In December the kick off meeting for IOM the Netherlands’ project Connecting Diaspora for Development (CD4D) took place in Rabat, Morocco. The aim of the programme is to strengthen the capacity of key institutions in 6 countries through knowledge transfer. This is conducted through short term assignments by members of diaspora communities in the Netherlands. The CD4D project is funded the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Besides Morocco, CD4D will be active in Afghanistan, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Ghana. Each country will initiate its own kick off meeting by bringing together the main stakeholders, identify best practices and formulate the way forward. Through temporary physical and online assignments, professional diaspora members living and working in the Netherlands are linked to host institutions.
For Morocco CD4D will run until the end of September 2017 and will focus on consolidating and sustaining diaspora interventions that took place in the framework of IOM’s successful project Temporary Return of Qualified Nationals (TRQN).
CD4D will focus on host organizations and on setting clear objectives to be realized in the areas of intervention. The meeting in Rabat was attended by different stakeholders such as the Moroccan Ministry for Moroccans Residing Abroad, the Ministry for Youth and Sports, the Ministry for Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Moroccan Center for Research and Technology, the Moroccan Ministry for Civil Servants and the Modernization of the Public Administration, the Hassan II Foundation for Moroccans Residing Abroad and the
Moroccan Advisory Committee for Moroccans Residing Abroad, the Development Agency for the Orient, several Moroccan universities and the Dutch and Belgian Embassies.
After the official opening by her Excellency the Dutch Ambassador to Morocco Mrs. Desirée Bonis, diaspora experts and host institutions gave presentations on the nature of the assignments that were realized under IOM’s project Temporary Return of Qualified Nationals (TRQN), the impact of these assignments as perceived by the host institutions and their expectations for the coming year.
In Morocco, IOM will work closely with the Ministry for Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Ministry for Youth and Sports, the National Center for Research and Technology and the Ministry for Civil Servants and the Modernization of the Public Administration.
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