Ethiopia to revise Diaspora policy

Addis Ababa, December 24, 2015 (FBC) -The Ethiopian government will come up with an amended Diaspora policy to encourage increased Diaspora involvement in the Second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP2).
Making amendment to the 2013 Diaspora policy will be crucial in solving the problems which have been deterring the Diaspora from full engagement in the affairs of their country of origin, said Demeke Atnafu, Director General of the Diaspora Information and Research Directorate at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He was speaking during a High-level Diaspora Policy Dialogue organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNTCTAD) here in Addis Ababa yesterday.

He spoke of the huge expectation from the government and the Diaspora to make the policy more accessible and helpful for all Diaspora community.

Demeke expressed the government’s belief that the new move will be useful in attracting foreign direct investment, enhancing knowledge and technology transfer, improving remittance rate, building image and promoting tourism.

“We can utilize the intellectual, capital, social and political resources of the Diaspora. We need the Diaspora to advocate for the national interest of their country of origin,” he stated, adding “in order to realize this we decided to improve the policy.”

According to Dr. Tesfachew Tafere, Director Division for Africa at UNTCTAD, the Policy Dialogue will be highly important to share experiences of other countries that succeeded in exploiting their Diaspora resource.

”We studied the Diaspora Policy of 22 successful countries to see how we can improve it,” he said.

During the dialogue, representatives of regional Diaspora offices presented their experiences and the challenges they face in handling issues of Diaspora.

They cited lack of readiness from the Diaspora to engage in the investment they registered based on the agreement signed as the main challenge.

Issues of poor governance were also raised as critical challenges which inhibit activities of the Diaspora.

Once revised, the Diaspora policy is believed to improve good governance.