Malawi III

Description
The magnitude of the diaspora's potential contribution to the national socio-economic development of Malawi tuned the Government of Malawi into the value of systematic engagement with diaspora groups. This realisation promoted the creation of structured mechanisms to manage relationships with Malawians abroad, and tap into the skills and resources of migrants.

For these purposes, the Government set up a Diaspora Affairs Unit (DAU) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2012, and addressed a request to MIEUX to provide the unit with capacity building on diaspora engagement issues as well as support in the development of its Diaspora Engagement Policy as a pillar to guide future action in this area.

The Malawian Government showed strong political will to push the process forward, which enabled a strong interagency approach and the active engagement of all actors. The final policy was adopted in February 2019, although some elements of it were already being implemented by Malawian diplomatic missions abroad.