The Political Economy of Diaspora Remittance and Development in Africa: An Empirical and Contextual Analysis, 2000-2010

Africa is beset by inadequate development finance requisite for meeting the development goals of its population. Beyond this financial insufficiency, misappropriation, mismanagement, and public corruption among other governance malfeasance continue to accentuate the financial deficits characterizing Africa's economic development. Against the is backdrop, diaspora remittances to Africa are increasingly contributing to stability of households. Unluckily l y, the incessant conflicts defining Africa's political landscape, as well as inchoate economies Characterizing the economic course for Africa, arc a threat to the growth of forma l channels. This has given rise to informal remittance channels in Africa. Importantly, informal chanels serve to fill the gap left by weak, or even absent forma l banking systems in conflict-ridden countries. Informal remittance flows, therefore, are increasingly supplementing post-conflict reconstruct ion and humanitarian response to conflict countries. Additionally, intraregional migration in Africa is translating into an increase i n cross-border remittance flows. These issues, thus, provide the point of departure for this study. Specifically, this study looks at South-South remittances, informal remittance transfer services, and the dialectical inter-linkages between remittances, and post-conflict reconstruction and humanitarian response. Accordingly, this study engaged secondary literature which has been analyzed using interpretivist models of qualitative analysis. This study, eventually, established that cash interventions to conflict and post-conflict African countries enhance resilience of households. In addition, South-South remittances are having a remarkable impact in ameli orating the living standards of recipient households. Last l y, this study has established that informal remittance transfers are becoming a competition to officialdom channels.