Mainstreaming Migration,
Development & Remittances
Migration, Development &
Remittances in the Least Developed
Countries Context: A LDC IV
Preparatory Event
17 June 2010
Arun Kashyap
Senior Advisor
Private Sector Development
A Guiding Principle
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Millennium Development Goals
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Year of the MDGs – Special review summit
International Assessment: What will it
take to achieve the MDGs?
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Support country-led development and foster
inclusive economic growth
Improving opportunities for women and girls
Robust social protection and employment
programmes
Innovations in improving domestic resource
mobilization
HDR 2009: Overcoming barriers Human mobility and development
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Human mobility can be hugely useful in raising a
person’s income, health, education prospects
(people from poorest places gain the most)
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Majority of people move within their own country
Just over a third (< 70m) people moved from a
developing to a developed country
Most international migrants moved from one developing
country to another or between developed countries
Most direct benefits of migration are in the form of
remittance sent to immediate family members
Even well managed international migration does
not amount to a national human development
strategy
Remittances Facts
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Remittances are primarily private resources
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Remittances do not substitute the Developed world’s
ODA responsibility
Remittances are not a surrogate for government’s
development and social protection responsibilities
Remittances constitute the second largest
capital flow to developing countries
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Likely to make a strong contribution to FE earnings
Informal flows could add at least 50 percent to the
official estimate; South-South flows are
considerable
Impacts at places of origin
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Remittances represent a way out of
poverty for a significant population
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HH welfare, nutrition, food, health, education
Positive impact of remittance on livelihoods,
promotion of entrepreneurship and investments
Women tend to send a larger proportion of their
incomes home
Important to explore Diaspora efforts towards
improving local economies
Remittances facts
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Being counter cyclical, remittances have
offset damage experienced from natural
disasters and economic crisis
Remittances can offset trade deficits
(Bangladesh, Nepal, Philippines)
Sovereign ratings in middle income countries
and debt sustainability analysis in lowincome countries factor in
remittances
Remittances-Development
Rationale
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Remittances can create “public goods” as
well as other private goods while
increasing private welfare
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Although remittances are mainly used for
household consumption
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Mobile banking/money transfer technologies
Remittances spent locally have multiplier effects
Impact of remittances on growth depends
on level of financial development/
infarstructure
Link National Priorities to
Local Actions
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Less than 1 percent of the remittances inflows in
2007 went to low-HDI countries
Development impact of remittances is
contingent on local institutional structures
Develop public policy, partnerships institutions
and capacity to consider migration as a part
of national planning priority (MDG based NDS)
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Empower Diaspora, Home Town Associations,
local community leaderships;
Build confidence, trust and capacity
Widening Policy Options
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Build an inclusive financial system – banking
the unbanked
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Linking remittances, micro finance and provision of
safety net mechanisms;
Provision of appropriate products, financial education
and investment services supported by meso level
organizations;
Strengthening macro policies to leverage remittances
for enhancing national credit ratings and profile
Level the playing field for banking and non
banking institutions
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Enabling environment, strengthened institutions,
deepening of the financial sector
Capacity Development
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Capacity Development: local governance, and
developing and retaining human capital
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As an intrinsic component of the Integrated Package
and including migration and remittances as an
intrinsic component of PRSs, UNDAFs
Capacity development and provision of business
development services for domestic private sector
development;
Leverage international data standards and strengthen
domestic ability to gather gender disaggregated
data including engagement of informal sector
Knowledge Management
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Strengthen knowledge networking
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Develop diagnostics instruments and tool kits for
remittances and development;
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Harness and disseminate lessons learnt and good
practices;
State of the art assessment frameworks and
methodologies
Partner the World Bank Group to validate
General Principles for International
Remittance Services at national levels
South-South Cooperation
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A number of UNDP country offices are
assessing innovative solutions for
remittances based development
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Tajikistan, Somalia, Albania, El Salvador,
Philippines, etc.
Important need to exchange lessons
and good practices from countries
that have successfully retained
human capital
Establishment of a GMG
Working Group
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Mainstreaming migration in national
development strategies
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Holistic approach with engagement of
UNCT to link migration and enhanced
human development outcomes
Enhanced interagency collaboration and
alignment of development partners and
donor agencies
Coordinate country level support for the
preparation and organization of GFMD
meetings