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http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/pbnEU/cache/offonce?entryId=16839

 

01-04-2008

 

WEST AFRICA/ITALY - Development Programme Targets African Women Migrants

 

A new IOM programme aimed at engaging West African women migrants in the development of their countries has been launched in Italy, representing an increasing need to target the sizeable numbers of women migrants in development efforts.

The programme, funded by the Italian government, builds on existing IOM efforts to involve African migrants in the development of their countries of origin through investment and business creation.

Migrant Women for Development in Africa (W-MIDA) hopes to tap into the significant numbers of West African migrant women living in Italy. Although overall, women represent nearly 49 per cent of all migrants in the country, among some West African diasporas, including the Nigerian, Cape Verde and Niger, women outnumber men. In other diaspora communities in Italy such as the Ghanaian, Cameroonian, and Ivorian, women migrants represent a significant force.

Currently, remittances are seen as the main factor linking migration and development. West African migrants in Italy sent home nearly US$262 million in 2005 alone and although Sub-Saharan Africa has witnessed a 72 per cent growth in official remittances received since 2001, it is still the region which receives the lowest amount of remittances in the world. However, despite little available gender analysis of remittance patterns, women migrants do tend to remit more of their money over time than men. They also send remittances to extended family instead of just spouse and children, confirming the idea that women feel responsible for the well-being of a community and not just a nuclear family.

W-MIDA will build on this by supporting West African women migrants interested in committing all or part of their remittances to establish small or medium enterprises (SMEs) in their countries of origin through joint ventures with Italian partners and host communities.

A maximum of 15 SME projects will be selected with the women chosen to be given training in business development and management and in the processes of accessing credit in order to enhance their entrepreneurial skills.

"W-MIDA will be another way of making more effective use of remittances, the value of which can be greater if the cost of money transfers are reduced or if they are used to generate investment or towards social initiatives that will help in the long-term development of communities and countries," says Tana Anglana, programme manager of W-MIDA in Italy. "We have seen with other MIDA programmes the enormous benefits such initiatives and investment brings to migrants as well as home and host communities."

Through Italian funded MIDA programmes in Ghana and Senegal, IOM has already helped 18 migrants and their associations set up businesses in their home countries, which have already seen the creation of many new jobs both in Italy and in Ghana and Senegal.

A knock-on benefit of W-MIDA is that in the process of outreach to migrant women, IOM will be able to map West African women in Italy and diaspora organizations and networks that have been set up and which could also work on migration and development issues. IOM will also be able to get a clearer picture of remittance practices of West African women as well as set up a database of migrant women wanting to invest in SMEs.

For further information, please contact Flavio Di Giacomo, IOM Rome, Tel: + 39 06 44 186 207   E-Mail: fdigiacomo@iom.int

 

 





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