Panel Discussion
Thursday 16th June 2016, 9.30am to 11.30am, The BOX, 5th Floor, Tower 3, LSE
Speakers: Mohit Davar (tbc), Laura Hammond (tbc), Tauhid Pasha, Dilip Ratha and Carlos Vargas-Silva
About 250 million migrant workers live outside of their home countries. A significant majority of them send money home, impacting on average 4.5 people each in their countries of origin. Adding together all the millions of transactions involved, the World Bank estimates that these remittances surpassed US$450 billion to developing countries in 2015 and reached over a billion people.
Remittances increase the household income and living standards of those receiving them, providing additional funds for health, education, housing and investment. They now play a key role in the development agenda with the international community seeking to reduce costs (for example through the Sustainable Development Goal framework via target 10.c) and maximize the impact they can have on the individuals, communities and countries that receive them.
In recognition of this, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) proclaimed 16 June as the International Day of Family Remittances. To mark the day, this event will bring together speakers to discuss the potential of multi-stakeholder approaches – across sectors such as migration, banking, money transfer and development – in facilitating reliable and low-cost remittances, ensuring policy coherence and maximizing the outcomes of remittances.
Mohit Davar is Chairman, International Association of Money Transfer Networks, IAMTN (tbc)
Laura Hammond is Reader and Head of Development Studies Department, SOAS (tbc)
Tauhid Pasha is Senior Specialist, Labour Migration and Migration and Development, IOM
Dilip Ratha is Manager, Migration and Remittances Unit and Head, KNOMAD, Global Indicators Group, World Bank
Carlos Vargas-Silva is Associate Professor and Senior Researcher, Centre for Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford
Registration
To attend, please register via Eventbrite.