The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) today announced the launch of RemitSCOPE, a free and interactive web platform providing essential data on global remittances, the hard-earned money sent home by migrant workers from developing countries.

As migration continues to increase worldwide due to the record number of active conflicts, economic instability, and climate change, RemitSCOPE.org seeks to improve access to digital remittances, reduce transfer costs and facilitate access to related financial products, aiming to improve the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable rural communities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

In developing countries, the money sent home by relatives often serves as an economic lifeline for millions of families. RemitSCOPE.org focuses on these countries from the Global South, where access to finance remains a challenge, especially in rural areas where hunger and poverty remain deeply entrenched.

“Remittances not only help make ends meet, but they also cover essentials like education and healthcare while enabling investments in small businesses,” said Pedro de Vasconcelos, Manager of IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances. “This creates resilience to economic shocks and drives long-term economic growth,” he added.

The Remittances and Development Program (PRYD) carried out by the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA), together with the International Fund for Agricultural Development of the United Nations (IFAD) hosted the Annual Meeting of The Remittances Program and Development and Presentation of The Remitscope LAC Platform at CEMLA´s headquarters in Mexico City, on November 29, 2024, from 9:00 to 13:15 hrs, Mexico City time.

The first step for the effective analysis of policies that could improve the productive use of remittances and support the development of recipient households and LAC countries is to have information, organized, structured, and easily accessible, that allows evaluating the aspects key to remittance, migration and their relationship with development, which will allow identifying possible measures that can support decision-making in these cases. To achieve this, RemitScope LAC, which includes all the information available on different aspects of remittances, migration, and their relationship with financial inclusion and development has been developed.

To create the platform, information was consolidated through online data, consultations, surveys, and interviews in each country, as well as with the participation of some Central Banks that complemented the official information on these topics.

The event aimed at officials from central banks, bank superintendencies, financial sector supervisory entities, statistical institutes, officials from the remittance industry, and others involved in the issue of migration, remittances, and development.

The event was in person and virtual format, in Spanish with simultaneous translation into English.

On behalf of CEMLA, the event is coordinated by René Maldonado, +52 55 5061 6663, rmaldonado@cemla.org; supported in logistics by Rocío Ramírez Peña, +52 55 5061 6663 mramirez@cemla.org.

IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances under the PRIME Africa programme, co-financed by the European Union, facilitated a peer learning exchange for African Central Banks, focusing on the Bank of Uganda (BoU). As part of this initiative, BoU visited the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to learn from their remittance data collection systems. This event, jointly organized by the FFR and the CBK, provided an opportunity for BoU to gain practical insights and strengthen its data collection processes. Key stakeholders, including the Kenya Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and Financial Sector Deepening Kenya (FSD Kenya), contributed to the knowledge-sharing effort to improve data-driven policy and private-sector strategies at the event.

The workshop, hosted by CBK, aimed to share best practices and support the enhancement of data collection to inform policy better and support private-sector business strategies.

During the three days, all participants had the opportunity to discuss critical areas such as Monthly data collection practices adopted by the central banks.

In addition, various surveys to capture qualitative insights, such as the following, were discussed:

  • Diaspora Remittances Survey (CBK)
  • Remittance Household Survey (CBK)
  • Annual Personal Transfer Survey (BoU)

The participants also discussed opportunities to engaget with Remittance Service Providers, including Cooperative Bank and Upesi.

The CBK Deputy Governor, Dr Susan Koech, stressed the importance of remittances to the East African economies. Lydia Ndirangu, Deputy Director of the Statistics & Knowledge Management Research Department at the Central Bank of Kenya, recognised the workshop’s importance: “I am thankful to IFAD for supporting this peer-learning, which is very timely due to our ongoing data collection activities for the Remittance Household Survey.”

Milly Nalukwago Isingoma, Director of the Statistics Department at the Bank of Uganda, emphasised the exchange’s outcome: “ We are grateful to CBK and IFAD for this enriching workshop. We go home inspired by Kenyan practice and with good ideas on how to improve our current monthly data collection.”

The CBK and BOU teams acknowledged the opportunities that current practices can provide for additional data points for policymakers and market players. At the same time, both teams realised that only a more granular data collection and approach could provide a deeper understanding and better analysis of the remittance market.