Diaspora’s Touch on GERD Established in March 2019, the Ethiopian Diaspora Agency mainly aims at facilitating and coordinating the participation of Ethiopian diaspora in the country’s overall social, economic, cultural and political activities. To that effect, the agencyfocuses on four major areas: Diaspora Community Development, Diaspora Engagement, Diaspora Information, Research and Communication as well as Rights and Legal Protection of the Diaspora. Under the Diaspora Community Development Directoratecommunity-based interventions of the diaspora to ensure Ethiopia’s development considering the state of the country in which the diaspora resides is dealt. The Diaspora EngagementDirectorateon its part facilitates the participation of the diasporain trade, investment and tourism sectors by providing a single window service. It also promotes knowledge and technology transfer of the diaspora; remittance flow, banking sector investment and other diaspora engagement activities. As the agency has the responsibility of collecting, analyzing and distributing information regarding the diaspora community and its current situation,Information, Research and Communication Affairs Directoratesstrive to achieve those goals. In addition to providing diaspora information, providing policy guidance for the government and other concerned stakeholders is a priority task that the agency gives special attention to. Considering Ethiopians living abroad have the rights to access services from the government, the issue of protecting rights and benefits of the diaspora is one of the main reasons why the agency
32
Abyssinia Business Nework // ABN
“
More significantly, different Ethiopian scholars have been making appearances on various global media networks operating mainly in Arabic, French and English languages, revealing the truth on GERD.
”
ልዩ እትም 2012 Special Edition of GERD 2020
