Akosombo – On 7-9 May 2019, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Ghana, in partnership with the IOM Mission in Ethiopia, held a three-day joint training workshop for Ghanaian and Ethiopian government officials on integrating migration into national development plans in Akosombo, Ghana.

The meeting also saw the official launch of the IOM "Migration and the 2030 Agenda: A Guide for Practitioners”. The IOM Guide, in which both countries feature as case studies, aims to support policymakers in the implementation of the migration related targets of the SDGs. At the launch, Ms. Claudia Natali, IOM Regional Thematic Specialist for West and Central Africa, called on migration actors to go beyond governance as usual and “to pursue policy coherence to foster an enabling environment for sustainable development at all levels and by all actors”.

The workshop, part of the project ‘Integrating Migration into National Development Plans: towards policy coherence and the achievement of the SDGs at the national and global level’, also provided an opportunity for the two countries, which are at different stages of the mainstreaming process, to learn from each other’s experiences, identify common issues, share best practices, and discuss joint commitments and common priorities. Representatives from the respective Development Planning Commissions expressed appreciation to IOM for organizing the workshop and fostering south-south cooperation and learning.

Ms. Joyce Larnyoh, Co-Chair Member of the Ghanaian Civil Society Organization Platform on SDGs noted “migration has been identified as one of the key areas where we have to mainstream our activities. It’s a development issue now, we just cannot look around it”. Participants from the two countries included the respective Planning Commissions, Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Gender, and Ministry of Labour, among others.

Closing the workshop, representatives of the two countries committed to continue the collaboration and focus future endeavours in building a reliable mechanism to collect, analyse and disseminate migration data for reporting on the SDGs at the global level. The Senior Public Prosecutor at the Anti-Human Trafficking and Smuggling of Migrants Taskforce Secretariat, Mr. Feteya Seid Mohammed and Mr Zerihun Yeshitela from Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of Ethiopia commented “Migration needs cooperation, needs partnership. This workshop created a good platform for further relationship with Ghanaian counterparts”.

The project and the workshop are funded by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Sub-Fund of the Peace and Development Fund, of which the People’s Republic of China is a major contributor.

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For more information please contact Eric K. Akomanyi at IOM Ghana, Tel: +233 0302 742 930, ext. 2405, E-mail: eakomanyi@iom.int or Frehiwot Tefera, Tel: +251 1166 111 71, ext. 475, E-mail tfrehiwot@iom.int