By Eriko Nishimura
The Government of Lesotho recognizes the diaspora as a potential key player in the country’s development.
The second National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP II) key priority area (KPA II): Strengthening – Human Capital recognizes the significant role that the diaspora can play in the country’s economic development and proposes to strengthen diaspora engagement.
NSDP II proposes the development of appropriate frameworks for diaspora engagement. It also recommends enabling a policy framework for remittances.
A lot of efforts have been made to engage Basotho diaspora for direct investment. However, efforts to engage the diaspora without creating an enabling environment for their participation in the country’s economic growth cannot achieve desired outcomes.
With the support from SDG Fund, through a joint programme implemented by International Organization for Migration (IOM), UNDP, and UNICEF aimed at leveraging private resources for the achievement of SDGs, IOM developed a Remittances Strategy to address key recommendations of two assessments conducted in 2022 to identify challenges experienced by Basotho migrants and diaspora community when remitting money to Lesotho. The assessment also looked at potential obstacles to diaspora investment.
The Remittances Strategy aims to strengthen remittance transfer mechanisms and bolster financial inclusion. The strategy proposes three strategic areas of intervention which are namely, to enhance institutional coordination mechanisms, build the resilience of remittances-receiving families and improve financial inclusion.
The successful delivery of the strategy will be determined by collaboration and partnerships across relevant key ministries of the Government of Lesotho, the Central Bank of Lesotho, and lead institutions in the private sector locally and abroad.
Creating an enabling environment for remittance flows is in line with SDG 10 which promotes the reduction of remittance transfer costs. This is also in line with objective 20 of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM), which promotes faster, safer, and cheaper transfers of remittances and fosters the financial inclusion of migrants.
* Ms Eriko Nishimura is the Country Director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
