IOM Addis Ababa, in partnership with the Ethiopian government, is expanding its community dialogue facilitators’ training programme on irregular migration from Amhara Regional State to neighbouring Tigray.

The training, targeting 140 participants, will cover five of the seven zonal administrations in the southern, eastern, central, north western and western zones, 14 districts and 70 kebeles (districts).

The programme aims to raise trainee awareness of the ongoing efforts of the government to mitigate the problems of irregular migration, trafficking in persons and people smuggling. It builds trainees’ capacity to facilitate community conversations using a set of tools and methodologies. It also aims to engage community members to encourage discussion of the issue, with a view to initiating community-led action to combat the problem.

The community dialogue training is part of a two-month IOM plan to train over 800 community conversation facilitators, including religious and community leaders and representatives of vulnerable groups, including the elderly and women.

The initial community dialogue training was launched in North Wollo inAmharaRegionalState. It was designed to eventually reach 350 community groups in kebeles (districts) in five high-risk migration regions – Oromia, Tigray, Amhara,SNNPRNationalRegionalStatesand Addis Ababa City Administration.

In addition to the trainings, IOM is also actively engaged in sensitizing the public to the problems associated with irregular migration, through other channels, including national and regional workshops, radio programmes and touring theatre shows with tailored messages for specific groups. In January, IOM presented a popular touring theatre show entitled Mutach in rural areas traditionally associated with irregular migration.

The training programme is funded by the European Union and the US State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP).