In addition to a rich mix of useful and relevant topics explored in
highly interactive and participatory ways that draw on participants' own
views and experience, we will have guest speakers from the donor community,
DFID, African organisations, and other sectors.

Fees for the eight-week course are £59 (£30 concessions, concessions are
available for representatives of unfunded African community groups).

For further information or to enrol, please contact Marilynn Figueira,
Faculty of Continuing Education, Birkbeck 26 Russell Square Bloomsbury,
London WC1B 5DQ, telephone 020 7631 6653, email [email protected] [2] .

These eight workshops aim to bring together activists in African
community groups, refugee networks and interested individuals to examine and
debate the contribution of Africans abroad to development in Africa.

The workshops provide an opportunity for more detailed discussion and
debate of issues already raised by the African Foundation for Development
and other groups aiming to bridge the gap between diaspora, refugee and
community groups and mainstream development discourse.
African diaspora organisations addressing development issues need some
space and resources to think through their role and the way they might want
to influence development policy and practice in ways that maximise their
potential and advance their interests. Such groups could have far more
influence and impact on the issues about which they care passionately,
without necessarily becoming formal, professional development NGOs in the
process, thereby losing some of the strengths inherent in their current
structures and approaches.

Workshop content

The sessions will take the form of eight workshops over consecutive
Monday evenings. Each session will consist of a presentation followed by
debate and discussion. Participants will have the option of completing an
assessed piece of work to acquire credits that will contribute to
certificates or diplomas. The emphasis is on participation, highlighting the
practical achievements of existing initiatives by London-based African
groups.

The sessions will be structured around the following themes:

Week one: Diaspora & development

a.. Introductions
b.. Course overview and rationale
c.. "Old" and "new" African diasporas
d.. Contemporary forms of African diaspora organisation in the UK
e.. Global forces, local effects: US-led war against terrorism,
Al-Barakaat, remittances, and Somalia’s development
Week two: Follow the money

a.. The aid industry: Where does the money come from, where does it
go?
b.. What role do remittances from African diaspora play in African
countries?
c.. Should the African diaspora play the "aid game"? If so, how?
d.. Speaker: Titise Make, Africa Grants Manager, Comic Relief
Week three: Problems and potentials of organising in the UK

a.. Development "here" and development "there": how to fund the
diaspora’s double vision?
b.. London: local space, global meeting point: what are the
implications?

a.. Where do small community and development groups add value from a
donor’s perspective?

b.. How do donors resolve concerns about the capacity of small groups
to deliver?

c.. How can trust between donors and small African community groups be
increased?

d.. How can small community groups relate to and influence donors, and
to what ends?

a.. Speaker tbc
Week four: Advocacy for change: By who for who?

a.. What is advocacy and what is its role in international
development?

b.. What are some of the key issues?

c.. How can UK-based African diaspora organisations interested in
supporting Africa’s development have more impact in bringing about lasting
change to the lives of Africans?

d.. Who should diaspora organisations target and how?

a.. What are the implications of diaspora organisations taking on more
of an advocacy role?
b.. Speaker tbc
Week five: Sustaining small groups: What has and has not worked?

a.. What challenges do small groups face in sustaining their efforts?
b.. Which groups have successfully sustained themselves over time,
which have failed and why?
c.. Case study presentations
Week six: Media representations of Africa/development: Whose myths,
whose realities?

a.. Negative stereotypes, tired clichés: Do they still exist? Who is
guilty?
b.. What are the assumptions and values that underpin media
representations?
c.. Do alternative stories and beliefs exist? Who should tell them,
how and on whose behalf?
d.. Speaker: Sara Wajid, chillfish
Week seven: Department for International Development (DFID) – diaspora
relations: what is the state of play?

a.. What does DFID do?
b.. DFID consultations on relations with black and minority ethnic
communities in Britain: the results and action plans
c.. Do DFID-diaspora relations matter? Why?
d.. Speaker tbc
Week eight: Breaking in and working it out: Employment and diversity in
the UK international development sector

a.. What do we know about employment patterns within the international
development sector?
b.. Can the African diaspora advance Africa’s development by working
in the development sector?
c.. What are the obstacles to breaking in? How than they be overcome?
d.. Practical tips
e.. Roundtable speakers tbc
Objectives

By the end of the series of workshops we expect participants to have a
greater awareness of their potential to improve the conditions under which
they and their counterparts in Africa shape their own destiny; to have some
ideas about next steps to take the issues forwards (both internally within
their respective organisations and externally in collaboration with others);
and to have the makings of a network of similar, like-minded organisations
to pursue issues further.

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AFFORD (African Foundation for Development)
54 Camberwell Road, London SE5 0EN, UK

Tel: +44 (0)20-7703 0653
+44 (0)7710-329 389
Fax: +44 (0)20-7701 2552
Email: [email protected] [3]

WWW: http://www.afford-uk.org [4]

"Expanding and enhancing the contribution that Africans in the diaspora
make to Africa's development"