Migration statistics experts from the African Union Member States, Regional Economic Communities and other regional and international organizations converged at the Experts Group Meeting on Development of Methodologies on Migration and Mobility Statistics in Africa, which opened on Monday, April, 11, 2022, in Marrakech, Morocco, to develop guidelines for efficient implementation of migrations program in Africa.

On behalf of H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the AU Commission, Ms. Leila Ben Ali, Head of Statistics Division, STATAFRIC and Ag. Director of the African Migration Observatory (AMO), highlighted efforts by the AU Commission for the proper management of migration and mobility in Africa, including; adoption of the revised migration policy framework for Africa and its Action plan (2018 – 2030), the Joint AU/ILO/IOM/ECA Labour Migration Program (JLMP), developing of the Revised Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa (SHaSA 2), the creation of an AU Specialized Technical Agency for migration statistics, which the African Observatory on Migrations, and  production of three editions of the Labour Migration Statistics report and a report on Migration in Africa.

“Despite commendable efforts by the AUC, there are still needs for capacity building at the level of Member States” she noted. Member States use different standards, definitions and methodologies for the production of statistics on migration and mobility, which makes it very difficult to compare statistics between Member States and also the production of statistics on migration and mobility at regional (RECs) and continental (AUC) levels.

“To address the situation, the AU Commission, has organized this expert group meeting to identify and share good practices and experiences, information on existing international definitions, standards and methodologies and to consider the possibility of aligning with the international standard, considering the African specificity” she concluded. (Full speech of the Chairperson on the AU website www.au.int )

Ms. Laura Palatini, Chief of Mission at IOM Morocco in her opening remarks emphasized that  the workshop is organized within the framework of strengthening data quality in the African continent, which is one of the first objectives of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and aims to ensure that data guide the development of coherent, evidence-based policies and informed public discourse.

Ms. Palatini noted that the International Organization for Migration (IOM) works closely with several data producing agencies, including the African Migration Observatory (AMO) and the African Union Institue for Statistics (STATAFRIC), as well as with several National Statistical Institutes to strengthen data quality in the African continent.

She said ,” thanks to these collaborations, we can proudly cite as one of our major achievements the establishment of the first-ever African Migration Data Network (AMDN) in 2021 that aims to promote a continental exchange of best practices on migration data issues, as well as the organization of the African Migration Statistics e-School and other targeted national and regional capacity building initiatives to address the urgent need for timely and quality migration data in Africa”.

The Expert meeting is organized by the AU Commission, through the African Migration Observatory and the AU Institute for Statistics (STATAFRIC), in collaboration of IOM GMDAC and the IOM Rabat Office, the Expert Meeting aims to identify and share the information on the existing methodologies on migration and mobility, with a view of defining a clear roadmap to develop methodological documents and guidelines, that will strengthen the capacities of AU Member States to produce high quality and harmonized statistics on migration in Africa that is comparable nationally, regionally and continentally.

Over two days, the Experts will deliberate on a number of issues including: the migration statistics and building capacity, international definitions, methodologies and standards on migration and labour migration, micro data library and methodologies for refugees and IDP statistics, and statistics on children on the move.

The Meeting was attended on migration from national statistics institutes of 25 AU Member States, RECs, AIR, AUDA NEPAD, ILO, IOM, IOM GMDAC, UNHCR, UNECA, AfDB, UNSD, EGRISS, Statistics Sweden, World Bank, Eurostat, ICMPD, EC KCMD, Migration Policy Centre, IDAC UNICEF, OECD, UNAIDS and other independent experts.

The Meeting will conclude on 12 April, with adoption of a roadmap on the production of methodologies on migration in Africa in connection with the revised Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa (SHaSA2) and the African Charter on Statistics as well as a document on the status of concepts and definitions used for the production of statistics on migration in Africa.

For further information please contact:

Ms. Leila Ben Ali | Head of Statistics Division, STATAFRIC and Ag. Director of the African Migration Observatory (AMO) | African Union Commission | E-mail: LeilaB@africa-union.org

For media inquiries;

Ms. Afrah Thabit I Information and Communication Directorate, African Union Commission | E-mail: Thabitma@africa-union.org

Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission, E-mail: DIC@africa-union.org  I Website: www.au.africa  I Addis Ababa | Ethiopia

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