The African Union (AU) on Monday urged African countries and pan-African institutions to exert concerted efforts to ensure effective migration governance across the continent.
The urgent call was made by Cisse Mariama, Director of the AU Social Affairs Department, as she emphasised the need to invest in evidence-based continental migration trends and updates through improvement and investment in the collection, analysis and dissemination of accurate information and research on migration issues in Africa.
“On our part, we will ensure that the proposed Migration Research Centre in Mali, the Migration Observatory in Morocco, and the Continental Operational Centre in Sudan are operational as soon as possible and work closely with existing continental and regional statistics centres in strengthening migration statistics in Africa,” Mariama said.
The AU director also called on “all partners to spare no efforts to bring every stakeholder on board at national, regional and continental levels to ensure that there is synergy in their work”.
Building synergy among AU member countries and other stakeholders in the migration sector “will go a long way in providing evidence-based policymaking and also shaping informed public discourse and narratives on African migration as noted in the Global Compact for Migration,” Mariama said.
Amid the urgent call to craft workable synergy in the migration sector, the AU also over the weekend launched the 5th Pan-African Forum on Migration under the theme, ‘Strengthening Migration Data and Research for Evidence-based Policy Development and Implementation: Towards Effective Migration Governance in Africa.’
The three-day continental forum, which runs through Monday, is held in partnership with the International Organisation for Migration and the United Nations (UN) Economic Commission for Africa.
According to Mariama, the high-level forum, which brought together African ministers and experts, is a timely gathering to enhance collaboration among African countries for sustainable migration governance across the continent.
“Since its inception, the forum has grown leaps and bounds to become a pinnacle for discussing key migration agenda and also supporting member states, RECs (regional economic communities) and other participants in improving their migration governance,” she said.
Mariama also emphasised the need for the forum to be synchronised with political decision-making structures of the AU.
Last year, the AU’s Executive Council adopted the revised Migration Policy Framework for Africa, which also included a 12-Year Action Plan. -Xinhua
