In partnership with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, IOM is conducting ten consecutive trainings on labour migration management to a total of 420 beneficiaries in 10 clusters covering 5 regional states and two self- administered cities. The first training was conducted in Dessie, Amhara region with the participation of 42 government focal persons. The second and third trainings were conducted in Jimma and Assala of Oromiya region with 50 and 49 participants attending the training respectively.

These events are the next step following the Training of Trainers (ToT) on labour migration management held last December 2015 in Addis Ababa. The duly trained government officials will be able to cascade knowledge, skills and lessons on labour migration management among and between regional, zone and woreda focal persons.

The training aims to increase knowledge on the potential opportunities and challenges for labour migrants from Ethiopia and will help promote labour migration. “The training broadened my knowledge on the numerous ways of harnessing the immense potential of labour migration. This will help improve projects we are currently implementing in this field”, enthusiastically states Ato Getachew, one of the participants, and job process owner of North Wello labor and social affairs. Policy makers and other stakeholders who are engaged in the labour migration management process in Ethiopia will also have the opportunity to use the results of these assessments for promoting policy and strategy development for effective labour migration management over the long-term.

This project funded by the IOM Development Fund aims to enhance the GoE’s capacity to gather the requisite information to develop effective labour migration policies and practices. The agenda includes sessions on, inter alia, labor migration principles within an international and regional legal framework, guidelines for facilitating labour migration policy development process, protection and integration of migrant workers and the principles of two key proclamations: Proclamation to Provide for the Prevention and Suppression of Trafficking in Person and Smuggling of Migrants (909/2015) and Ethiopia Overseas Employment Proclamation (923/2016).

The Ethiopia Overseas Employment Proclamation (923/2016) entered into force in 19 February 2016 to ensure the safety, rights and dignity of Ethiopian migrant workers. The Government of Ethiopia (GoE) is strengthening institutional and legal frameworks to effectively govern, operationalize and implement the overseas employment proclamation. It is also preparing to lift the ban on domestic workers to travel to the Middle East among other destinations whereby Ethiopia has signed bilateral labour migration agreements. In view of this, and following the GoE’s lead, IOM Ethiopia is equally scaling up its efforts and support to the government through different capacity building trainings and technical back up.

For more information, please contact Alemayehu Seifeselassie at IOM Ethiopia, Tel: +251.91.163.9082, Email: salemayehu@iom.int