Formative Evaluation of the Diaspora BRIDGE Initiative in Nigeria: An Exploration of SWOT Analysis for Implementation Strategies

In view of the debilitating effects and growing concerns about the brain drain syndrome in Nigeria, the need to leverage the wealth of experience and resources from the Nigerian Diaspora for educational development, in particular, and national development in general, has become more imperative now than ever. It is this need that obviously informed the Nigerian government’s initiative on Bridging Research, Innovation, Development and Global Engagement (BRIDGE). This paper conducts a formative evaluation of the BRIDGE initiative, whilst using the framework of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis to identify the initiative’s latent challenges and evident prospects. The paper makes several informed observations: first, that the intrinsic strengths and opportunities of the initiative can largely be guided and catalyzed with the tenets of citizen diplomacy; secondly, that the use of digital diplomacy is also a plausible strategy for the implementation and sustenance of the initiative; thirdly, that all agencies directly or ultimately linked with the administration of the initiative should necessarily eschew the excessive traditional Nigerian red-tapism, as any undue bureaucracy would be inimical to the doctrines of efficiency and transparency that are imperative in the development cum implementation process of BRIDGE. Keywords: Formative, Evaluation, BRIDGE Initiative, SWOT Analysis, Implementation, Strategies