Leveraging Remittances to Promote Sustainable Development in Areas of High Migration

Abstract

Hometown Associations (HTAs) are migrant organizations in host communities, with members from the same community of origin, which send collective remittances back to their hometown with the intention of benefitting the public. Although they are not without deficiencies, HTAs have gained much attention in the development field and there is an increasingly accepted belief that if they work with institutional partners, HTAs will mature and be viable contributors to development. This qualitative study considered HTA formation and institutional partnership arrangements (particularly NGOs) in Nicaragua, a country where HTAs are not as prevalent as some migrant source regions. The findings from the study suggest there is a role for NGOs to help leverage remittances to support community development in migrant source communities in Nicaragua. The results highlight the importance for institutional partners to complete assessments and involve beneficiaries in development projects to make sure partnership arrangements are effective. If partnerships are done right, they may very well address the deficiencies that HTAs exhibit; if not, the empirical evidence may end up showing that institutional partnerships did not help HTAs evolve to become a lasting development institution.