The African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP) joined the International Organization for Migrations (IOM) to organize a series of three round table discussions on the topic "Assisted Voluntary Return and Rehabilitation of Migrants in Senegal". The first edition of this series was held on Thursday December 10, 2015 at the IDEP head office.

Senegal, like many other African countries, has many programs and initiatives intended to support migrants living in the European Union and wishing to return to their country of origin.

However, there is very little interchange between the various migrants' return and reintegration programs, as well as between the implementing agencies.

And yet, it appears clearly that strengthening the exchanges would make it possible to better identify the good practices and needs of organizations on the ground. This would help improve the existing mechanisms in the interest of returning migrants and thus encourage their contribution to local development.

It is against this background that IOM and IDEP decided to organize a series of three round table discussions the first of which is intended to promote the exchange of good practices and restitute innovative and positive experiences.

The discussions and capitalization of knowledge in this field will help enrich the lessons drawn and improve the migrants' return programs.

Migration is among the priority issues on which the ECA is working, in its contribution to the search for solutions to the development challenges of the continent, both at the level of its head office and of its five regional offices.

It is therefore natural that it has, for more than ten years, been one of the areas in which IDEP intervenes in its capacity building, training and high-level dialogue programs.

For illustrative purposes, and in the last four months alone, migration was the focus of:

• a workshop on strengthening the collection and use of migration data organized in partnership with UNDESA, because there can be no relevant analysis and judicious decision-making without an up-to-date and reliable information accessible to all;
• a round table discussion on the contribution of the Diaspora in the development programs of countries of origin;
• a seminar on an improved integration of the migratory issue in national and local planning, with special focus on the coherence of policies and of the distribution of roles and the interventions of institutions concerned.

The issues raised within the framework of the voluntary return and reintegration of migrants in their country of origin include:

What is required to ensure that this return is a success: how to prepare it, support it?

Who are those who succeed best: men or women? the young or the older people? Active workers on the labour market or pensioners? The most educated or those with limited training? Project promoters or those who expect projects to be proposed to them? Those who return to settle in the urban or rural area?

As a result, one can wonder what means can be placed at their disposal by the authorities, their institutions and organizations concerned

Who are the major actors and which role can the private sector and civil society play ?

What do the host countries propose to support the returns?

Many countries, and in particular Senegal, already have answers to these questions.

The main objective of this workshop is therefore to identify the good practices and draw lessons which can be shared by other countries concerned with the return of their migrants', on the basis of studies undertaken in three countries: Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal.

When one speaks about return, there are a point of departure and a point of arrival. Thus, representatives of the countries of origin and host country, in this precise case Senegal and the European countries, were invited to take part in this reflection.