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In 2020, remittances to Guatemala trended upwards, representing some 15 percent of the country’s GDP despite the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. The average volume of remittances entering the country has grown at 11 percent annually since 2010. Although both the public and private sectors have increasingly expressed interest in incorporating remittances into national and local development strategies, these efforts often do not materialize. A lack of good data on remittances, budgetary constraints, and conflicting interests remain important challenges.

This fourth event in the series of Housing Laboratories on “Migration and Cities: Guatemala” will focus on international initiatives that promote the productive use of remittances and the feasibility of adapting these efforts to the Guatemalan experience. Three key questions will guide the discussion:

• How can complete, disaggregated, and accurate data on remittances be transparently compiled by an institution such as the Bank of Guatemala as an input in designing public policies and public-private partnerships, specifically those regarding housing and development?
• What lessons can local and national Guatemalan actors, who seek to integrate remittances into development strategies, learn from international experiences?
• How can platforms for inter-sectoral discussions serve as structured spaces for generating ideas that achieve concrete actions?

Follow this event on Twitter at #LAVGuatemala, @FundaciónAVINA, and @The_Dialogue. 

We invite participants to submit questions using the chat function on the Facebook Livestream.

This event will be held in Spanish without interpretation.

Click here to connect to the Facebook livestream.

SPEAKERS:

CLAUDIA ACUÑA

National Self-Production Coordinator, INFONAVIT Mexico

JOHNY GRAMAJO

Economic Manager, Central Bank of Guatemala

CYNTHIA LORIA

Program Director, Fundación Avina (@CynthiaLoria)

KATHRYN KLAAS

Program Manager, Migration, Remittances, and Development, Inter-American Dialogue (@kathrynklaas)

COMMENTATOR:

SONIA PELLECER 

Coordinator of Annual Survey on Remittances, International Organization for Migration – Guatemala (IOM)

MODERATORS:

JEAN-ROCH LEBEAU

Associate Urban Researcher, Propuesta Urbana (@lebeaujr24)

ANACLÁUDIA ROSSBACH

Regional Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, Cities Alliance (@AnacludiaRossb1)

In addition to this panel of speakers, the event will host a group of experts representing diaspora groups, remittance companies, local and national government, civil society, and academia to offer further insight.

This list of experts, along with the event’s concept note, can be read here.

EVENT PARTNERS

This event is co-hosted with Propuesta Urbana, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (COSUDE), Fundación Avina, Cities Alliance, and Consejo Nacional para la Vivienda (CONAVI).