Blog Post #5 - LF

My research project is about diaspora engagement in Zambia with a strong focus on how this type of engagement can be of benefit to the health sector. I have run into several challenges with this topic because it is not an area that has been largely researched before. In fact, Zambia does not yet even have a formalized diaspora policy that is published yet. Because of this, I have not received much support from my organization and it has been hard to find the right people to interview.

            The organization I am working with, the Zambian Governance Foundation (ZGF), has never done any diaspora engagement research before. This is a new project they are starting in order to learn more about where the diaspora is living and their interests in participating in diaspora engagement projects. In order to find out this information, ZGF has asked my research partner and I to create a survey and disseminate it to members of the diaspora. While ZGF supported us in creating this survey, we were not assisted in the dissemination. We are struggling to now get an adequate amount of results in order to actually be able to analyze the survey. We are worried we will not get enough results in the little time left of the program.

            Additionally, it is challenging to find current or previous diaspora engagement projects in the health sector because all of these types of projects are informal. Nobody has “diaspora engagement project coordinator” or anything to that nature listed in their job description. Most health sector projects involve foreign aid, but not necessarily aid from Zambians abroad. However, the good news is that we are still able to gather information because most people we talk to have personal experience with the diaspora whether that be friends who have lived abroad and now work in Zambia or they have lived abroad themselves.

            Another area of frustration has been the status of the Zambian diaspora policy. This past Friday I had an interview with the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During this interview, he told me that the Zambian diaspora policy has been written and passed through the Cabinet, and now it is currently in the process of being published. While this was exciting to hear, it was also frustrating for my research because my project would have been much different had this policy had already been publically released. For example, many of the recommendations in my paper have to do with forming a diaspora policy and the things it should include. If the policy was already published, these would not have been my recommendations.

            Even though there have been many struggles with our research topic, we have met many interesting people and have found sufficient information for our paper on diaspora engagement in the health sector. The people we interview usually are not experts in diaspora engagement, but many have heard of informal projects happening in the health sector. Additionally, many of these people also have friends who are in the diaspora or were in the diaspora themselves which allows them to share their experiences from either a first or second hand perspective. Overall, even though our research topic is challenging and could have been very different had we been doing the research a few months later, I have still learned how to effectively conduct interviews and write a research paper.