Migration Data

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The Free Movement and Migration (FMM) West Africa project seeks to support the development of standardized procedures to collect and process migration-relevant data. The project also supports the ECOWAS Commission in the development of a regional migration profile, providing an overview of migration data and trends in the ECOWAS region

At the national level, the project will reinforce migration data collection and management capacities and stakeholder coordination in all Member States, through the strengthening of data management tools and approaches, the updating of Migration Profile initiatives in countries where they already exist, and the extension of research and capacity building activities to remaining countries.

FMM West Africa is funded by the European Union and the ECOWAS Commission. It is implemented jointly by the International Organization for Migration, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development and the International Labour Organization

MIGRATION PROFILES

1)Compile National Migration Profiles in ECOWAS Member States lacking one, and update the Profiles in the Member States already in possession of one
2)Develop a Regional Migration Profile for West Africa

Institutional Capacity Building

1)Develop a comprehensive training plan for the ECOWAS Commission on migration data collection and analysis as well as the application of data to the development of migration policies and strategies
2)Provide a regional Training of Trainers (TOT ) on migration data collection and management
3)Enhance the capacities of key national institutions in ECOWAS Member States and Mauritania through training in migration data collection and management

Guidelines and Operations

1)Support the ECOWAS Commission in the development of regional guidelines and common operating procedures for migration data collection and management
2)Support migration data collection operations in the selected ECOWAS Member States and Mauritania

Conduct a baseline assessment to identify existing needs and priorities of the ECOWAS Commission in the area of migration data collection and management

The ECOWAS migration data collection and management assessment, implemented by IOM, commenced in January 2014.
The assessment was completed in January 2015. The draft report was then shared and discussed with the ECOWAS Commission. The report was presented at a Technical Experts Meeting on ECOWAS Migration Data from 2 – 3 July 2015. Proposed activities to strengthen migration data collection and management were also presented during the experts meeting. In addition, the meeting served as an opportunity to share international best practices in migration data management among experts from development partners and the ECOWAS Research and Statistics Directorate.
The meeting endorsed the presented activities to strengthen regional migration data management at the regional and national levels. At the regional level, endorsed activities include the development of regional guidelines on migration data management, the enhancement of the capacity of the ECOWAS Commission staff and national focal points on migration data management, and the development of a regional migration profile. At the national level, the meeting endorsed supporting selected countries to collect or analyse already collected migration data; developing (or updating) the national migration profiles of all countries in the region; and building the capacity of national institutions to manage migration data

Develop and implement a comprehensive training plan for the ECOWAS Commission on migration data collection and the application of data to the development of migration policies and strategies

Training on the collection and use of international migration data in collaboration with UN DESA
As part of the training plan for the ECOWAS Commission on migration data management, the Project supported the participation of 3 ECOWAS Staff (respectively from Research and Statistics, Humanitarian and Social Affairs and Free Movement and Tourism Directorates) in a training workshop on “strengthening the collection and use of international migration data for development”. The training was organized by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and ILO, and took place from 18 – 21 November 2014 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The purpose of the training workshop was to increase the capacity of participants to produce national migration data that meets international standards and to enhance understanding of the uses and limitations of migration data for policy purposes.
Following the training, the ECOWAS participants made some recommendations, including:

Necessity for increased collaboration between the ECOWAS’ Free Movement, Research and Statistics, and Humanitarian and Social Affairs Directorates in order to ensure that data on migration is collected, analysed and disseminated;
ECOWAS Commission should work with Member states to collate existing data at country level on migration in order to present a regional perspective on the issue.

The training materials are available following these links:

https://fmmwestafrica.org/training-collection-use-international-migration-data-collaboration-un-desa

http://esa.un.org/unmigration/meetings/migworkshop/migworkshop2014.htm

ECOWAS regional workshop on migration data management

Accordingly, from 15 – 18 March 2016, under the auspices of the project, IOM (supported by its Global Migration Data Analysis Centre – GMDAC) and ILO organized, in coordination with the ECOWAS Research and Statistics Directorate, a regional workshop on migration data collection and management. The workshop brought together representatives of all 15 national statistic offices in the region, the ECOWAS Commission, and international agencies dealing with migration data management (including the UN DESA Statistics Division and Data-Pop Alliance) to achieve the following:

Increase awareness of the importance of international migration data in global development policy;
Strengthen the capacity of key staff of the ECOWAS Commission and national institutions managing migration on migration data collection and analysis;
Assess the outcomes of a regional exercise to tabulate migration related data collected from national censuses;
Review and endorse draft regional guidelines on migration data management currently undergoing development

The workshop was attended by 10 staff of the ECOWAS Commission, including 2 from the Free Movement and Tourism Directorate; 5 from the Research and Statistics Directorate; and 3 from the Humanitarian and Social Affairs Directorate.
Key recommendations of the workshop include:

There is a need to improve the quality and reliability of data collected from existing data sources and to explore new data sources, including big data;
There is a need to harmonize concepts and definitions related to migration statistics in line with the United Nations recommendations and contextualize them to meet the policy needs of the region;
Participants endorse the ongoing efforts by FMM to develop regional guidelines on migration data collection and management and a training tool kit;
IOM should support all states to develop or update their national migration profiles and develop a regional migration profile to reflect the status of migration in the region.