Since its establishment in 1975, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has embraced the notion of regional economic and cultural integration in order to uphold peace, stability, security and promote free movement of people, goods and capital. In the era of unprecedented human mobility, the need to manage cross-border movement has gained prevalence on national and international levels.

44 years later, the region continues to experience diverse types of migration and this has also led to various challenges such as transnational crime, irregular migration, terrorism, poverty, economic instability and endemic conflicts. The situation in the sub-region prompted Member States to come together and rethink their approach to migration management as there was a need to understand modern migration systems and current policies, review the current migration situation and debate on the lessons learned to identify challenges throughout the sub-region. This was the basis for the creation of the Migration Dialogue for West Africa (MIDWA)

Regional Dialogues on migration, such as MIDWA, have paved the way for a global approach on migration, most notably the Berne Initiative, the report by the Global Commission on International Migration, and the first United Nations High Level Dialogue on Migration and Development (UNHLD) of 2006.

Regional dialogue will further help accelerate the ECOWAS integration process by facilitating information exchange, dialogue and cooperation and help address various migration issues in a regional forum.