From ReConnectAfrica:

http://www.reconnectafrica.com/Africandiaspora-AfricanDiasporaandDevelopment.jsp 

TMG 2006: African Diaspora Conference on Sustainable Development

“A conference organized by Africans, for Africans, in order to truly and pragmatically address problems on the African continent.”  Professor Hyacinth Nwana, Professor Joseph Tah, Dr Rosemary Burnley, Dr Jey Ngole and Dr Asa’ah Nkohkwo of TMG Foundation report on TMG 2006.

The TMG-2006 African Diaspora Conference on Sustainable Development, which took place in Westminster, London, on 22nd July 2006, was organized by a group of African Diaspora under the auspices of TMG Foundation – a registered charity.

Sustainable Development is defined in the now-classic Brundtland Commission Report as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland, 1987). If there is one continent in need of it, it must be Africa. However in Africa, what passes for sustainable development is largely still dominated by the Western-driven, donor-led model. So was born the TMG conference.

“Africa’s Diaspora is Key to Addressing Africa’s Problems”

TMG 2006 was unique in three key ways. Firstly, it was the first of – we hope – a set of conferences organized by Africans, for Africans, in order to truly and pragmatically address problems on the African continent. It was an action-oriented conference – and not one that majored on exposes of Africa ills.

Secondly, it was a conference series organized by African Diasporans – a clear hypothesis we hold firmly is that Diasporans will be key to addressing African problems. This is not only because there are enough Africans in Europe alone to fill a mid-sized African country, but also because for most black African countries, there are more Diaspora professionals per key sector than those back in Africa.

So for example, two-thirds of doctors trained in Ghana are working abroad; similarly, there are 5000 Cameroonian Diaspora doctors and only 3000 in Cameroon. Similar statistics apply to other key professions. Thirdly, the philosophical view we – the organizers - take to sustainable development is different to the classic donor-led model. We advocate “grassroots-based”, “micro projects-driven”, “stakeholder community-involving” and “Diaspora-supporting” initiatives, and we argue they bode much better for African sustainability than “Western-driven” and “donor-led” models.

“Two-thirds of doctors trained in Ghana are working abroad; similarly, there are 5000 Cameroonian Diaspora doctors and only 3000 in Cameroon.”

However, we do not pooh-pooh the donor-led model – indeed, we believe they are complementary – one is top-down, big budget in nature and fewer projects – the other bottom-up, small budgets in nature and many projects. Furthermore, we urge the Western donor organizations to facilitate and support the take up of such more sustainable models.

Agenda and Participants

The conference agenda programme and abstracts of papers can be seen on these pages. The conference attracted over 150 participants from about ten nationalities: UK, Nigeria, Gambia, Malawi, Jamaica, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ivory Coast, South Africa and Cameroon. The programme allowed for five presentations in the morning including two keynotes. Post a sumptuous lunch were very interactive workshops and a plenary panel session.

Of particular interest were presentations that covered real examples of Diaspora-supporting, grassroots community-based, sustainable development work back in Africa, and the keynote on real-world sustainable financing, which generated dozens of questions. The reader is urged, to obtain for a small fee, a copy of the comprehensive proceedings by requesting at   This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Feedback and Outcomes

The feedback from the 50 questionnaires received astonished us: the conference scored 4.2 over a maximum 5 across a range of 8 questions per questionnaire. Comments urged the Department of International Development (DFID) to consider such grassroots-based models, as well as urged the organisers to make this conference “sustainable” itself – and also take it back to Africa!

There have been three key outcomes. Firstly, the acclaimed 200 page proceedings, Nwana & Tah (2006). Secondly, a conference report has been produced  which covers the issues raised from the presentations and three workshops: Developing Sustainable Communities; Financing Sustainable Development and Sustainable Infrastructure. Thirdly, TMG – as a Diaspora group – recognises the challenge presented to us by the delegates, and we look forward to working in partnership with other Diaspora groups to share experiences on grassroots-based sustainable development.

Sustainable Projects

Either way, we urged the participants of this conference to come back to the next conference to report progress on more sustainable projects which they have set up and got going, inspired by the learning, networking, case studies, knowledge sharing, etc. from TMG-2006 conference. If need be, TMG Foundation will advise on projects.

We will measure progress of this TMG conference – not by a publication like Nwana & Tah (2006) – but via reported sustainable projects which we can unambiguously attribute to this initiative.

TMG Foundation can be contacted through its chair, Dr. Rosemary Burnley via This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

References
Brundtland, G-H. (1987), “Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development”, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nwana, H. S. & Tah, J. H. M. [Editors] (2006), Proceedings of the African Diaspora Conference on Sustainable Development – TMG 2006”, London: TMG Foundation. Request from This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it