ABIDE conducted a one-day national symposium on Thursday, 30 August 2007

A one day National Symposium on “Engaging the Diaspora for Ethiopia’s Development” was successfully held at the Addis Ababa Municipality City Hall on 30 August 2007. The Symposium was organized by Hibret Lelimat Ma’ekel in partnership with the Addis Ababa Millennium Secretariat to create a platform for interactive dialogue between members of the Diaspora and key institutions, stakeholders and relevant individuals.

The main purposes of the symposium are: (a)To help Diaspora members get first hand information to appreciate the human resource needs and expectations of institutions in the country and to enable them see the role they could play in capacity building; (b) To help participating institutions strengthen their efforts to enhance Diaspora’s participation to achieve their developmental goals; (c) To enable other stakeholders to appreciate the supportive role they could play for effective Diaspora engagement for Ethiopia’s development; and (d) To officially launch the HLM website. The outcomes expected to be attained from the symposium are: 1) A comprehensive network of Ethiopian professionals in the Diaspora will be initiated; 2) A common understanding of ways the Diaspora can be effectively engaged for Ethiopia’s development.

Around 300 participants attended the national symposium of which about a third were from the Diaspora community residing in the USA, Canada, Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, among others. The sumposium was opened with a welcome address given by Ato Misganu Agra, Deputy Chairman of the Addis Ababa City Millennium Council and Head of the Addis Ababa City Information and Culture Bureau. Following that Ato Teferra Waluwa’s key note address was delivered by Ato Adebabay as the Minister could not attend the symposium due to other urgent official duty.

The next speakers at the symposium were, His Excellency Mr. Gurjit Singh, Ambassador of India to Ethiopia and His Excellency Mr. Vincent Kibwana, Minister Plenipotentiary of the Embassy of Tanzania. Both speakers shared very valuable experiences on Diaspora engagement for their respective country’s development. Other important speakers include, Dr. Wubhset Mamo from EAHHPS, Ato Temesghen Hailu from AHEAD, Eng. Berhane Abate from EKTTS, Ms Etsehiwot Tekelemariam, Country Representative, American Health Alliance Twinning Center, Ato Biruk, representing Mr. Charles A Kwenin, IOM Country Representative, Prof. Tsegie Gebremariam, Vice President of Addis Ababa University, Woizero Fentanesh Tilahun, Head, Department of Higher Education System Transformation and Improvement, Ministry of Education, Dr. Medhin Zewdu, Assistant to the Minister of Health, Ato Ermyas Amelga, private investor, Ato Addis Alemayehu, Chief of Party, VEGA Ethiopia AGOA/USAID and Manager, of Precise Consult International, Ms Zahara Legesse Twinning Center Volunteer in Ethiopia and Ato Fiseha Tesfu , Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Dr. Tewabech Bishaw, Founder and Managing Director of HLM, delivered a presentation introducing Hibret Lelimat Ma’ekel and its broad strategic objectives. Following this, the official release of HLM’s website—www.hlmethiopia.org—was announced in a presentation given by Ato Solomon Belayneh.

The presentations made by the various speakers highlighted international, regional and national experiences on engaging the Diaspora in the development of their countries of origin. It also highlighted the pressing needs for qualified human resource of the various institutions in the country including Addis Ababa University, the public and private universities in the country as well as the health and private sectors among others.

During the long discussion held in the afternoon session, Diaspora members, returnees, participants from Bilateral organizations, representatives of Embassies, private universities and colleges and representatives from various government, non government and international organizations and benefiting institutions, made useful contributions through expressing their views and experiences. From the presentations and discussions it was possible to appreciate the different models of Diaspora involvement being applied for the country’s development. These models could further be streamlined for enhanced participation of the Diaspora.

Some of the useful recommendations made during the deliberations include:- (a) establishment and maintenance of a comprehensive and up-to-date database on the Ethiopian Diaspora intellectual resources available the world over, as well as the human resource priority needs of the various benefiting institutions and projects in the country for wide and timely dissemination; (b) studies on existing processes and procedures to develop systems that will facilitate incremental inflow of Diaspora input; (c) visit to countries who have successfully benefited from reversing brain drain to learn from their experiences and support policy formulation and implementation in the country; (d) urgent availability of a national policy on Diaspora participation for national development and its wide dissemination to all stakeholders at national and regional levels for effective application; (e) national and international advocacy building on positive experiences of individuals, institutions and projects using different methods including role modeling; (f) the possibilities for brain circulation in Africa; (g ) the need to look into existing qualified professionals who are not active service for their meaningful participation in capacity building.

The Symposium was sponsored by: Addis Ababa Millennium Secretariat, USAID, The Twinning Center, SNV, CRDA and SIDA.

“Hibret Lelimat Ma’ekel -- Linking Ethiopians Globally for Increased Opportunities for Brain Gain”