Pardee-CFLP-Remittances-TF-Report

The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University serves asa catalyst for studying the improvement of the human condition through an increased understandingof complex trends, including uncertainty, in global interactions of politics, economics, technologicalinnovation, and human ecology. The Pardee Center’s perspectives include the social sciences, naturalscience, and the humanities’ vision of the natural world. The Center’s focus is defined by its longerrangevision. Our work seeks to identify, anticipate, and enhance the long-term potential for humanprogress—with recognition of its complexity and uncertainties.Occasionally, the Pardee Center convenes groups of experts on specific policy questions to identify viablepolicy options for the longer-range future. The Pardee Center Task Force Reports present the findingsof these deliberations as a contribution of expert knowledge to discussions about important issuesfor which decisions made today will influence longer-range human development.Remittance Flows to Post-Conflict States:Perspectives on Human Security and DevelopmentMigrant remittances play an increasingly central role in post-conflict reconstruction and national developmentof conflict-affected states. Violent conflicts and prolonged ethnic and religious hostilities leadto population displacement; the livelihoods of those left behind vitally depend on remittance transfers.Private remittances are of central importance for restoring stability and enhancing human security inpost-conflict countries. Yet the dynamics of conflict-induced remittance flows and the possibilities ofleveraging remittances for post-conflict development have been very sparsely researched to date.This Pardee Center Task Force Report on Remittance Flows to Post-Conflict States is the outcome of aninterdisciplinary research project organized by the Boston University Center for Finance, Law & Policy,in collaboration with The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. Convenedby Boston University development economist John R. Harris and international banking expertDonald F. Terry, the Task Force was asked to research, analyze, and propose policy recommendationsregarding the role of remittances in post-conflict environments and their potential to serve as a majorsource of development funds. The Report’s authors collectively suggest a broader approach to remittanceinstitutions that provides flexibility to adapt to specific local practices and to make broader institutionalconnections in an era of growing population displacement and expanding human and capitalflows. Conditions for more productive use of migrants’ remittances are analyzed while drawing uponcase studies from post-conflict countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.The papers in this Task Force Report establish the importance of remittances for sustaining local livelihoodsas well as rehabilitating institutional infrastructures and improving financial inclusion in postconflictenvironments. Highlighting the increasing complexity of global remittance systems, the Reportexamines the growing informality of conflict-induced remittance flows and explores solutions for moreefficient linkages between financial institutions of different scales and degrees of formality. It discusseschallenges to regulating international remittance transfers in the context of growing concerns abouttransparency, and documents the increasing role of diaspora networks and migrant associations inpost-conflict co-development initiatives. The Task Force Report authors outline the main challenges toleveraging remittances for post-conflict development and make recommendations for further researchand policy applications.Pardee House67 Bay State RoadBoston, Massachusetts 02215www.bu.edu/pardeeISBN 978-1-936727-10-0