African migration in the 21st Century takes place mainly by land, not by sea. African migrants’ destinations are overwhelmingly not to Europe or North America, but to each other’s countries. Those are among the historic findings of the study, Africa Migration Report: Challenging the Narrative, released on 15 October by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the African Union Commission (AUC). The work is the first continent-specific report on migration and is being released during a virtual meeting bringing together policymakers, experts on migration and UN partner agencies. This inaugural edition attempts to unpack commonly held misperceptions about migration in the continent. The AMR is modelled on the IOM flagship World Migration Report produced bi-annually since 2000.
“This report has become even more relevant for us to read in the context of pandemic and particularly meaningful given that the lion’s share of African migration remains within the continent,” IOM Director General António Vitorino said in his opening remarks. “It reminds us how migration is integrated into every aspect of our societies and economies. It reinforces the critical need to include migrants into our responses to multifaceted crises, and in all our public policies. And it forces us to look beyond the problems of today, and consider where the challenges, and solutions, of tomorrow might be found.”
IOM, AUC launch the first Africa Migration Report
IOM, EU and Ethiopia strengthen partnership to support migrants during COVID-19
With the European Union’s (EU) revitalized commitment to a single cohesive migration policy as set out in its new Pact on Migration and Asylum, a high-level delegation from the European Union visited Ethiopia for a dialogue with the Government of Ethiopia, IOM Ethiopia and migrants.
The delegation was led by Josep Borrell, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the EU Commission, and Janez Lenarcic, the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, who visited an IOM Transit Centre in Addis Ababa.
Funded by the EU and other partners, the transit centre provides Ethiopian returnees with the post-arrival assistance they need to return to their home communities with dignity and to rebuild their lives. The migration stories shared by migrants and discussions with the GoE led by H.E. Tsion Teklu, State Minister for Business and Diaspora Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Maureen Achieng, IOM Ethiopia Chief of Mission and Representative to the African Union (AU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), reinforced the need to build on proven successes in scaling up return assistance, sustainable reintegration and livelihood development in migration-prone communities.
Ethiopia to leverage digital innovation in the fight against covid-19
The Ministry of Innovation and Technology, and the Mastercard Foundation announced the launch of a project that will support the development of ‘Citizens COVID-19 Response Data Driven Health Informatics Portal’.
This platform will serve as a single unified portal to integrate and publish information on government interventions on COVID-19 at the national and regional level, and facilitate information flow to citizens on all government COVID-19 responses.
The project will also help to set up a rapid response centre to citizens’ questions and concerns using an inbound and outbound call centre with toll free lines integrated with the information portal. The newly launched project will supplement the Government’s effort to respond to the multifaceted impact of COVID-19, based on an integrated set of rapid digital solutions to critical national problems.
A call for modern African statistical systems for effective policy & decision-making
The seventh meeting of the Statistical Commission for Africa (StatCom7) opened virtually on Tuesday with a clarion call from Ethiopia’s President Sahle-Work Zewde for Africa to urgently transform and modernize its national statistical systems, especially in light of the continuing novel coronavirus pandemic.
In her remarks to officially open the meeting, Sahle-Work said African governments need to provide more support and budgets for modernizing national statistical offices for evidence-based planning and decision making.
“The transformation of national statistical systems in Africa is more important now than ever before as we fight against the pandemic and as we look to build stronger and better systems. Therefore, access to technology by national statistical systems must be promoted in all African countries in view of accelerating the production and use of data and statistics as public good,” she said.
