WUNRN
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
================================================================
To leave the list, send your request by email to: wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com.
Thank you.