Cape Verde will map its diaspora by 2026 to produce official statistics

Cape Verde's National Institute of Statistics (INE) will carry out mapping of the country's diaspora by 2026 to produce official statistics, in accordance with a government resolution that comes into force today.

In the document that the Lusa agency had access to, the Cape Verdean government explained that one of the objectives set out in the Strategic Plan for Sustainable Development (PEDS II) is to implement and consolidate six programs, one of which is linked to the diaspora.

“One of the goals foreseen with the implementation of the program “Cape Verdean Diaspora - A Centrality” establishes that by 2026 the country must map, census, study and know the profile of Cape Verdean communities abroad, in all host countries, with the aim of producing official statistics and promoting their integration into the National Statistical System”, he reinforced.

The coordination and mapping of the Cape Verdean diaspora will be carried out by the National Institute of Statistics, as the central executive body for the production and dissemination of official statistics within the scope of the National Statistical System (SEM).

According to the Government, the main objective of the operation is “to collect data for the production of official statistics, within the scope of the SEN, in order to make it possible to know the socio-demographic and economic profile and the geographical distribution of the Cape Verdean diaspora in all host countries. , with a view to its integration into the process of sustainable development in Cape Verde”.

Mapping will be carried out in all countries that host the Cape Verdean diaspora with a view to updating and facilitating an adequate functional adjustment to the operation of producing official statistics, continues in the same resolution, which provides for the operation to be carried out by the end of 2026 .

The operation will be carried out through the development of diplomacy and technical cooperation in the fields of statistics with the countries that host Cape Verdeans, through the use of existing administrative sources, both in the country and in the general embassies and consulates of Cape Verde around the world.

It will also be done through a direct collection process on a Web Platform specifically built for this purpose and through other means considered technically useful and relevant for the implementation of the data collection process.

In order to map its diaspora, the Government of Cape Verde hopes to mobilize funding from development partners, which will be made available to INE.

“Individual statistical data collected within the scope of mapping the Cape Verdean Diaspora are transferred to digital support and stored by INE, under conditions of absolute security, and can only be used for statistical and historical purposes, safeguarding the provisions of the law”, reads in the government resolution.

In the process, it is mentioned that the INE, for methodological reasons, can establish the number of countries designated for mapping, in order to verify, regularize, promote and facilitate the access of the 25 representative countries of the universe of reception of the diaspora, in Africa, America, Europe and Rest of the World.

The resolution also defines “Cape Verdean Diaspora” as Cape Verdean communities and their descendants who live outside the national territory and who are dispersed throughout various regions and countries of the world, who preserve, through their cultural and identity expressions, the affection, language, customs and the permanent idea of connection and return to Cape Verde.

In May last year, the Minister for Communities, Jorge Santos, estimated that 1.5 million Cape Verdeans and their descendants live outside the country, much more than the approximately 500,000 residents, but he underlined the need to know the diaspora better. , as a “constitutive part of the nation”.

“We need to know where we are, how many there are, what we do and what are the skills and knowledge in our communities”, said the minister in a debate in parliament.

According to data from the most recent statistical report by the Banco de Cabo Verde (BCV), Cape Verdean emigrants sent a record 272 million euros of remittances to the archipelago in 2022, an increase of almost 15% compared to 2021.

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