An IOM workshop on the Mobilization
and Utilization of Diaspora Skills and Remittances for the Development
of Ethiopia took place in Addis Ababa on Wednesday.
The workshop, sponsored by
the Italian Government, focused on the presentation of an IOM
research report: Skills Inventory and Remittance Flows in Ethiopia
and the launch of a website: Mobilizing Ethiopians Living Abroad
for the Development of Ethiopia (www.ethiopiandiaspora.info).
The site will be used to disseminate information to Ethiopians
living abroad and to collect data on Ethiopians wishing to participate
in the development of their country of origin.
Participants from the Ethiopian
government, donors, UN agencies, the private sector, civil society
and the media discussed the supply and demand of technical skills
in Ethiopia's priority sectors; key issues and challenges relating
to remittance flows into the country; and ways to maximize the
impact of the diaspora skills and remittances in the country's
economic development process.
"Ethiopia
will develop properly only if the current government
implements economic program by inviting and using
the skilled Ethiopians from all over the world. Unless
this is done there can not be any substantial development
in the country!"
Oct., 1995
Kitaw Ejigu, Ph. D
|
Ethiopia ranks first among
African nations, ahead of Nigeria and Ghana, as a country that
losses medical and other professionals. In 1996 roughly half
of all Ethiopian immigrants in the US were employed in a professional
or technical capacity.
Over the past 10 to 15 years
about 50% of Ethiopians who went abroad for training did not
return after completing their studies. Between 1980-91, of 22,700
who went abroad, only 5,777 returned.
Between 1980 and 1991, Ethiopia
lost about 74.6% of its human capital from various institutions.
In the health sector, the 38th Annual Medical Association Meeting
of 2002 was told that more than a third of Ethiopia's doctors
left during the period, mainly to the US and Western Europe.
The workshop is part of IOM's
capacity building strategy "Migration for Development in Africa" (MIDA),
which seeks to contribute to the socio-economic development of
Ethiopia through the mobilization of skills, financial and other
resources of the Ethiopian diaspora in order to help reduce poverty
and strengthen the technical and institutional capacities of
the public and private sectors.
MIDA is a demand-driven capacity
building programme, targeting the skills, which are lacking or
are in high demand in the various sectors of the Ethiopian economy.
In this regard, MIDA is consistent with the objectives of the
Ethiopian Government's Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction
Paper (SDPRP).
The innovative element of IOM's
MIDA programme is the use of technology to permit the transfer
of skills of Ethiopians in the diaspora without necessarily requiring
the permanent relocation of individuals.
