Moroni, 19 June 2025 – The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), through its Sub-Regional Offices for North and Eastern Africa, in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Investment in charge of economic integration, organized a national workshop on June 19, 2025, in Moroni - Comoros. The workshop focused on “Leveraging the Contribution of the Comorian Diaspora to Sustainable Development”, bringing together key national stakeholders to explore the strategic integration of diaspora remittances and investments into national development planning.
The workshop gathered over 50 participants, including representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Budget, Central Bank of Comoros, Ministry of Economy and Investment, private sector actors, banking system and diaspora associations representatives and UN system and development partners including RCO, IOM, UNFPA, UNDP and Word Bank. This initiative is part of ECA’s programme on “Strengthening the Migration-Development Nexus in Africa,” which aims to provide technical support and strengthen the capacity of African countries to include the diaspora’s contribution into national plans and socio-economic policies and develop adequate framework and tools to better channel remittances to productive investment as alternative source of financing national development.
In her opening remarks, Ms. Samia Hamouda, Economic Affairs Officer and Programme Manager, Subregional Office for North Africa of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA/SRO-NA), underlined the importance of engaging all stakeholders to ensure diaspora contributions go beyond household consumption. “The Comorian diaspora holds immense potential to support national development priorities. It is important to design the adequate tools, instruments and frameworks to convert this potential into tangible development outcomes,” she stated, highlighting UNECA’s commitment to provide technical support to Comoros in this area.
Mr. Dhoihirdine Ahamada Bacar, Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Investment in charge of Economic Integration, welcomed participants and commended the collaborative efforts that led to the organization of the workshop. He emphasized that “remittances represent a critical and stable source of income for many households in Comoros. But we must now collectively look at how these financial flows can be steered toward productive and inclusive investment to support the country’s development agenda.” He emphasized that for Comoros, it is crucial that we develop adequate strategies, legal, and institutional frameworks to channel diaspora contributions to national sustainable development. Finally, he called on participants to take full advantage of the workshop, urging them to engage in meaningful dialogue, share insights, and collaboratively identify key areas of support.
The discussions explored national challenges and opportunities linked to diaspora engagement, policy gaps, and the role of financial and institutional frameworks in improving the impact of remittances. key outcomes of the workshop were (i) the presentation and endorsement of the architecture and Terms of Reference for the National Technical Working Group (NTWG), under the leadership of the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Investment in charge of economic integration and (ii) the identification of main domains of technical support to better leverage the positive contribution of diaspora.
For more information and media interview requests, please send an email to habimanad@un.org, ilias.ennassiri@un.org, and filali-ansary@un.org.
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org