Pointe Noire - The African Union’s Institute for Statistics (STATAFRIC) and IOM, the UN Migration Agency, conducted a capacity building workshop (3 to 6 December) on labour migration for experts from National Statistical Offices, Immigration Directorates, and Ministries of Labour of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).

The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS; French: Communauté Économique des États de l'Afrique Centrale, CEEAC) is an economic community of the African Union for promotion of regional economic co-operation in Central Africa.

Its members include Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Rwanda.

Officials working with administrative data, border control statistics, and population registers attended the workshop in the Republic of the Congo.

The meeting strengthened skills on collection of new types of data that contain critical indicators for labour migration statistics. It also imparted skills on adopting international statistical standards.

As socio-economic conditions, the political and security situation, environmental shocks, as well as global structural factors prompt migration within and from Africa, labour markets at the national and regional scale are being impacted, making labour migration a priority policy issue for many African countries.

Increasing cross-border mobility means effective governance of migration remains a critical challenge for African states.

However, paucity of migration data and subjective analysis is contributing to lack of an evidence base and wrong perceptions of migration trends, which underpins both poorly designed and ineffective labour migration policies and programmatic interventions.

The revised African Union (AU) Migration Policy Framework for Africa (MPFA), the Joint AU/ILO/IOM/ECA Labour Migration Programme (JLMP), the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) all emphasize improving data on migration, especially in regions such as Africa where migration data capacities are often limited.

In his remarks, the representative of the Director General of National Institute of Statistics of Congo Madame Kibangou Hombessa Eudoxie Claudine said that a continental framework is imperative for management of quality migration data.

She underlined the need for experience sharing among migration data experts in Africa, adding that the government of Congo has put in place a framework for improved migration data collection and management, including incorporation of a module on labour migration in the census.

The African Union (AU) Acting Director of Economic Affairs, Mr. Jean-Denis Gabikini said that migration is a priority for the AU, as seen in the adoption of the JLMP in 2015, and a project to improve migration statistics being implemented by Statistics Sweden.

He noted the need for an evidence base which is critical for the achievement of a prosperous Africa, adding that in the first edition of the Labour Migration Statistics Report in Africa, 37 countries participated, while in the second edition, 50 member states participated, marking an improvement.

He announced that the third Edition of the Labour Migration Statistics Report in Africa, will be published in 2020, encouraging ECCAS member states to actively participate in the initiative.

He also informed the meeting that AUC has developed a methodology to capture the data on irregular migration and associated protection risks, with the methodology soon to be piloted in Botswana, Kenya and Tunisia.

Mr. Edwin Righa of IOM informed the meeting that as part of the JLMP implementing partners, IOM has adopted a strategy that focuses on intra-African labour migration by supporting the achievements of the first Ten Year Plan of the AU Agenda 2063, and that of the SDGs, as committed in relevant frameworks of the AU and Regional Economic Communities (RECs).

“Our goal is to achieve an effective intra-African policy on labour migration and mobility, with good governance, development oriented, and focused on integrating Africa. To meet these goals and make them effective, policies that are grounded on strong evidence, based on data collected on migrant workers by sector and employment patterns are critical.”

The meeting was organized by the AU-ILO-IOM-ECA Joint Labour Migration Governance Programme for Regional Development and Integration in Africa, also known as the JLMP.

JLMP was adopted in January 2015 by Heads of States in Africa to contribute to improved labour migration governance to achieve safe, orderly and regular migration in Africa.

For more information, contact Edwin Righa at IOM Ethiopia, Email: erigha@iom.int or Eric Mazango, Email: emazango@iom.int