Nowadays, talent is the most precious of resources and it moves globally. Mobilization of diasporas of highly skilled for the benefits of country of origin has shown tremendous potential, yet putting it into practice has proven elusive: almost all countries have programs to leverage their Diaspora of highly skilled professionals, yet disappointedly few have resulted in significant impact. The talk will introduce a notion of diaspora 'over-achiever', dwell on why they proved be so important in World Bank's project work, and shed lights on the 'how to' of effective diaspora programs.
Dr. Yevgeny Kuznetsov is a Senior Economist at the World Bank, and Senior Research Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, DC. Fluent in English, Russian and Spanish, he has been working on innovation, growth and talent mobility for 17 years in the World Bank, which he joined in 1995 from Brookings Institution. He has been involved in innovation projects in more than 40 countries, and authored more than 30 publications on innovation and knowledge-based growth. He served as the architect, editor and a key author of OECD-World Bank (2014) book Making Innovation Policy Work - Learning from Experimentation. In recent years, he has been focusing on highly skilled diasporas as change agents to promote institutional development in home countries. His recent book (2013) How Can Talent Abroad Induce Development at Home? Towards a Pragmatic Diaspora Agenda brings together innovation and international migration perspectives on development.