By Wallace Mawire
The Historic African Diaspora Placement Program (HADIP), a partnership of the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), the African Union Mission to the United States, the International Partnership for Inclusive Education and Development (IPIED), the Directorate of Citizens and Diaspora Organizations of the African Union (CIDO) has been launched.
According to the organizers, the initiative will be hosted by the Africa-America Institute (AAI), with ACBF serving as the Secretariat for HADIP, the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) serving as a technical partner for resource mobilization, while DelReeve Konsult is a technical partner for strategic partnerships and communication.
HADIP’s mission is to facilitate cultural exchange and development opportunities between Africans on the continent and African diaspora in the United States.
The central thrust of the programme is to enable the placement and immersion of cohorts of African diaspora professionals in African countries for occupational and cultural immersion, during which they contribute to Africa’s development and to the enhancement of professional connections and cultural understanding between Africans and African diaspora.
HADIP aligns with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and is committed to addressing human and institutional capacity challenges by leveraging the expertise of African diaspora professionals interested in supporting Africa’s development authentically.
The African Union has recognized the African Diaspora as its sixth region, alongside the existing regions in Africa.
The recognition signifies and underscores the African Union’s commitment to the development and sustainable wholesome relationship between Africa and the Diaspora. African Diaspora in the United States consists of two broad populations: the contemporary Diaspora and the historic Diaspora.
While the contemporary Diaspora are largely voluntary immigrants or descendants of voluntary immigrants, the historic Diaspora are descendants of Africans forcibly taken from Africa during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
HADIP is historic in committing to meet a long-existing pan-African need to meaningfully and sustainably connect the Diaspora, especially in the United States, with Africa by offering the unprecedented pan-African programmatic opportunities for both populations of African Diaspora to live in Africa, to authentically experience Africa, and to leverage their skills and expertise to contribute directly to the sustainable development of Africa, as well as to enhancing relationship and understanding between Africa and the Diaspora.
African countries have been implementing strategies to engage with their respective diaspora, encouraging them to leverage their skills, knowledge, and financial capital for African development.
The International Decade for People of African Descent from 2015 to 2024 presents an opportunity for African countries to recognize the African Diaspora and address any lingering historical or contemporary alienation and estrangement.
This would build trust, deepen the development discourse, and harness the human, economic, social, and political capital of the African Diaspora for the continent’s socio-economic development. To date, however, there is hardly any Pan-African Diaspora program for meaningfully and sustainably connecting the Diaspora, especially the historic Diaspora and the descendants of the contemporary Diaspora with Africa. Hence, the historic significance and contemporary relevance of HADIP, the organizers said.
The goal of the project is to increase professional connections and deepen cross-cultural understanding between African diaspora and African countries and to provide African diaspora with programmatic opportunities to contribute to the sustainable economic growth and development of African countries.
The specific objectives of the project are to Identify, recruit, and place African diaspora professionals interested in experiencing Africa and willing to contribute to the development of targeted African countries based on their development aspirations,leverage diaspora skills and expertise to support sustainable economic growth, structural transformation, and development in targeted African countries,build institutional capacity in targeted African countries, to leverage African diaspora professionals for their sustainable development goals and to develop cultural and tourism programs to effectively connect Africa and African diaspora, especially the historic diaspora and the descendants of the contemporary diaspora.
The project lead said HADIP will be implemented in a phased approach, starting with a three year pilot phase involving African countries which would have expressed interest and commitment, on the principle of “first come first served”.
The pilot will consist of two tracks, a six month to one year or a year and longer occupational and cultural immersion.
African diaspora in the United States placed in each of the host countries will be provided a return flight ticket, monthly stipend, and life and health insurance coverage. HADIP aims to have facilitated the immersion of 3000 African Diaspora professionals by the end of the pilot phase. Lessons learned from the pilot will guide the program’s expansion to additional countries in subsequent phases.
The key components of the diaspora placement programme, including the activities will include
component one of setting up of a management framework and Identifying African Diaspora professionals.
Key activities proposed include establishing Secretariats both in America and in Africa , to manage the programme.conducting a mapping exercise,organizing roadshows alongside networking events as part of resources and partners’ mobilization,engaging colleges and universities, especially Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs),organizing social media campaigns,participating in alumni and professional association meetings,establishing a database/roster of African diaspora professionals,engaging African Embassies and work collaboratively with them in identifying, interviewing, selecting, and placing Diaspora professionals in African countries and screening, interviewing, and selecting African diaspora professionals for placement.
Component two will involve matching talents to development needs with key activities proposed including identifying priority development “clusters” by each pilot country to base the diaspora talent recruitment on demand (i.e., education, health, employability, climate, digital transformation, international trade, entrepreneurship, business development, identifying Industry Association to work with,identifying priority geographic regions and worksites within a country to deploy African diaspora professionals “opportunity zones”,establishing a matching platform,deploying small “teams” of African diaspora professionals ,where feasible to focus on a Scope of Work/Project and utilizing a hybrid deployment model (“team” of virtual African diaspora professionals complementing and supporting the on-ground personnel)
Component there will focus on iInstitutional strengthening to leverage African Diaspora professionals with key activities proposed such as strengthening policies and procedures of selected key institutions in targeted countries,improving communication and collaboration among selected key institutions in targeted countries,enhancing performance management systems,investing in staff development and supporting youth and women-led enterprises .
Component four will involve fostering cultural and technological transfer immersion with key activities proposed such as providing pre-departure training in local language classes, cultural sensitivity training and orientation sessions on local customs, food, and dress,organizing homestays to experience firsthand the day-to-day life of African families, including their customs, food, and traditions,organizing language classes to help African diaspora professionals learn the local language,planning cultural tours of local sites, such as museums, historical landmarks, and cultural centers and providing opportunities for African diaspora professionals to volunteer in local communities.
The implementers said key institutional arrangements for enabling HADIP implementation include management of the Programme by a Programme Management Committee, with administrative support provided by ACBF.
The African Union Commission’s Citizens and Diaspora Directorate (CIDO) will provide policy guidance, ACBF will lead resource mobilization and coordination efforts.
The International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) is a technical partner for resource mobilization and implementation, while DelReeve Konsult serves as a technical partner for strategic partnerships and communication.
A branch office of HADIP in the United States will work with partner organizations to recruit African diaspora professionals, promote the programme, and help mobilize resources. Ministries of Foreign Affairs of African Union member countries and their embassies will serve as points of contact at the country level. The arrangements are to ensure effective management, coordination, and policy support for the programme.
The HADIP project is designed to achieve sustainability and enduring impact by fostering and maintaining strategic partnerships for facilitating placement and immersion of cohorts of African diaspora professionals in African Union member countries, promoting skill transfer and capacity building, deepening mutual understanding and cultural exchange, cultivating a sense of co-ownership, and ensuring robust monitoring and evaluation processes.
Through the strategies and commitments, HADIP will sustainably contribute to enhancing Africa-Diaspora relations, and to Africa’s socio-economic transformation, as well as to the empowerment of both African diaspora professionals and their host African countries and communities in a lasting and meaningful way.
The Historic African Diaspora Placement Programme is conceptualized and developed to establish sustainable bridges between Africa and the Diaspora.
The main thrust of the programme is the occupational and cultural immersion of African diaspora professionals in participating African Union member countries for a minimum period of six months to one year or more.
The programme is committed to responding sustainably to the longing among historic African diaspora and the descendants of the contemporary diaspora for a meaningful lived experience in Africa, and to the need to provide both the contemporary and the historic diaspora with programmatic opportunities to authentically participate in the development of Africa in accordance with the goals of the African Union Agenda 2063.
Through living and working in African countries, participating African diaspora professionals will have real-life experiences through which they can gain a deep understanding of the opportunities, challenges, and prospects of the continent, and develop an enduring sense of co-ownership of Africa, and kinship with Africans on the continent.