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RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHLG #0522/01 2611328
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 181328Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY LILONGWE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0759
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION WASHINGTON DC
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0400

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 LILONGWE 000522 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR S/GPI AND S/P 
LONDON FOR AF WATCHER PETER LORD 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: BEXP BTIO EAID OEXC OIIP PGOV PHUM PREL MI
SUBJECT:  MALAWI:  EXPERIENCE ENGAGING DIASPORA COMMUNITIES 
 
REF:  SECSTATE 86401 
 
LILONGWE 00000522  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. Post welcomes this opportunity to provide input on the Malawian 
diaspora community.  The initiative is particularly timely given 
recent remarks by President Mutharika regarding his interest in 
tapping the Malawian diaspora community as a resource for in-country 
development activities.  We will continue to investigate 
opportunities to facilitate and encourage this GOM effort or to 
engage in our activities in reaching out to the Malawian diaspora, 
and we would welcome further guidance or assistance from the 
Department in pursuing these efforts. 
 
¶2.  Below are Post's responses to the information requested in 
reftel, paragraph 15: 
 
A) To what extent are diasporans from your host country an 
identifiable community?  Are there existing diapsora networks, 
organizations or online communities available as platforms for 
outreach? 
 
Response:  Malawians in the United States are mainly identifiable in 
the Washington DC area; South Bend, Indiana; Texas; California; 
Missouri; Atlanta, Georgia; Illinois and Oklahoma.  There is the 
Malawi Washington Association - www.malawiwashington.org - that 
works in collaboration with the Malawi Embassy on a variety of 
charity activities mostly centered around fundraising and awareness. 
 During the Malawi 2002 drought, the group was particularly active, 
holding several fundraising activities.  The majority of the 
Malawian diasporans are academics, small businessmen, medical 
professionals and laborers.  In Malawi, the diaspora has low to 
moderate visibility.  There is an online community, Nyasanet.  There 
is also the Malawi US Exchange Alumni Association (MUSEAA), an 
alumni association which also serves as a network. 
 
B) What is the nature of the connection of the diaspora community to 
the host country? 
 
Response:  There is a strong connection to host country, typically 
organized around kinship networks.  In practice this connection is 
most active through financial support from remittances.  In the 
education sector, there are some educational ties. 
 
C) To what extent has your host country or government activated its 
diaspora communities for humanitarian relief?  How would you 
characterize the level of response?  If outreach is relatively 
recent, do you foresee opportunities to maintain diaspora community 
involvement in country over the long term? 
 
Response:  During the 2002 drought/famine, there were some 
activities initiated by the Malawi Embassy through the Malawi 
Washington Group.  There has been some outreach done by the 
President Mutharika, but it has not yet been fully formalized and it 
is focused on long term development, not relief. 
 
D) To what extent is the diaspora community engaged in long-term 
investment in country?  What is your assessment of the future 
potential for long-term and sustained engagement of the diaspora 
community in such efforts? 
 
Response:  The diaspora community is somewhat engaged in this area. 
The most notable activities include setting up small businesses, or 
construction of personal or business property, including rental 
houses.  In terms of future potential, possible areas are 
institutional capacity building, micro-enterprise and 
entrepreneurship. There is also potential in fostering exchange and 
providing some intrinsic or value-added incentives, either in 
addition to or rather than just a financial return.  For example, in 
the area of education capacity building and transfer, one could 
sponsor fellowships or endowed professor positions at the national 
university for returned Malawians or one could set up scholarship 
funds (e.g. for schools or universities) that individuals could 
contribute to. Another idea to explore with potentially more 
sustainability would be that of getting 'group' vs. individual 
linkage efforts, e.g. some type of 'sister city' or "sister group" 
approach - this could be links between schools, or churches, or 
civic groups or any entities where you might have more than one 
Malawian in the U.S. interested in this etc., so that you could have 
ongoing communication and perhaps technical input - e.g. overseas 
'advisors' on boards vs. just having money be sent. 
 
E) To what extent is the diaspora community working toward 
scientific, engineering, medical and educational institution 
building?  How might diasporans with backgrounds in these fields or 
otherwise affiliated with the Academy or professional and technical 
societies, become engaged in science diplomacy programs? 
 
Response:   The diaspora community is somewhat engaged in this area. 
 Host government support for coordinated linkages between diasporans 
 
LILONGWE 00000522  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
and Malawi could lead to increased engagement.  There are a lot of 
doctors in the diaspora who can be encouraged to return or make a 
contribution of some kind.  There is a view that there is strong 
potential here given the number of Malawian academics in the US. 
 
F) To what extent is the diaspora community engaged in conflict 
resolution and peace building?  Do you see future potential to 
transplant diaspora community participation in these processes into 
other priorities governing the bilateral (and/or regional) 
relationship? 
 
Response:   Malawi has no significant internal or external 
conflicts.  The diaspora community is not at all engaged in this 
area.  With Malawi's economy and politics progressing as it now, 
there is potential to get diasporans interested in the country's 
development. 
 
G) To what extent is the diaspora community engaged in meeting the 
health, education and welfare needs of indigenous peoples? 
 
Response:  The diaspora community engagement in this area is 
limited.  Anecdotal examples indicate that most do this at a 
personal level, e.g. supporting health, education needs of their 
family members.  There is a view that University lecturers are key 
amongst those in the diaspora who can help strengthen the local 
university. 
 
H)  To what extent is the diaspora community engaged in democracy 
promotion, electoral reform and civil society development?  Are 
there key milestones in your host country or host government's 
development that would create opportunities for such engagement in 
the future? 
 
Response:  The diaspora community has limited engagement in this 
area.  There is some civil society activity in promoting democracy, 
for example through the internet news service Nyasa Times. 
 
I) How would you characterize the level of concern and attention 
given to diaspora communities by your host government?  If 
applicable, please describe the host government's organization and 
strategy dedicated to relationship-building with its diaspora 
communities (for example, host governments may have established 
promotion offices to encourage diasporans' return, bringing with the 
know-how and financial resources). 
 
Response:  President Mutharika has on numerous occasions encouraged 
Malawian diaspora to invest back home.  However, the message has not 
been very clear in terms of what incentives await potential 
investors.  There has been no real strategic plan developed.  Some 
recent efforts have been initiated to establish a database for 
diasporans.  Other than this, there are low levels of concern and 
efforts given to promote diasporans return to Malawi in the 
mainstream.  The main concern is that most professionals are leaving 
the country to live abroad.  Bringing them back needs to take into 
consideration the issues that made them leave. 
 
J) If you have undertaken programs to reach out proactively to 
diaspora community members, please share the circumstances that 
prompted the outreach effort, how outreach was conducted or 
programmed, personal impressions from the experience and benefits 
from the outreach effort. 
 
Response:  Both President Mutharika and Post have recently expressed 
interest in reaching out to Malawians overseas for the purposes of 
channeling or rekindling their interest and contributions to 
development in the country.  USAID/Malawi has begun to investigate 
potential ways to engage the Malawi diaspora, reaching out to other 
USAID missions and to USAID/W.  This yielded some information in 
July 2009 on efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, as 
well as some information from the EGAT Office regarding Diaspora 
outreach/engagement through Global Development Alliances (see 
http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_partners hips/gda) and on ICT 
(ICT-Diaspora Nexus: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADM028.pdf). 
This also yielded recent press release "New Business Initiative 
seeks Entrepreneurial Ideas from U.S. based African Migrants to Spur 
Economic Opportunity in Homeland" released on July 9, 2009.  This 
was meant to help reach out and publicize the launch of a 
USAID-Western Union African Diaspora Marketplace Competition to 
Support Diaspora-Driven Development.  Malawi was one of the 
countries of interest.  It closed on July 21, 2009.  Up to USD1.5 
million grant funding was available, to be spread among 10-20 
grantees.  Around this same time, a local newspaper reported that 
President Mutharika had engaged local consultants to help put 
together a database of diaspora.  It was not possible to get an 
update on whether there was progress on this action at the time of 
the responses to this cable. 
 
K) If you have received unsolicited requests from the diaspora 
 
LILONGWE 00000522  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
community please share the nature of the requests, the 
considerations you took into account in formulating respective 
responses and the outcomes of interaction. 
 
Response:  The mission Education team received the visit of a woman 
who has been building a private school in Mzuzu, with support from a 
private US citizen in Arizona.  She informed the team of having 
visited both the Embassy and then us.  She had been making the 
rounds among donors and her visit was both a courtesy visit and PR 
regarding these efforts.  She did inquire about the potential for 
support, but the main need was for construction.  We currently do 
not fund construction efforts of the scale that were outlined and 
current efforts are focused on public and community education/school 
efforts in the education sector. 
 
L) To what extent have you designed or participated in public 
diplomacy programs customized to diaspora community needs and 
interests?  Do you anticipate taking advantage of such opportunities 
in the future? 
 
Response:  The US Embassy Public Affairs Section spearheads and 
supports efforts of the Malawi US Exchange Alumni Association 
(MUSEAA) for mostly exchange, networking and learning purposes. It 
is a group made up of USG sponsored participants to various 
academic/professional exchanges is actively engaged in development/ 
social awareness programs in the country. 
 
M) In planning future programs and anticipating requests for 
assistance from diaspora community actors, what types of knowledge 
management tools and information materials would be most helpful to 
action officers at post?  If the Department [of State] were to 
develop a reach-back program to academics in the field of diaspora 
community engagement, what are your preferences for accessing such a 
mechanism? 
 
Response:  While the idea of a database is an interesting one and a 
key starting point to know who makes up the diaspora, how this 
information is collected and shared needs to be carefully 
considered.   There should be a menu of types of activities that 
diaspora are engaged in with resources of examples of similar 
efforts easily accessible and linked to clear development or other 
goals/intervention areas.  Another suggestion is that when issuing 
Solicitation for TA and consultancies, if the diaspora are a 
registered entity/organization, they could possibly bid and be 
provided with exemptions just like minority or small businesses. 
 
BODDE