By Tarjei Kidd Olsen
OSLO, Jul 8 (IPS) - Norway wants to integrate diasporas into development work -- and tap into the huge sums of cash that they send back home -- with a new pilot project that seeks to beef up development efforts in Pakistan.
The government is promising to double the money that Norwegian-Pakistani civil society groups collect for development work in Pakistan, while coaching them in professional administration. At the same time the government is hoping to gain cultural and language insights from the immigrants.
If the pilot project is successful, diasporas from other countries based in Norway could be next.
"One reason for working more closely with immigrant groups is to encourage the transfer of funds to whole communities, not just to individual families, and to promote development," says Norwegian development minister Erik Solheim.
Depending on how you count them, diasporas around the world transferred somewhere between 173 billion and 250 billion dollars to developing countries in 2005, according to the U.N. Despite the benefits of such large flows of money going to poor countries, the money is often not coordinated or geared towards development work. [Read More]
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