Migration Program

22-24 Feb 2021

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in cooperation with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) are organising a regional conference on “Human Mobility in the Context of COVID-19.” IGAD hereby cordially invite abstracts to be submitted for presentation at the upcoming conference on 22-24 February 2021.

The IGAD region hosts 4.2 million refugees and around 8.1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs). Intra-regional movements like (seasonal) labour migration, mobile populations, cross-border trade, transhumant pastoralists, mixed migration, irregular migration, displacements through conflicts or due to rapid and slow-onset environmental events and disasters are predominant features of migration and displacement in the region. To  facilitate intra-regional  mobility IGAD Member  States just recently  endorsed  a  Free Movement and Transhumance Protocol and steps are underway to accelerate the adoption of a roadmap for implementation of the protocol.

The spread of COVID-19 virus had significant impact on mobility in general and more specifically  on  cross-border  mobility  and  mixed  migration.  The  immediate  response  to mitigate the spread of the virus included travel restrictions and border closures, which left many stranded. Large numbers of migrant workers in the Middle East and other countries have been stranded or forcibly returned to their country of origin unsettling their livelihoods and posing an additional burden to the health systems in countries of origin. Remittances from large diaspora communities outside the region are shrinking as the pandemic impacts the economy of host countries in unprecedented ways, which has led to reduction or loss of the diaspora’s income. This will have a huge impact on economies of migrant sending communities and countries, since remittances are the most stable form of foreign currency. Adverse effects of lockdowns on livelihoods in the medium and long-term are yet to be seen, but it is evident that migrants and refugees are among the most vulnerable with little capacity to absorb the shocks of this pandemic.

Objective

The  scientific  conference  aims  to  investigate  the  lasting  effects  of  the  pandemic  on livelihoods and the multitude of impacts on migrants, refugees and returnees, IDPs, host communities, and on mobile groups in border regions.  More importantly, researchers are invited to identify impacts particular to the IGAD region, and  to propose  solutions  and evidence-based policy recommendations to IGAD and its Member States.

IGAD is calling on researchers and practitioners from universities, research centres, think thanks,  international  organisations  and  NGOs  to  submit  high  quality  abstracts  on  the following themes.

Themes 

1. Vulnerability in  the  context  of  the  COVID-19  pandemic:  What  are  the  (new) vulnerable mobile groups that need special protection during the pandemic (e.g. transhumant pastoralists, truck drivers and commercial sex workers, internal migrants in urban centres, IDPs, stranded migrants at frontiers and in transit camps)? What are the impacts on trafficked and smuggled persons?  Have traffickers and smugglers changed their strategy and if so how? How could the protection need of these groups be better addressed by IGAD Member States? 

2. Protection of migrant workers’ rights: What are the challenges that migrant workers face during the pandemic? How can migrant workers be effectively protected against collective expulsions and deportation to their home countries in the midst of a pandemic? 

3. Livelihoods of  cross-border  traders  and  communities:  Are  there  causal  links between  border  closure,  loss  of  livelihoods,  economic  decline  and  inter-communal conflict in cross-border communities? How are transhumant pastoralists affected? Which innovative support programmes, such as cash-based approaches, could be effective to improve livelihoods and prevent conflicts in cross-border communities? 

4. Human mobility in the context of multiple disasters: Climate-induced disaster displacements such as flooding and the locust invasion on top of the COVID-19 crisis create a multiple disaster situation, food insecurity and loss of livelihoods. What are the causal connections to disaster displacement and how can communities build resilience against multiple disasters? 

5. Virtual education of migrants, refugees and IDPs during the pandemic: What are the consequences of the lockdown and the pandemic on education, training and skills development of IDPs and refugees? What are the recommendations for Member States in making education accessible to mobile and displaced populations? What is the impact of COVID-19 on the on-going inclusion of refugees in the IGAD Member States through the Comprehensive Responsive Response Framework (CRRF)/Global Compact on Refugee (GCR) and regional IGAD frameworks, such as the Djibouti Declaration on Refugee Education? 

6. Gender dimension of COVID-19 impacts: Do implications of COVID-19 differ between migrant and refugee men and women? Do restrictions, lockdowns and other measures that are taken to contain the pandemic disproportionally affect and discriminate migrant women and girls? What should be considered to outline gender responsive measures? 

7. Diaspora and remittances: What are the impacts of COVID-19 on remittances in the IGAD region? How has the sharp decline of remittances impacted refugee families and what alternatives have refugees resorted to in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic? How can the impacts be mitigated in Member States? 

8. Migration data collection, analysis and use during the pandemic: How can Member States tackle  the  challenge  of  collecting  disaggregated  data  during  lockdowns  and contact restrictions? How can IGAD ensure the availability and accessibility of timely, disaggregated data on migration and displacement to make informed decisions during the pandemic? Accurate information is also pivotal for migrants. How can IGAD harness technology to better gather and disseminate information on migration routes.

Submission guidelines

This call for papers invites international scholars and practitioners especially those from the African continent and IGAD region with expertise in the subject matter to submit abstracts. Submitted abstracts should relate to the conference themes and follow the below guideline: 

• Abstracts should be written in English or French and be 250-300 words;
• Interested authors should send a one-page CV/ bio, with latest publications and contact details (email address and phone numbers);
• Submissions should indicate the theme that the abstract falls under;
• All submissions will be peer-reviewed, and accepted authors will be invited to write and present a paper of 3500-4000 words;
• Conference funding  support  will  be  dependent  on  the  timely  submission  and acceptance of the full research paper;
• Selected research papers will be published.

Please send your abstracts and other documents to this e-mail address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Important Dates

Deadline for submission of abstracts:  25th October 2020
Notification of acceptance of abstracts:  20th November 2020
Deadline for final full paper submission:  15th January 2021

Partners

This Conference is organized by IGAD, GIZ and IOM in cooperation with universities and think tanks in the region, namely the Addis Ababa University, Maseno University, the Kenya Institute of Migration Studies (KIMS) and the Institute of Security Studies (ISS). 

Organising committee

For any enquiries regarding the conference call for papers, please contact: Dr Abdi Hersi (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

website:  www.igad.int

Attachments:

Appel à contributions (FR).pdf	[ ]	696 kB	2020-10-04 11:55
Call for Papers (EN).pdf	[ ]	410 kB	2020-10-04 11:55

July 1, 2020 (DJIBOUTI, Djibouti) - Timely, quality, disaggregated and harmonized migration data are required to inform effective migration management and good governance. On 3 June, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) held consultations with representatives of Kenya and Ethiopia, including migration focal persons of the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministries of Labour, Ministries of interior, and Foreign Affairs. These were followed by consultations with representatives of the national governments of Somalia and Sudan on 17 June, and representatives of the government of Djibouti on 24 June. Final round of consultations included representatives of the governments of South Sudan, Uganda and the Republic of Tanzania on 1 July.

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July 1, 2020 (DJIBOUTI, Djibouti) - Timely, quality, disaggregated and harmonized migration data are required to inform effective migration management and good governance. On 3 June, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) held consultations with representatives of Kenya and Ethiopia, including migration focal persons of the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministries of Labour, Ministries of interior, and Foreign Affairs. These were followed by consultations with representatives of the national governments of Somalia and Sudan on 17 June, and representatives of the government of Djibouti on 24 June. Final round of consultations included representatives of the governments of South Sudan, Uganda and the Republic of Tanzania on 1 July.

Following a workshop organized in Kampala, Uganda in August 2019, IGAD Member States acknowledged that existing migration data is fragmented across many government agencies and is rarely collected for statistical purposes. That led to the commitment to establish a regional technical working group (TWG) to facilitate the harmonization, comparability and accessibility of migration data building on existing good practices from other regions on the continent and intra-REC cooperation in the Eastern Africa region. This TWG will facilitate capacity development interventions on data collection and analysis of broader mobility issues, mainstream migration into development plans and national data collection efforts, and enable migration data exchange in the region.

Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the planned workshop to establish the regional TWG in March 2020 had to be postponed. Owing to the circumstances, IGAD supported by its partners (IOM, ILO, GIZ, SCB and AUC) designed virtual consultations to keep up the momentum and continue the conversation in times of the pandemic. Through this process, Member States presented the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns and other restrictions on migration statistics including migration data collection and harmonization, shared updates on the status of establishing technical working groups (TWG) on migration data at the national level, and further provided feedback on the mandate and structure of the regional TWG on migration data.

The Director of the Health and Social Development, Fathia Alwan, stated “For improvement of production and utilization of migration data, there is need to have a coordinated approach amongst all stakeholders within the region. Key areas that need to be looked into include harmonization of migration data sources, concepts, methods and standards; data management; information flows and data exchange mechanisms; and optimization of migration analyses into national and regional development programming”.

The various representatives presented different strategies to strengthen migration data collection and harmonization, including migration modules in existing national data collection efforts (census and other national surveys), conducting dedicated migration surveys, as well as formalizing technical working groups to lead such processes under the National Coordination Mechanisms (NCM). NCMs are mandated to provide a one stop coordination platform for migration governance at sub-national, national, regional and international levels across IGAD countries. Multiple capacity development needs were identified, ranging from establishing Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) for data sharing across government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), conduct trainings for primary migration data analysis, and support appointing migration data focal persons across MDAs to facilitate coordination on migration data management.

The IGAD representative mentioned that based on the ongoing consultations with the IGAD Member States, a regional virtual workshop on harmonization of migration data involving all the IGAD countries and Tanzania will be held in the month of July. Furthermore, the endorsement of the regional migration data TWG will strongly enhance coordination on migration data activities within the region. IGAD and partners will continue to closely collaborate with Member States to ensure that efforts to harmonize migration data and establish platforms to promote these initiatives will successfully progress.

Partners contributing this initiative include the IOM through the support of the Africa Regional Migration Program of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migrants (PRM) and the EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration in the Horn of Africa (EU-IOM JI); ILO as part of the Free Movement of Persons and Transhumance (FMPT): Improving Opportunities for Regular Labour Mobility project with support from European Union); GIZ commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); SCB project supporting IGAD and AU in development of capacity in migration statistics  with support of Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. These efforts realign with the AU - Second Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa (SHaSA II) as the Continental Strategy for the Development of Statistics in Africa.

March 5, 2020 (DJIBOUTI, Djibouti): The Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) today signed a grant agreement aimed at strengthening the IGAD Refugees Programme with the Ambassador of Sweden to Ethiopia, H.E. Torbjörn Pettersson. They also took the opportunity to launch a project called “Strengthening Coordination and Implementation of IDDRSI” (SCII).

The 3.6 million US Dollar grant will support IGAD Member Sates towards the harmonisation of refugee protection and management policies based on a full and inclusive application of the international refugee protection.

It will contribute to the strengthening of the implementation of regional commitments by promoting comparable and predictable mechanisms for refugee management, strengthening sharing of experience and best practices as well as of transfer of technical capacity between IGAD Member States

‘The grant from the Government of Sweden to strengthen the Refugees Programme in our region is very timely and it will be used judiciously for investments that will bring impact at people’s level’, the Executive Secretary said in his opening speech.

A project called “Strengthening Coordination and Implementation of the IGAD Drought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (IDDRSI)” (SCII) was also launched.

‘The fund provided by Sweden for the project we are launching today, which is USD 6.1 million, is targeted to fill key gaps identified during the implementation of Phase I of IDDRSI, and other strategic resilience enhancing undertakings’, Dr Workneh highlighted.

The two parties also took the time to conclude a Memorandum of Understanding that aims at improving coordination of multi-sectoral projects and programmes that are consistent with mandates of both IGAD and Sweden.