The World-Bank-organized “Global Forum on Remittances” has started in Bangkok and will continue until May 23. Participants will talk about topics like “Remittances and Development”, “Remittance Markets and Innovations” and “From Financial literacy to Investment Models”. For those unable to attend (like me), there is the possibility to follow the conference online – here are the links:
Main Feed: http://webcasting.ifad.org/gfr2013
Parallel Session II (May 21st, afternoon): http://webcasting.ifad.org/gfr2013_side
Besides the World Bank’s Payment Systems Development Group, the conference is organized by the International fund for agricultural Development (IfaD) an “international financial institution and a United nations specialized agency dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in the rural areas of developing countries”.
Browsing through the program, I got the impression that the conference is based on a rather narrow understanding of migration and development. Also there is a “remittance marketplace”, where companies like Verofine or MasterCard can offer their services – thus making it look just like the event the radical critics (somewhat inaccurately) portray the GFMD to be…. But this may be an unfair assessment, so I would like to hear from people who have attended the conference – if I do, I will provide an update…
. .
The GFMD, Migration, Development and Human Rights 