18 May 2011

WASHINGTON D.C. / CLINTON DIASPORA FORUM

The Secretary’s Global Diaspora Forum, hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, provided the venue today for unveiling a new joint initiative with the Internatinoal Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) designed to assist international migrants invest in efforts to reduce rural poverty and boost food security in their home countries. IFAD

Posted at: May 18, 2011 12:17 pm

Duration: 02:35

Available in: SD

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STORY: WASHINGTON D.C. / CLINTON DIASPORA FORUM
TRT: 2.35
SOURCE: IFAD 
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
 
DATELINE: 17 MAY 2011, US STATE DEPARTMENT, LOY HENDERSON AUDITORIUM, WASHINGTON DC.
 
 
SHOTLIST:
 
1. Wide shot, exterior State Department Building
2. Med shot, State Department sign
3. Wide shot, audience attending the DIA Meeting
4. Med Shot, Hillary Clinton at podium
5. Wide shot, attendees 
6. Med shot, Hilary Clinton at podium
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, United States:
"We are working, for example, with the International Fund for Agriculture and Development in Rome. Which will help us support Diaspora investments in agricultural and rural projects. So, this Global Diaspora Forum will institutionalize our strategy in three different ways: As a convener, we will bring people together to look for ways to cooperate, pursue common interests. As a catalyst, we hope the forum will help launch new projects and provide training and technical assistance to people who are in need of it. As a collaborator, we will work closely with Diaspora leaders and other partners to implement projects and maximize our impact."
7. Various shots, attendees
8.  Med shots, Group Shot of Diaspora collaborators
9. Med shot, gentleman at podium
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Kanayo F. Nwanze, President IFAD:
"From our experiences in running the remittance is network. We find that in most of the Diaspora in the developed world, for us in Rome, where we work with Filipino women, who really want to look for long-term investments. Not only just sending money home, which is put to productive use, in terms of feeding families, clothing families, housing families but investing in their own community to achieve rural development programs. And so, what we're doing here is how we can support them to be able to send money, better and cheaper, less expensive. To invest in their own rural development projects in agriculture"

FILE / IFAD / SEPTEMBER 2007 AND ALL FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.

11. Wide shot, migrant workers working in restaurant kitchen, doing construction work, performing custodial services. 
12. Med shot, migrant worker at counter, talking to a teller
13. Wide shot, same migrant worker with money, filling out paper work, counting money
14. Med shot, two male migrant workers entering money transfer facility.
15. Wide shot, migrant workers waiting in line at money transfer facility
16. Close up, woman's hands holding money
17. Close up, money transfer sign in Spanish
18. Close up, money transfer sign in Spanish, people waiting in line
19. Med shot, migrant workers approaching tellers at counter
20. Close up, shot of  a man's hands counting money

STORYLINE:

The United States Department of State and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) unveiled today in Washington DC a new joint initiative to assist the flow of investment from international migrants to reduce rural poverty and boost food security in their home countries.

The Diaspora Investment in Agriculture (DIA) initiative was presented by IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze at the Secretary's Global Diaspora Forum, hosted at the State Department by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The DIA will seek to migrant entrepreneurs and diaspora organizations to stimulate the agricultural sector in developing countries, particularly post-conflict nations and fragile states. According to IFAD, investments in agriculture and efforts to better link farmers with emerging markets can have an enormous positive impact on economic growth and food security.

Through the DIA initiative, IFAD and the State Department, in collaboration with partner donors and international institutions will work with diaspora investors worldwide and local organizations and communities in their home countries. The program seeks to assist and encourage investments by migrants in business opportunities that enhance food security, generate economic opportunity and foster job growth in rural areas.

With the support of the State Department and other international partners, IFAD will work to involve migrant entrepreneurs, diaspora organizations and key strategic entities to implement projects that stimulate the development of the agricultural sector. In particular, the initiative will seek to identify and co-finance viable ideas and models linking food security, diaspora investment and agricultural value chains.

With more than 215 million people, or three percent of the world's population, now living outside their home countries diaspora communities already play a vital economic role in many nations. Currently they remit more than 325 billion dollars a year to developing countries and, in many cases, have become among the largest sources of cash and investment for home countries, surpassing the sum total of official development assistance and foreign direct investment.

In the short-term, these remittances pay for essentials, such as food, clothing, and shelter, and often constitute more than 50 per cent of household income.  In times of crisis, migrants are often first-responders who provide for the increased financial needs of the their families, as evidenced by the doubling of remittances immediately after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti,  the 2010 flooding in Pakistan and the 2009 typhoon in the Philippines.
Through migrant investment, the diaspora can also play a vital long-term role, as both project experience and research show that diaspora communities are not only well informed about opportunities in their countries of origin, but they are also much more willing than others to invest in fragile markets.

The initiative will target a number of countries, including Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Haiti, Iraq, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Tunisia.

The goal of the Forum, which will run through May 19, is to recognize and celebrate the contribution of diaspora communities to the U.S. relationship with their countries of origin and encourage intra-diaspora collaboration and learning.