Examination of Witnesses (Questions 138
- 139)
TUESDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2004
MR CHUKWU-EMEKA
CHIKEZIE, COUNCILLOR
MURAD QURESHI
AND DR
LOLA BANJOKO
Q138 Chairman: Welcome. A few points
really. Firstly, the acoustics in these rooms are not brilliant
and although these look like microphones they are not really microphones.
I am not quite sure what they are, I think they are part of the
broadcasting system. Also some of us on this Committee are slightly
deaf so if you could be very kind and speak up that would help
us all. Secondly, colleagues will be asking questions and if you
would like to work out between you how you answer them. It is
not necessary for everyone to answer every question but we do
not want anyone to feel that they are restrained from answering
our questions. This afternoon we are looking at the diaspora and
connections between the diaspora here and countries overseas and
I think it might be useful for all of us if, starting with Councillor
Qureshi, you could tell us a bit about yourselves and your organisations
so that it can be put into context, just two or three sentences
so we know who you are.
Councillor Qureshi: I will get
the ball rolling. I am Murad Qureshi, I am a second-generation
Bangladeshi living in London. The organisation I am representing
is the British Bangladeshi International Development Group. We
are a not-for-profit association of people interested in promoting
education and research on issues related to international development
in Bangladesh and the British Bangladesh community in the UK.
We were formed by a group of us with existing involvement in these
issues who believe that added insight and value may sometimes
be gained from our perspective on issues which pertained to DFID.
Dr Banjoko: My name is Dr Lola
Banjoko from the Commonwealth Business Council AfricaRecruit.
AfricaRecruit is an organisation that stemmed out of Find a Job
in Africa looking at redirecting the Africans in the diaspora
towards job opportunities and employment in Africa. Towards that
end we launched last year a careers fair here in London which
was attended by approximately 3,000 Africans and about 20 organisations
and quite a few people have gone back as a result of that. In
terms of the outcomes of the event, it has raised the awareness
of Africans to potential job opportunities in Africa and also
of African employers about what does exist outside there. As a
result of the large database of Africans globally, Africarecruit/Findajobinafrica.com
is able to provide a platform for surveys, research and information
management on various Africa diaspora or related issues.
Mr Chikezie: I work for the African
Foundation for Development—AFFORD. AFFORD's mission is to
expand and enhance the contribution that the African diaspora
makes to Africa's development. We are a London-based not-for-profit
organisation formed in 1994. We organise ourselves and work along
a number of different lines. One is to build the capacity of smaller
home town diaspora-based organisations in their efforts to support
development in their regions of origin. We network with a range
of different organisations. We are part of a consortium called
Africa 21 that puts on an annual event called the African Diaspora
and Development Day which brings together the African diaspora,
round about 300-350 people to look around the issues of how we
as Africans in the diaspora can maximise our contributions to
development. We start from the premise that we as the African
diaspora and indeed other diasporas are, in fact, the biggest
aid donors, if you want to put it in those terms, and this is
particularly on the flows of remittances and the long history
dating back in this country to the 18th century to the African
diaspora's engagement with some of these important issues.
Q139 Mr Robathan: This is really
a question that follows on from some of the written submissions
that we have had, to really get on the record what contributions
you feel—and you have already mentioned one or two—the
diaspora and its members can make to the development of their
home countries. I want to explore beyond remittances, if I might
say that, and see what contribution diaspora organisations can
make specifically to the formulation of UK development policy
as distinct from people like Oxfam or NGOs similar to that.
Dr Banjoko: In looking at it from
AfricaRecruit's perspective, one aspect is around skills. What
tends to happen is that a lot of the African diaspora, probably
the first generation, leave Africa with minimum work experience,
go abroad, gain a lot of work experience and some of it begins
to translate in terms of what can they do towards contributing
back to Africa. I think the African diaspora has a lot of business
networks that are formed, so there are a lot of business links
between the Africans in the diaspora and the Africans in Africa.
You have people who want to take franchises back to Africa of
political organisations or businesses that they see here and models
of business that they have seen formed here to form in Africa.
In terms of contributing towards development that is actually
very important. On the developmental aspect, a lot of it tends
to stem around something that you want to do in terms of contributing
towards your home town or the schools you have left behind, and
that is obviously not for profit. For instance, my background
is health, I happen to be a doctor by background, and I have worked
within the NHS, and I feel I have a role to play towards developing
health care in Nigeria being that there are a lot of doctors who
have left the country. We see our role as contributing some of
our skills and capacities that we have learned here towards the
development of health care, which is in desperate need in some
countries in Africa.
|
