The government has said that it needs to establish the exact number of Zimbabweans in the diaspora in order to maximise remittances. This comes as the government, supported by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is woking on creating a Diaspora Policy in order to allow all those people to participate in Zimbabwe’s development. However, a 2010 report by the UNDP put the figure of Zimbabweans outside the country at 3 million.
Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion, Dr Judith Kareera said:
We do not actually know how many people are abroad. The figure could have increased and this is what we want to actually establish hence this engagement meeting.
As part of our efforts to lure our citizens living abroad, we are establishing a website that showcases the work that the Diaspora has done in order to acknowledge their efforts
We want to take stock of everything that our citizens are doing out there in the areas of health, education and everything else … and come up with a data base of Zimbabwe Diaspora organizations in order to encourage Diaspora participation in our economy.
More: New Zimbabwe