Our Staff Writer
Monday, May 12, 2008
The Director General will address the three-day event intended to boost inter-state and intra-regional cooperation on migration management in the region.
The event, hosted by the African Union Commission (AUC), IGAD and IOM will also aim to strengthen cooperation between IGAD member states and transit migration countries such as Chad, Egypt, Libya, Niger, Tunisia and Yemen, according to a joint statement by AUC, IOM, and IGAD.
Policy and operational challenges and opportunities associated with migration in East Africa will also be addressed, the joint statement added.
"The Director General's contribution will raise the profile of the workshop which is the first of its kind and will culminate in the launch of the creation of an IGAD Regional Consultative Process (IRCP)," the head of office of IOM/SLM Addis Ababa, Charles A. Kwenin said in a joint statement issued in connection to the upcoming meeting.
According to the joint statement, IRCP will allow for regular dialogue between IGAD members as well as the consolidation of existing efforts to cooperate on migration issues and to establish new ones with other transit and destination countries.
The IGAD RCP (IRCP) will also help to build the capacity of member countries on migration management with a particular focus on the role of migration on social and economic development, the statement added.
"This workshop, which is the first of its kind for the sub-region, follows various political developments concerning migration in Africa, including the implementation of the AU strategic framework for a migration policy in Africa, and joint EU-Africa Declaration on Migration and Development, aimed at enhancing cooperation on migration management between the two continents", the statement reads.
The workshop will also set the stage for the launching of an IGAD a Regional Consultative Process (IRCP) on migration for IGAD countries comprising Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda who will come together to tackle migration related problem in the region, the statement indicated.
While in Ethiopia, McKinley will meet and hold discussions with senior Ethiopian government officials on bilateral relations, ILO regional Office in Addis Ababa told The Daily Monitor.
Brunson McKinley took office as Director General of the International Organization for Migration in October 1998. He w3as reelected to a second five-year term in 2003.
Mr. McKinley is said to have sought to enhance IOM's ability to serve governments and migrants by: establishing IOM as an international focal point for dialogue and debate, by focusing IOM's expertise on delivering results in service areas such as labor migration, measures against smuggling and trafficking in person, social integration, Diasporas management, development and migrant health, among others.
Source: Daily Monitor, May 12, 2008