The Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) of the Policy and Technical Advisory Division (PTA) hosts a two-hour panel discussion focusing on the tremendous potential of diaspora investment in agriculture to drive rural development, enhance food security and contribute to stability and growth. The discussion, joined by experts, practitioners, and interested partner development agencies and Member States, will revolve around seeking synergies and opportunities for collaboration.

Of specific interest in this regard is the Diaspora Investment in Agriculture (DIA) initiative. The initiative aims to identify and promote successful examples of migrant investment in smallholder agriculture, and to analyse systematically the key factors of sustainability, environmental compatibility, and potential to contribute to local agriculture. The DIA initiative aims to empower diaspora members, their families and smallholder farmers by fostering the links between them, and, particularly, by mobilizing diaspora investment in agriculture in communities of origin.

DIA builds on best practices and lessons learned emerging from the FFR experience on migrant investment in rural development.  The discussion will highlight how these successful models can be adapted and scaled up to reach a broader range of countries and different socio-economic contexts.

The FFR experience has highlighted that investing in agriculture and agribusiness can generate both economic and social returns for diasporas. Demonstrating profitable and sustainable initiatives is key to promote diaspora investment in agriculture on a larger scale. 

Panellists

• H.E. Ambassador Ibrahim Hagi Abdulkadir is the Permanent Representative of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia to FAO and IFAD. In the last two decades, after the collapse of the Somali State, Dr Ibrahim has led Somali Community Associations and Somali Intellectual Associations. In this role he promoted and organized many social activities and forum meetings on issues of Somali Diaspora and the reconstruction of the Somali State.

• H.E. Ambassador Virgilio A. Reyes, Jr is the Philippine’s Permanent Representative to FAO, WFP and IFAD since November 2011. Previously, he served the Philippine Government in various capacities in several countries. He was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in Pretoria, South Africa with jurisdiction over eight other countries (2003-2009); Minister and Consul General at the Philippine Embassy, Santiago, Chile (1998-2000); Minister Counsellor and Consul General at the Philippine Embassy in Mexico (1997-1998); Minister Counsellor and Consul General at the Philippine Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar (1994-1997); and Third, Second and First Secretary, at the Philippine Mission to the United Nations, New York (1983-1991).
  He served in the Home Office as Director of the China Division of the Asia-Pacific Affairs Office as well as Vice-Director of Ceremonials in the Office of Protocol and Special Assistant for Foreign Affairs Secretary Carlos P. Romulo. He also worked as Executive Director of the Office of Policy Planning and Coordination, Special Assistant in the Office of the Undersecretary for Special Projects and Executive Director of the Maritime and Ocean Affairs Center (MOAC). His last position was Assistant Secretary for Middle East and African Affairs at the DFA (2009-2011).

• Pedro De Vasconcelos joined IFAD in 2007 as Programme Coordinator of the Financing Facility for Remittances. From 1998 to 2000, Mr De Vasconcelos served at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva under the project MicroBanks in cooperation with the Banque Internationale à Luxembourg. The same year, he joined the Multilateral Investment Fund of the IDB in Washington DC, and was responsible for launching and coordinating the remittance programme for Latin America and the Caribbean until early 2007.

• Estrella Mai Dizon-Anonuevo is the Executive Director of Atikha Overseas Workers and Communities Initiatives Inc. (Atikha) since 2005. She worked as a researcher of the Frankfurt Institute for Women Research and co-authored the book Ein Traum vom Besseren Leben (A Dream of a Better Life). She also worked as research staff of the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) and authored the publication Migration of Women: The Social Trade Off.  She is one of the editors of Women Migration and Reintegration, a book on the research conducted by Atikha on the social cost of migration and the plans for reintegration of migrants in Hong Kong and Italy.
  Ms Dizon Anonuevo also led the management of several migration and development projects including:  EC-UN Joint Migration and Development Initiatives that involved setting up of one-stop migration resource centres and school-based programme addressing the social cost of migration; and the IFAD assisted project that involved engaging and  mobilizing the resources of migrants from Italy towards agri-based cooperative in the Philippines.

• Tawfiq El-Zabri, an economist by training, worked at the World Bank and IMF before joining IFAD in 2000. Mr El-Zabri’s family migrated repeatedly in pursuit of education and work opportunities, while maintaining a close link with their village and relatives in the West Bank before returning home for retirement. He witnessed similar dynamics in roles as IFAD Country Programme Manager for Romania, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Jordan, and Somalia and as the responsible officer for programmes in Gaza and the West Bank.  He worked with rural and migrant communities to channel resources and investments to support locally-driven change. 

• Fatumo Farah is the Director of Himilo Relief and Development Association (HIRDA). HIRDA is a leading migrant development organization focused on linking migration and development.  During her tenure, Ms Farah has been advocating the importance of migrants’ contribution to their home countries. Over the years, she has set up a social enterprise which focuses on capacity building. In 2006, Ms Farah won the best migrant idea award from the Dutch migrant organization, Stichting Mondiale Samenleving (SMS).

• Rose Thompson-Coon is IFAD’s Acting Country Programme Manager for Somalia. She joined IFAD in 2008 as an Education and Gender Officer in the Belgian Fund for Food Security Division. In January 2011, she joined the Near East and North Africa Division.  She has been managing the IFAD Somalia country programme since August 2011 and provides support to other Near East and North Africa portfolios on thematic issues such as gender and youth employment. 
  Prior to joining IFAD, Ms Thompson-Coon worked as a development consultant for the Finnish Consulting Group. She also has many years of experience in the education sector in Finland.