We’ve had a crisis. We can see where the cracks are even more now than we did before. So it really is about how we fix the situation. How do we build back from what’s broken?”
says our Deputy Director Stella Opuku-Owusu on post-Covid recovery at the 13th Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) Summit
News
The Migration and Diaspora Podcast
Our executive director Onyekachi Wambu was recently a guest on Loksan Harley’s series on Migration and Diaspora – sweet spots for us. In this long listen, hear Onyekachi connect the dots of his own journey. After talking about his childhood in post-independence Nigeria and his subsequent migration to the UK, Onyekachi deconstructs the “African diaspora”, providing his own conceptual framework to define who they are and to explain the different ways (or “transfers”) in which they contribute to the continent. Loksan and Onyekachi then talk about the role of AFFORD in engaging diasporas, including some of the work we’ve done to leverage diaspora interest in contributing their time, skills, money, and more. We close with Onyekachi’s insights into the key areas of under-exploited potential in African diaspora engagement, as well as his own lessons learned from many years working at the forefront of this exciting field. Enjoy and share!
Giving Back to Communities of Residence & of Origin
We are delighted to make this very important work available as part of our resources. AFFORD’s Gibril Faal and Onyekachi Wambu provided information on remittances, and “valuable insights into the issues under study.”
It’s available here.
Diaspora Investment to Help Achieve the SDGs in Africa: Prospects and Trends
Governments and the private sector have traditionally viewed the diaspora as both ongoing providers of financial capital at the micro level, and, as consumers. While recognition of the diaspora’s role in ‘doing development’ has grown, and the diaspora are increasingly seen as important development stakeholders, they are still not viewed as significant social investors by governments, the private sector, or indeed the diaspora themselves. This represents a missed opportunity for harnessing and seeking to scale up diaspora investments for socio-economic growth, especially given the gap in financing available to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
We are delighted to announce our paper examining prospects and trends in this field, written by Paul Asquith and Stella Opoku-Owusu has been peer reviewed and is available to download here.
Black History Month UK
For #BlackHistoryMonth2020 Facebook and we at AFFORD are proud to celebrate a day of recognising where we are as a #diaspora, where we want to go and how we can get there collectively. In this digital world social platforms offer us a way of connecting with our diaspora family all over the globe with the click of a button. We have seen how an idea can spark a movement that creates a shift in mindset and a recognition of the collective power groups have. Examples can be seen in the Black Lives Matter movement sparking interest in creating practical and material change through initiatives like Black Pound Day.
There is a saying I am, because we are.
This BHM we will have a day exploring how our heritage shapes our identity and impacts on the actions and decisions we make. The role of technology in this cannot be ignored or understated, to look at ways of how diaspora and Africa can work more cohesively we should look to technology as a means to strengthening links and exhilarating actions for change, growth and progression.
We have an amazing roll call of speakers.
For more details and how to register, head here.
Racial Justice & Restitution
Open Society’s Mai Lynn Miller Nguyen recently spoke with Onyekachi Wambu, our executive director, about why the restitution of cultural heritage is so important.
What is restitution, and what are the goals of the movement behind it?
Demands for restitution are part of a series of connected movements, led by Africans and diasporic communities, in response to the economic, social, cultural, political, and spiritual legacies of slavery and colonialism and towards constructing a more just future. By calling for restitution, we are asking for the return of objects that were taken from the African continent through conquest, plunder, theft, and colonialism. We also believe that objects that were taken through legitimate-but-unfair trade deals need to be reassessed.
[Read more…] about Racial Justice & Restitution