The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in cooperation with Deutsche Gesellschaft für International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the World Bank and the Sweden International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) are organising the 3rd IGAD regional scientific conference on “Inclusion and Social Cohesion”. IGAD hereby cordially invites abstracts to be submitted for presentation at the upcoming conference on 24th to 26th October 2022.
The IGAD region hosts roughly 4.5 million refugees and asylum seekers, along with around 12.3 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs1). Intra-regional movements such as (seasonal) labor migration, mobile populations, cross-border trade, transhumant pastoralists, mixed migration, irregular migration and displacements through conflicts or due to rapid and slow- onset environmental events as well las disasters are predominant features of migration and displacement in the region.
The spread of the COVID-19 virus has significant impact on mobility in general and more specifically on cross-border mobility and mixed migration. However, long-lasting effects of pandemic responses which varied considerably between countries did not only severely impact people on the move, but in fact fundamentally changed the way societies function as a whole. Generally, but particularly fueled by health-related concerns, the movement of persons (across borders) has been in part perceived as threatening a destination’s local culture, economy, and security and thereby heavily affecting effective social inclusion.
The term social inclusion follows UNDESA’s definition which characterizes the concept as “the process of improving the terms of participation in society, particularly for people who are disadvantaged, through enhancing opportunities, access to resources, voice and respect for rights.”
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