Understanding the Importance of Remittances

Workers’ remittances have become a major source of external development finance, providing a convenient angle from which to approach the complex migration agenda. The development community needs to consider how to best manage remittance flows and how the body of research on remittances can be strengthened, both for the purpose of understanding the impact of remittances and for forming a more effective policy for managing remittances. This article looks at these questions and explores ways to improve the knowledge and impact of remittances in development.