Addis Ababa — Ahead of the final round of negotiations for the Global Compact on Migration (GCM) on 13 July 2018, representatives of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), African Union Commission (AUC), and the International Office for Migration (IOM) have expressed a strong desire to see Africa's concerns reflected properly in the outcome document.

"We must ensure that Africa's narrative and priorities are adequately reflected in the Global Compact based on evidence that contrary to the 'other narrative,' intra-African migration dominates African migrant flows," said ECA Deputy Executive Secretary, Giovannie Biha.

She was speaking during a regional consultative meeting, which brought together the two GCM co-facilitators, Jurg Lauber and Juan J. G. Camacho, the UN Special Representative to the Secretary-General (SRSG) for migration, Louise Arbour, representatives of the High-level Panel on Migration for Africa (HLPM), ECA, AUC, IOM, and representatives of African embassies in Ethiopia.

The meeting took place in Addis Ababa on 22 June and was aimed at providing a platform for the GCM co-facilitators to update African stakeholders on the ongoing GCM intergovernmental negotiations, and listen to other perspectives and realities on migration in Africa, which could serve as inputs to the Compact.

Ms. Biha said she was "proud to report that AUC, ECA, and IOM have worked together closely on the past 3 phases of the Global Compact and will continue to do so until its adoption."

"Africa's continued inputs have been anchored in the Common Africa Position and the Outcome Document of the Regional Consultations," she added.

In the same light, AUC Commissioner for Social Affairs, Amira Elfadil stated,"I wish to align the AUC with the position taken by the African group of negotiators led by Comoros during the intergovernmental negotiations in New York. I thank AU member states for speaking with one voice at the global discussions and in the spirit of the Common African Position."

She emphasized the "need for the international community to continue demonstrating their commitment to our shared obligation to address the immediate safety and human rights of all migrants within their borders."

IOM Chief of Mission in Ethiopia and representative to the AUC, ECA and IGAD - Maureen Achieng - noted that "while there's convergence around the vision and guiding principles of the Global Compact, there's still a lack of consensus on a number of important areas such as the issuance of IDs, access to services regardless of status, and regularization."

HLPM members - Almaz Negash and Danisa Baloyi - briefed participants on work done by their Panel in its mandate to come up with recommendations on how African governments can build and sustain broad political consensus on an implementable international migration agenda.

The permanent representative of Mexico to the UN and Co-facilitator of the GCM, Juan J. G. Camacho, told participants that "our biggest challenge when we started this process was how to demystify migration and move the discussions and negotiations from prejudices to evidence; from perception to figures."

One of the expected outcomes of the consultations and negotiations, said Mr. Camacho, is "A new narrative about migration. A narrative that's not based in fear, poor politics, demagoguery or prejudices; but one that is based on evidence."

Co-facilitator and representative of Switzerland to the UN, Jurg Lauber, commended Africa for its united approach to the negotiations.

"We cannot stress enough the role Africa played in this process and how important it was to have this close link between the African group in New York and the teams here (AUC, ECA, IOM). We would not be where we are with the process had it not been for the contributions of the regions, especially Africa."

Louise Arbour, SRSG for migration reminded stakeholders that the Global Compact is framed in line with target 10.7 of the SDGs and that it is something "The Secretary-General supports enthusiastically," especially given that it is a member-states driven process, "it is your process."

Commenting on related developments on the continent, ECA Executive Secretary, Vera Songwe, said "The concreteness of the discussion we are having here today is already being taken forward in Africa with the signing of the AfCFTA and the Free Movement Protocol."

Ms. Songwe noted that "there is real action on the continent," adding "We hope by the time we get to Marrakesh more (than the current 26) African countries would have signed the Free Movement Protocol, and that we will have clarity on how to integrate the African perspective into the overall implementation of the Global Compact."