Beyond Remittances -Skoll World Forum Marmalade Festival 2023

Beyond Remittances: Skoll World Forum Marmalade Festival 2023

April 13, 2023, 10 AM - 12 PM BST

Oxford, UK

Critical to Africa’s economic development is the creative engagement and strategic collaboration of Africans, African diasporans, and friends of Africa. According to the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), the value of remittances from the African diaspora reached $95.6 billion in 2021.

How do we enhance African diaspora engagement for investment into their communities? What new approaches and investment opportunities are trending across the continent? What public-private partnerships can be leveraged to help diasporans go beyond remittances?

This panel discussion examines new approaches to Diaspora engagement beyond remittances and approaches to sustainable investment. Our goal is to find ways to encourage the diaspora to take a look into their savings to go beyond remittances and scale investments in infrastructure, education, healthcare, housing, employment, and essential determinants of health in Africa.

This session is a part of African Diaspora Network’s ongoing Impact & Innovation Forums on “Beyond Remittances,” dedicated to increasing awareness, engagement, and action on how the diaspora can go beyond remittances to contribute to the betterment of the continent of Africa.

Moderator

Almaz Negash is a recognized thought leader and sought-after expert on entrepreneurship, innovation, and investment for international markets, especially high growth African and Diaspora. Leveraging 25 plus years of experience in international trade, business management, and social innovation, Negash is able to build successful partnerships with a variety of stakeholders, including Fortune 500 companies, academic institutions, investors and entrepreneurs based in the USA and around the world. As a result, she is named as one of the 100 outstanding Silicon Valley Women of Influence for her work in social innovation. In 2010, Almaz founded African Diaspora Network (ADN) to inform and engage Africans in the diaspora and facilitate direct collaboration with social entrepreneurs, innovators, and business leaders to invest and improve the lives of everyone on the continent.

Speakers

Stella has over 20 years’ experience in the development sector at community, national and international levels, working with diaspora communities. She has extensive experience and knowledge of diaspora, migration and development, in policy and practice. Stella is responsible for overseeing AFFORD’s work on Diaspora Investment, Enterprise and Employment. She also oversees AFFORD’s engagement with Diaspora & Migrants, Network Building and Training. She was nominated Co-Chair for the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD – Quito) Civil Society Day 2019. Stella has provided expertise to governments on diaspora engagement policy through consultancy, training programmes and speaking engagements. In 2022, she was selected as a Steering Committee member of the UN’s Migration Multi-Partnership Trust Fund.

Martin completed his PhD at the Clinton Institute (University College Dublin), where his research focused on strategic diaspora engagement in areas such as diaspora media, diaspora philanthropy, and diaspora politics. He is the founder of Global Diaspora Insights, which provides advisory, research, policy, and training on diaspora engagement through its in-house expertise and network of global experts. He was also a visiting fellow at the United Nations University in Maastricht and currently sits on the Advisory Board of Ireland Reaching Out, which is a volunteer-based, non-profit initiative that connects people of Irish heritage with their place of origin in Ireland. He is also an advisor at The Networking Institute, and in collaboration with colleagues at the Institute, he has worked in approximately 30 countries on diaspora engagement.