On day two of the launch and consultative workshop of the African Union Commission Initiatives against Trafficking (AU.COMMIT CAMPAIGN) for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the East Africa Community (EAC) regions, under the chairmanship of Dr. Olawale Maiyegun , Director of Social Affairs of the African Union Commission (AUC), today 7 December 2010 at the IGAD Secretariat meeting room in Djibouti, the European Union (EU) representative, Mr. Ron Hendrix, Political Adviser of the Delegation of the EU to the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, presented the Africa-European Union Partnership on Migration, Mobility and Employment (MME).
Mr. Hendrix explained that the MME Partnership seeks to provide comprehensive responses to migration and employment challenges, in the interest of all partners, and with a particular focus on: creation of more and better jobs for Africa; facilitation on mobility and free movement of people between Africa and EU; better management of legal migration between the two continents; addressing the root causes of migration and refugee flows; finding concrete solutions to problems posed by irregular migration flows and trafficking of human beings; and to ensure that migration and mobility work for development, among others.
Regarding the Joint Africa-EU Strategic Partnership adopted in December 2007 in Lisbon, the EU representative explained that, every three years, Heads of State and Government meet to take stock of progress made, give political guidance and approve Action Plans. The last gathering being the Third Africa-EU Summit that took place on 29 and 30 November 2010 in Tripoli Libya, under the theme: “Investment, economic growth and job creation”.
Mr. Hendrix further highlighted the 12 new initiatives of the MME partnership for the 2011-2013 adopted at the Tripoli Summit. These include the need to strengthen inter-regional, continental and inter-continental dialogue and cooperation in the area of migration, mobility and employment among countries of origin, transit and destination; improve dialogue on job creation, sustainable and inclusive growth, decent work, social protection, informal and social economy.
With regard to the Human Trafficking Initiative, Mr. Hendrix highlighted the assistance by AUC, in partnership with EC, for RECs in developing and implementing regional action plans to strengthen protection, prevention and prosecution of TIP, in line with the Ouagadougou Action Plan and AU.COMMIT. He explained that in cooperation with RECs, fora will be strengthened to allow organizing consultations on thematic policies of common concern, and to contribute to enhancing the functioning of the labor market, supporting the harmonization processes of the labor and social protection frameworks at regional levels.
Introducing the Nyerere Program as one of the 12 initiatives, the EU representative said it is a program that was initiated by AUC in 2005 to contribute to high level African human resource development and retention; while supporting intra-African academic mobility, and thereby mitigate the effects of brain drain. He said African students, scholars and academic staff will receive scholarships for master and PhD level studies and allow exchange of academics and university administrative staff. “Over the 5 consecutive rounds of selection more than 2000 participants will benefit” he underlined.
On the Pan-African University (PAU) which is another initiative, Mr. Hendrix explained that it is an AU project aiming to exemplify excellence, relevance and global competitiveness of African higher education and research. To that effect, a network of African higher education and research institutions, with thematic hubs in each of the 5 geographic regions of Africa (Eastern, Western, Central, Southern and Northern Africa) will be established, adding that the first four thematic institutes will be launched in 2011.
One of the presenters was Mrs. Wambui Njuguna, Director of Programmes of the African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect based in Nairobi, Kenya.
