribute to the development of Africa with their knowledge. These are just examples to prove that my selection of the people I interviewed was not just a random selection but well thought of.
Most of the figures and analysis in this thesis was retrieved from the websites of IMF and The World Bank data collection and also from the CBS in the Netherlands. This is a bit challenging due to the fact that the data’s from the World Bank and IMF was incomplete sometimes. Some figures of various African countries wear missing, some countries do not always evaluate the initiatives taken or some just don’t come out with the figures.
38 Bryman, Alan (2012) ‘Qualitative Data Analysis’ in Social Research Methods, (Oxford: Oxford
University Press)
39
See the UN, Red Cross, Greenpeace OXFAM NOVIB site for humanitarian projects.
40
18 For the study previous researches in the field of migration, African Diaspora and the development of Africa was consulted either through books or by the Internet looking for articles written by scholars on the topic Development Aid and African Diaspora.41 I also used information by observations of conferences that I visited.42 Once a year African Day is held whereby the continent is promoted and the development of the continent is discussed trough different workshops. The same thing happens at the Ghana Day in Almere. Information was gathered by attending the workshop and observing, the knowledge, experience and ideas that were being shared.
Young Ghanaian Professionals is an organisation that was set up by second generation Ghanaians in the Netherlands.43 They come together to inspire each other, network and also talk about doing business or working in their homeland Ghana. Here is where some information was gathered about projects in Ghana and some of the interviews were taken. The Case study for my research will focus on Ghanaian Diaspora living in the Netherlands and their contributions to help development aid in their homelands and what the Dutch government is already doing and what they can do to help the Ghanaian Diaspora. Most of the information in this thesis is from interviews and reports from the World Bank. Data collections for this research was very challenging, the data of the World Bank and IMF was not up to date and incomplete due to lack of information from the African countries and the lack of figures due to inefficiency of the institutions in Africa. The study combines data from primary and secondary sources. The main data has been drawn from the one on one interview with individual African. Other sources that were used include documents and reports produced by the African Diaspora Organisations and foundations as well as other agencies and institutions in the Netherlands and abroad.
41
Awil Mohamoud 2010. Building Institutional Cooperation between the Diaspora and Homeland Governments in Africa. The cases of Ghana, Nigeria, Germany, US and the UK.
42
Africa Day, Ghana Day and Young Ghanaian Professionals 2012
43
19
2. How does the African Diaspora contribute to the development of
their homelands?
Migration has been a constant and influential feature of human history. People move from their countries of origin for different reasons. Some of them are refugees and seek protection in other countries. Others do it to be reunited with family members or loved ones while others do it for economic reasons looking for greener pastures. Most African Diaspora move from Africa because they want a better life elsewhere. Africa is known as a poor continent, or as we call it “the third world” whereby most Africans has limited chances on education, jobs, healthcare etc. in Africa. That is why most of the African migrants move from their homelands to OECD countries, they believe that they have better chances of enjoying a life with better education, healthcare and job opportunities. Migration also has negative consequences both the country of origin and the host country, linked with global issues as; brain drain, poverty, and human trafficking.
Members of the African Diaspora are playing a major role when it comes to contributing to the development of their homelands. They do this with their skills, knowledge and resources by sending money back home called remittances.44
Some of the African Diaspora start up small and big business; this differs from small shops to big malls, opening restaurant, beauty salons and medical clinics.45
Migration has had an impact on development with some big changes. Some of the changes are the incensement of the number of international migrants by 32% since 2000; there are now an estimated 232 million international migrants.46 Another one is the fast incensement of migrant remittances it has increased fivefold since 2000; recorded remittances to developing countries were $404 billion in 2013.47
2.1 What are the activities the African Diaspora do to contribute to the
development of their homelands?
Most African countries benefits from the African Diaspora in the OECD countries. The Diaspora contributes towards the development of their homelands. There are researches showing that Africa is benefiting from the African Diaspora in the OECD countries.48 However most of these research focuses on the highly educated migrants living in Europe and the United States who contribute to the development of Africa with their knowledge and skills. The Africans that start small business in their homeland are not getting enough attention. Both low- and highly educated African Diaspora outside or inside Africa are making contributions to their homelands. Migrants have been amongst the most dynamic and entrepreneurial members of the society. People who are ready to take the risk of leaving their homes, their comfort zone to go elsewhere to start all over and create new opportunities for themselves and children. They have the courage that is needed for entrepreneurship. The contributions of the African Diaspora include remittances, trade, starting up businesses and transferring skills and knowledge. CNN’s programme African voices have also given the
44 Migration and Remittances: Fact book 2011 World Bank
<http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTDIASPORA/Resources/AFR_Diaspora_FAQ.pdf > [15th of September 2014]
45 By having informal talk with the Ghanaians and Nigerians in the Netherlands and Ghana gave me an insight
on the different kind of business that the African Diaspora do
46
See UN report World Population Prospects, the 2012 Revision, on the 17th of June 2013
47 See Plaza, Sonia, Mario Navarrete, and Dilip Ratha, 2011. Migration and Remittances Household Surveys:
Methodological Issues and New Findings from Sub-Saharan Africa, 2011. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. (Africa Migration Project, Migration and Remittances Unit, World Bank).
48
Sonia Plaza, Dilip Ratha. 2009, Harnessing Diaspora Resources for Africa Ratha and Mohapatra (2011) estimate the potential annual savings of the African diaspora to be about US$53 billion, p.48-51
20 platform to African (Diaspora) to talk about their contribution to the continent.49 Over the years a lot of African Diaspora that went back to their homelands to start business or to share knowledge has been future on the programme. For example people like Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia who returned back to Uganda after a decade of living abroad to start business in Uganda his homeland. He started with small business and as time went on he then started a bank. He is now the owner of Crane Bank in Uganda, which is now the 10th largest bank in the country. He is now doing other business as real estates and hotels.50
Another example is African Diaspora Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, an writer who has now relocated from the US back to Nigeria her homeland. She uses her gift as a writer to share knowledge in Nigeria and she also gives workshop for upcoming writers.51
The Moroccans are the largest African Diaspora community in the Netherlands they are approximately 375.00052 They have created a Fund “Morocco Funds” whereby they ask the Moroccans in the Netherlands to donate to the funds to help develop their land of origin Morocco.53 The donation starts from as low as €1 per week. It is an organisation that was formed in 2005 with the support of NCDO. Their main goal of the fund is poverty reduction and sustainable development in Morocco and supports small-scale initiatives so that the living conditions of the Moroccan population can improve. The Fund's main areas of expertise are education, health care, clean drinking water, equal rights, culture and sports. In addition it offers a platform for the Moroccans in Netherlands to contribute to their land of origin.
The Ethiopians in the Netherlands also have a similar organisation called DIR an Ethiopian-Dutch development organisation based in Amsterdam and was formed in the year 2000. The main focus of DIR is poverty alleviation amongst vulnerable groups in Ethiopia targeting ex-sex workers, war veterans, the disabled, children and youth.54 It does this by creating job opportunities, as well as the political and socio-economic empowerment of marginalized groups. They do this trough Diaspora Programmes, a bridge-building programme funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oxfam Novib, “Achmea” and “Stichting Doen”.
The Sudanese community in the Netherlands also have a system of contributing to their homeland. The Dutch government is the biggest international Foreign Aid donor to Sudan.55 Sudan is a priority to the Dutch government; they also participate in peacekeeping projects. The Dutch government works with state and non-state actors in collaboration with the established organisations and individuals of the Sudanese Diaspora. Their activities are mostly engaged in providing humanitarian aid. As we can see in the table below Sudan and Nigeria receive the most ODA from the Dutch government.
This example here above answers the first sub question (How does the African Diaspora
contribute to poverty alleviation or boosting of the local economy in Africa?) and the third sub
question (Are there policies or initiatives from government or nongovernmental organisations
that incorporate the African Diaspora as a partner when it comes to Development Aid in Africa?). The Ethiopian, Moroccan and Sudanese Diaspora in the Netherlands have taken
upon themselves to start organisations whereby they contribute to their homelands in Africa. The Three different African Diaspora group mentioned above all took it up un themselves to start something to contribute to their homelands in Africa. And then they searched for funds and government or NGO’s support. The problem with such projects is that they all have an expiring date, they are mostly pilot projects. When the funds financial support finished then the project ends. My goal with this research is to look for initiatives whereby there are no expiring dates and it has a prolonged duration when it comes to the third sub question.
49http://edition.cnn.com/CNNI/Programs/africanvoices/ (Visited 14th August 2014) 50
http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/international/2014/07/07/spc-african-voices-sudhir-ruparelia-b.cnn (Visited 14th August 2014)
51http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsWfm0_xgkc (Visited 14th August 2014) 52
Van Heelsum. A, 2005. Afrikanen in Nederland, CBS.
53
http://www.marokkofonds.nl/ (viisted 10th July 2014)
54
Got this information through the interview with Dr. Awil Mohamoud
21 Table 3 Dutch ODA disbursements (gross), total (constant 2008 USD millions)
Country Dutch ODA disbursements (gross), total (constant 2008 USD millions) 2 3 2005 2006 2007 2008 Ethiopia 72,3 59,7 54,9 113,6 Ghana 86,9 116,3 154,0 120,2 Morocco 2,0 0,7 0,0 0,8 Nigeria 249,0 313,0 372,4 1,6 Sudan 190,8 115,2 219,2 157,6 Source OECD 200856
“The role of remittances in helping lift people out of poverty has always been known, but there is also abundant evidence that migration and remittances are helping countries achieve progress towards other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), such as access to education, safe water, sanitation and healthcare,” (Hans Timmer, Director of the Bank’s
Development Prospects Group).
2.1.1 Remittance
Remittance is the money that migrants sent from the country in which they are to family members or individuals in their country of origin. A report from the World Bank shows that Diaspora is becoming more effective when it comes to the Development of their homelands. African Diaspora in 2010 has sent over $40 billion in remittances to Africa.57 These are exclusive unrecorded flows, whereby some diaspora give cash money to people that are traveling to their homelands to give to their family members back home. During the research for this thesis I discovered that there are also unofficial ways of sending money back home, by giving somebody euro’s in Europe or Dollars in America and they will make sure that your family members back home gets it in the currency of your homeland. This is not risk free, no receipts and this can also help money laundry. Some people prefer this unofficial way of remittances because it is commission free. Remittances are a large source of funding in many African countries. According to the latest edition of the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief, issued on April 19th 2013, officially recorded remittance flows to developing countries grew by 5.3 percent to reach an estimated $401 billion in 2012. The World Bank report also indicated that remittance transferred by migrant labourers are often invested in their countries of origin thereby boosting the poor economies in the domestic markets. Remittances to developing countries are expected to grow by an annual average of 8.8 percent for the next three years and are forecast to reach $515 billion in 2015.58 Remittance to developing countries is more than the money OECD countries contribute to Africa for Development Aid. Remittances have now become the most important source of foreign capital for the poor countries in the Third World. In 2011 the total amount of development aid from rich countries was almost $150 billion, according to the report of “Investment to end Poverty”.59 Remittance is a source of funding that flows directly from the
56 Used this website to create the data in the table: http://www.ngo-database.nl/tbl_indicators.php (visited
14th July 2014)
57
World Bank Report on Global Development Finance (2003).
58
World Bank Launches Initiative on Migration, Releases New Projections on Remittance Flows, 2013. Available from < http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/04/19/world-bank-launches- initiative-on-migration-releases-new-projections-on-remittance-flows >,(visited 19th June 2014)
59
The inaugural Investments to End Poverty report was launched in September 2013 during the UN General Assembly on the post-2015 development agenda, which will set the stage for new global goals.
22 giver to the receiver, without any interruption and rules from the First World. Remittances have become a reliable lifeline for households in Africa with relatives or friends abroad. Due to the fact that remittance flow directly gets to the receiver it directly helps poor people in Africa cope with poverty. Approximately 94% of the remittances go directly to the families of the African Diaspora and only 6% are channelled into investments and funds productive activities, transfer of knowledge and skills and other development activities.60 Despite this it has received little attention in development policy and even in the Millennium Development Goals, which has as main goal halving the number of poor people in the world by 2015. Africans send money back home for different reasons. Some do it to support their family members in their day-to-day maintenance, education, to pay medical bills or to help them build a house. Some also do it to start small business like a shop or trade on the markets either for themselves or family members. Many African Diaspora send money home for investment purposes to start a business for them self because they have an intention of remigration back to their homeland and want to ensure an income when they are there. Remittances play an important role in poverty aviation on a micro level. It is a stable and a reliable source of income for the family members back home. Because the nature of the family organisation in Africa is different than that of the Western World. Africans value family, your mother, father, children and siblings but also the extended ones like uncle, aunties, cousins, nieces and nephews. The sense of collective solidarity among African family members remain strong. This sense of collective solidarity encourages individual family members, wherever they may be, to help each other and this obliged an African in the Diaspora to send money back home. Remittances provide direct benefits to many individuals, their purchasing power increases. And the most important advantage is that, the remittances that African Diaspora transfer to Africa brings immediate and effective relief aid to the very poorest in society much faster than any projects of the NGO’s or government Sponsored investments, due to the fact that the projects are bound to rules. In short, African Diaspora are contributing directly into the lives of many poor Africans and thereby helping reduce the level of absolute and abject poverty in Africa.
There are researches that criticize the impact of remittances in the receiving country.61 They argue that remittances can lead to currency appreciation causing exports prices to go up and import prices to be cheaper. As a result of this, there is then reduction in export levels, and increase in import levels. This can also affect the production markets by reducing the availability of jobs.62 Creating a malfunction in both the currency and labour market. It can also lead a situation whereby there is an increase in the amount of foreign currency in the country because domestic currency has become expensive compared to foreign currency. A significantly important disadvantage is, it can also encourage more migration of labour because family members receiving remittance think that they would be better off moving to developed countries and earn more money rather than staying in their own country. This can cause for a negative impact on the long run, often referred to as “brain drain” whereby the population is filled with uneducated individuals or people outside the labour market range. Another disadvantage of remittances is that it increases the country’s dependence on remittance rather than investments.
This chapter also helps to answer the first and the second sub questions. Remittance is a way African Diaspora use to contribute to the Development of Africa. It also contributes to the central research question. The problem with remittances is that, remittances alone are not substantial to alleviate poverty or build the economic development of Africa, due to the fact
60
Mohamoud, A. (2010). Building Institutional Cooperation between the Diaspora and Homeland Governments in Africa “The cases of Ghana, Nigeria, Germany, USA and UK, p.42
61
Frederico, “Remittances Ebb and Flow with the Immigration Tide”, Econ South. Vol 10,
No. 3, Third Quarter, <http://www.riudl.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Remittances-Disadvantage- JV.pdf> (visited 15th September 2014]
62
UK Essays. November 2013. Advantages And Disadvantages Of Workers Remittances Economics Essay.
Available from: http://www.ukessays.com/essays/economics/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-workers-remittances- economics-essay.php?cref=1 (visited 27 June 2014]
