Arusha — KENYAN President William Ruto is expected to grace the launch of the flagship report titled 'The State of Migration in the East and Horn of Africa" at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi, Kenya today.
The inaugural report, co-published by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Office for the East and Horn of Africa, the East African Community (EAC) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) sheds light on the mobility dimensions of regional integration in the East and Horn of Africa region.
According to a statement released on Sunday by the EAC Secretariat, the report takes stock of achievements and challenges in advancing regional integration and human mobility in the region.
It makes policy proposals for consideration by member states, EAC, IGAD, and other partners in an effort to advance human mobility that is safe, orderly and regular, and contributes to the socio-economic development and integration of the region.
Covering 12 countries in the region, including Burundi, Djibouti, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, it is the first comprehensive report on the mobility dimensions of regional integration.
In its analysis, the report reviews migration and mobility trends, trade and mobility, labour mobility, cross-border health, climate change and human mobility, sustainable reintegration, gender, integrated border management, digitalization, and the Global Compact for Migration.
The report highlights that access to health remains an essential part of ensuring cross-border movement is safe, and that climate change plays a major role in reshaping the mobility of persons. The report also highlights gender equity as a cross-cutting and critically important facet of human mobility and regional integration.
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East and Horn of Africa is estimated to be home to approximately 464 million people. At the same time, it hosts 8.5 million international migrants, which includes 4.7 million labour migrant workers.
There are also 22.3 million displaced persons, of which approximately 17 million are Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), and 5.4 million refugees and asylum seekers.
Speaking ahead of the launch, the EAC Secretary General, Dr Peter Mathuki said the EAC is honored to have leveraged its skills, capacities, and resources together with IOM and IGAD to produce this flagship report.
"I am convinced that this publication is a timely, useful contribution to policymaking and will better aid to implement the EAC Common Market Protocol, and advance regional integration and its mobility dimensions," said the Secretary General.
On his part, IOM Regional Director for the East and Horn Africa, Mr Mohammed Abdiker, said the upcoming report provides contemporary thinking on the mobility dimension of regional integration and serves as an intellectual compass for defining the future policy agenda of the Regional Economic Communities and governments.
