New book: Africa's Finances - The contribution of remittances

Globally, the volume of remittances to developing countries exceeds the development aid budgets. This volume explores the contribution of remittances to Africa's finances and provides concrete guidelines as to how these may be expanded. It contains essays by a range of scholars and policy makers, recording, reviewing and revising the knowledge base on African remittance patterns. The advent of new information communication technologies can contribute to an expanded capture of remittances from African migrants and in Africa new forms of money transfer are already taking shape which reflects this affordance. The volume also examines other resources, such as skills and so-called social remittances. Finally, it discusses the role of diasporas in conflict and post-conflict societies.

In her chapter 'Agents of Development and Change: The Somali Diaspora at Work', DIIS project researcher Nauja Kleist explores two Somali transnational reconstruction projects; a Somali-Scandinavian return project to Somaliland and a small water project in the southern part of Somalia.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Denmark, Somaliland and London, Kleist analyzes their organization and visions of development as well as the implications of mobilizing diasporas as agents of change. She argues that diaspora involvement is a complex phenomenon, characterized by conflicting interests and ambitions and embedded in both local and transnational power relations.

'Africa's Finances: The Contribution of Remittances' is shaped out of a symposium on remittances and the African diaspora held at the Institute for African Development at Cornell University. It is published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing and edited by Raj Bardouille, Muna Ndulo and Margaret Grieco.