Africa Union @20: The Context, Current Practices and Contours of Diaspora Initiative in Africa's Development Strategy

Migration has become a key feature of Africa's global relations order. Africa is considered a mobile continent, given its past and recent history of population movement and contemporary emphasis on migration. However, as regards migration, the past readings of African population movements have often placed the continent within the prism of disadvantaged regions with an emphasis on brain drain. However, given the emerging global growth and development patterns, these past readings have been dismissed with new readings of migration and development mantras. As part of these new readings, the African Union (AU) recognised the diaspora as Africa's sixth region, making the diaspora population an important partner and potential solution to the crisis of underdevelopment. Using a qualitative research methodology which relies on secondary data drawn from books, peer-reviewed journals, European Union Global Diaspora Facility (EDiF), diaspora mapping exercise and the AU reports, this article focused on interrogating the outcomes of this seismic shift in thinking and practice which recognised the Africans in diaspora as important partners that must be engaged in Africa's development. The article found out that since the implementation of the AU Diaspora sixth zone, there has been massive initiation and strengthening of African countries' diaspora-homeland relationships through policies, programmes and established diaspora institutions designed to court, harness and leverage the potentials of their diaspora. Hence, in interrogating the AU's context, current practices and contours of diaspora engagement, the article concluded that, in the 20-year existence of the AU, the diaspora engagement policy remains one of the fundamental and innovative development ideas towards building the African continent.