Govt shuts down diaspora funds, to open 18 missions in Africa

The India Development Foundation of Overseas Indians (IDF-OI) will close its doors while 18 new missions will be opened across Africa. Both decisions were approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.

The second decision is aimed at increasing India’s footprint on the resource-rich continent where China has been trying to increase its presence. The new mission will be set up over four years, starting this year, the government said.

The new missions will be opened in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Swaziland and Togo. Currently, India has 29 resident missions in Africa.

The IDF-OI fund was being shut down to “enhance synergies” and channelise the diaspora’s contribution to flagship schemes such as the National Mission for Clean Ganga and Swachh Bharat Mission.

Earlier, Indians living overseas could not only donate to these two programmes, but also to several projects in many states. The fund was set up by the Union government, under the Ministry of External Affairs, in 2008. Its objective was to facilitate philanthropy.

A 2015 review found it had received only ~3.68 million between December 2008 and March 2015. It was recast with a new mandate.

Apart from the two flagship schemes, overseas Indians could also donate for projects in areas like women’s empowerment, sustainable livelihood, education, sanitation and health care.

The government said between April 2015 and March 2018, the trust got ~101.6 million. Most of the contribution was either for the clean Ganga mission or clean India mission.

The government statement did not clarify the fate of funds meant for projects in the states, or the amount of donations states had received. The fund had mandated that contributors will receive quarterly progress reports from project implementation agencies regarding their impact.

The trust was chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.