New dates for upcoming Migration Governance workshops and key takeaways from the East Africa workshop

Save the new dates for the next preparatory sub-regional meetings for employers and governments for West Africa region (29-30 March 2022) and Southern Africa region (20-21 April 2022) and learn about the outcomes of the first preparatory meeting in East Africa

New dates for the IOE-hosted workshops in Africa have been set. The outcome of the three workshops will be an African Employers Declaration to be submitted at the International Migration Review Forum in May 2022.

We, therefore, ask you to please save the following dates:

• Workshop 2 (West Africa region) 29-30 March 2022: Invited countries: Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Togo, Niger, Senegal, Tunisia
• Workshop 3 (Southern Africa region) 20-21 April 2022: Invited countries:Botswana, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Maurice, Namibia, RDC, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Please find the draft agenda for West Africa workshop in the "Resources" section.

Employers of 8 countries in East Africa have already met on 22 and 23 February in Nairobi and online to discuss migration governance and the role of employers in decision-making processes.

Key takeaways are:

• Employers and Governments have a common interest in ensuring an effective migration legal framework, which responds to skills shortages or skills mismatches, ensures job creation, transition to formal economies, increase investment, and contributes to sustainable development and African growth. Governments and employers need to work hand in hand.
• While most of the migration flows happen within Africa, Employers call for effective regional frameworks that allow free movement of labour.
• Employers call for formal institutional mechanisms to facilitate meaningful engagement with governments, in particular, to ensure the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration

The detailed report of the meeting will be available shortly.