Accra – On 23 October in Accra, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) launched the report “Local Migration Governance Indicators: 2019 Accra City Profile”.

The report, piloted in Accra, highlights well-developed fields in the capital city, such as the roll-out of mass health insurance registrations in deprived communities including migrant settlements, and emergency assistance offered to the population including migrants.

“It is important for us to look at migration as one of the major causes of population growth in our cities,” says Hon. Mohammed Adjei Sowah, Mayor of Accra. “I am hopeful that this report will be the basis for our city planning as it relates to migration in the years to come.”

The report also identifies areas for improvement, such as the collection and publication of migration data and the implementation of awareness raising strategies to fight xenophobia and exclusion.

“The increasing influence of cities in shaping migration trajectories demands continued attention from all stakeholders,” says Nnamdi Iwuora, IOM Ghana Project Manager who represented IOM Ghana Chief of Mission Sylvia Lopez-Ekra. “We have to work together with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to use this report to improve migration governance at the local level,” he added.

So far, three cities in the world participated in the pilot phase: Accra, Ghana; Montréal, Canada; and São Paolo, Brazil. Following this pilot, IOM encourages more cities to participate in this exercise. The organization will continue to support local authorities to discuss common challenges and share good practices to improve migration governance at national and local level.

The event was attended by representatives of the Ministry for Local Government and Rural Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Regional Integration, Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), among others.

To help in defining what a well-managed migration policy is at the national level, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) developed in 2015 the Migration Governance Framework (MiGOF) together with a set of 90 indicators that help countries to assess the comprehensiveness of their migration governance structures. These Migration Governance Indicators (MGI) allow governments and local authorities to identify good practices as well as areas with potential for further development.

The Local MGI contributes towards the Government of Ghana’s efforts to achieve the objectives set out in the Global Compact for Migration such as Objective 1 to collect accurate and disaggregated data, as well as Objective 23 to strengthen international co-operation and global partnerships, and Government’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 10 on Reducing Inequalities and SDG 11 on Sustainable Cities and Communities, as well as the New Urban Agenda, in which migration is fully integrated in the strategic planning and management of cities, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Protocol on Free Movement of Persons.

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For more information, please contact Daniel Tagoe at IOM Ghana, Tel: +233 302742930 Ext 2408, Email: dtagoe@iom.int