Policymakers and experts, who have gathered in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa as part of the African Regional Consultative Meeting on the Global Compact on Migration, discussed Africa’s key migration issues, challenges and priorities.
The African Regional Consultative Meeting on the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which was held in Ethiopia from October 26 to 27 at the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA), seeks to advance the aims and ambitions of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants.
According to Louise Arbour, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for International Migration, although the debate on migration has largely focused on Europe, the global compact being negotiated must be adapted to the realities and peculiarities of each region, including Africa, where more than half of migrants moved to other countries on the continent.
“Today’s consultation is an opportunity to analyze migratory trends, challenges and opportunities at the regional and sub-regional levels,” Arbour told the African Regional Consultative Meeting on the proposed global compact.
Arbour further indicated that most migration takes place within the same region, noting that in Africa, 52 percent of migrants moved within the region, mostly between neighboring countries. She also emphasized the importance of an increased variety and scope of legal pathways for non-refugee migrants to access labor markets.
The African Regional Consultative Meeting on the Global Compact on Migration aims to provide a forum for Africa to identify and articulate key migration issues, challenges and priorities; identify actionable commitments and recommendations; means of implementations; and identify mechanisms at national, sub-regional and regional levels to ensure coherence and effective follow-up.
It also envisages readiness for African countries to articulate their own narratives on migration. The African Regional Consultative Meeting is also expected to offer member States the opportunity to articulate the African narrative and to make significant and far-reaching inputs to the processes leading to the adoption of the global compact.
According to the UN, consultations at the African regional meeting will inform the process leading up to the adoption of the global compact on migration by the UN General Assembly in 2018.
The process to develop this global compact for migration started in April 2017. It will be the first, inter-governmentally negotiated agreement, prepared under the auspices of the UN, to cover all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner, it was noted.
The global compact addresses target 10.7 of the 2030 Agenda, in which member States committed to cooperate internationally to facilitate safe, orderly, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people.
The global compact will build on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 and its recommendations concerning measures to mitigate risks associated with disasters, as well as on the Paris Agreement of the Conference of Parties to the United NationsFramework Convention on Climate Change, it was indicated.