The 2014 MIDWA Experts meeting took place on 7th and 8th May 2014 in Accra, Ghana (cfr. Activity 1.1.1). The MIDWA Ministerial meeting followed the MIDWA experts meeting and was also held at the Holiday Inn Accra, Ghana on the 8th of May 2014and its objective was to consider and validate the recommendations of the MIDWA Experts meeting on the theme ‘Free Movement of Persons for Regional Integration and Economic Cooperation’ where 14 countries attended the meeting. After the deliberations on the final report of the MIDWA Experts meeting and MIDWA working modalities submitted for consideration and validation at the ministerial meeting, the Honourable Ministers made recommendations to the Council of Ministers for approval on the following areas of migration management: Free Movement and Security, the Right of Residence and Establishment, Advocacy, Information and Sensitization in ECOWAS Member States, monitoring Mechanism for the ECOWAS Free Movement Protocols, protection of the Rights of Migrants Institutionalization of the Migration Dialogue for West Africa (MIDWA).

• i) Assess the status of the existing irregular migration routes between West Africa, North Africa and the Mediterranean as well as the factors influencing irregular migration and conditions along the migration routes;
• ii) Analyse existing policy and legal frameworks on the continent and in the region, governing migration issues and relevant to the on-going migration crisis;
• iii) Share best practices as well as discuss and propose policy and operational solutions to addressing irregular migration in the following priority areas: strengthening border managements; addressing the drivers of irregular migration, ensuring the protection of migrants’ rights, and enhancing support to counter-smuggling efforts and improving intra- and inter-regional cooperation.

 

To best inform the discussions, a combined desk and field study was conducted and presented at the experts meeting in 2015, analysing the key irregular migration routes from West Africa to Europe and the conditions determining the irregular movement of migrants. The research paper also proposed recommendations on addressing irregular migration on that route (cfr. Activity 1.1.4). In 2017 an additional research was commissioned on the effective implementation of ECOWAS legislative framework on transhumance and its relation with the implementation of the Free Movement Protocol. The results of the research will be presented in the second semester 2017.

MIDWA 2015 Experts and Ministerial meeting produced the following outcome documents with recommendations:

• MIDWA 2015 Experts Meeting Report (as 6);
• MIDWA 2015 Ministerial Meeting Report (as 7);
• ECOWAS Common Position on Irregular Migration for the Malta Summit (as 8).

The experts meeting brought together delegates from the following Member States (Republic of Benin, Republic of the Gambia, Republic of Guinea, Republic of Ghana, Republic of Guinea Bissau, Republic of Mali, Republic of Niger, Republic of Senegal, and Republic of Sierra Leone) and Mauritania. In addition, the meeting was attended by the ECOWAS Commissioner for Trade, Customs, Free Movement, and Tourism and other ECOWAS delegates; Head of the European Union Delegation to Mauritania; Ambassador of Switzerland to Mauritania; representatives of Swiss Development Cooperation, and representatives of FMM West Africa/IOM/ICMPD, UNODC, UNHCR, OHCHR, and Altai Consulting. The ministerial meeting was attended by the Ministers or their representatives from all the above- mentioned states and Liberia.

 

As recommended during the MIDWA 2014 ministerial meeting, the MIDWA Steering Committee was established on the 18 February 2016 in Dakar, Senegal. The ad hoc meeting for the establishment of the committee was attended by ECOWAS Free Movement Directorate, the EUD, the Swiss Cooperation and the member state representatives from Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Senegal. According to its ToR (as adopted during the 1st Steering Committee meeting) the Committee consists of the ECOWAS Commission, three Member States and Mauritania. The number of the Member States represented can be increased on a case-by-case basis, when needed. The Steering Committee provides guidance and impetus to the MIDWA and, more specifically, defines the policy and strategic vision; identifies key migration issues to be addressed during the MIDWA meetings; defines the cooperation and negotiation framework with development partners for resource mobilization; ensures monitoring and follow-up of the implementation of the recommendations and programmes by the MIDWA Secretariat; and approves MIDWA action plans submitted by the MIDWA Secretariat. Importantly, the MIDWA Steering Committee meeting produced recommendations for the technical thematic working groups

IOM (outside of FMM) supported the launch of Joint Annual Forum for Intra-Regional Consultations of Africa Regional Frameworks on Migration. The first meeting of the Forum was held 16 – 18 September 2015, Accra, Ghana, under the theme: “Enhancing Capacities of Africa Regional Frameworks on Migration to Facilitate Intra-Regional Labour Mobility, Free Movement of Persons and Integrated Border Management”. The second Forum meeting was held in Lusaka, Zambia, from 4 – 6 May 2016 under the theme: Fostering Regional Integration: Facilitating Trade and Human Mobility through Enhanced Border Management – with important outcomes for ECOWAS. Based on the discussions during the Forum the AU requested the joint assessment mission to Agadez (see more under activity 1.3.6). IOM supported the participation of ECOWAS Commission colleagues in both Fora.

MIDWA 2016 Experts and Ministerial meeting produced the following documents with recommendations:

• MIDWA 2016 Experts Meeting Report
• MIDWA 2016 Ministerial Meeting Report

The ministers recommended the operationalization of MIDWA institutions, namely the MIDWA Regional Secretariat, the MIDWA National Secretariat and the following thematic working groups.

• Group 1: Border Management, trafficking, cross-border crime
• Group 2: Diaspora, West African Communities and/or Nationals, stateless
• Group 3: Professional Mobility and Student Exchange
• Group 4: Climate Change, Land Degradation,Desertification,
• Environment and Migration
• Group 5: Migration Statistics Data
• Group 6: Return, Readmission and Reintegration
• Group 7: Cooperation and partnership

All the Member states were represented during the meeting. The meeting reports are attached as 105, 106 and 107.
The MIDWA Secretariat was created under the lead of the Directorate for Free Movement and Tourism. from January 2017 and during four monthly meetings, the Secretariat developed and pre-approved the Terms of References (ToR) for the thematic working groups, coordinated the organization of the MIDWA meeting in 2017 and facilitated the first MIWDA thematic working group on Migration Data Collection and Management.
The MIDWA thematic working group on Migration Data collection and Management was held in May 2017 and brought together 13 representatives of the National Statistics Institutes of the Member States. The established group successfully approved the terms of reference, a baseline assessment on the main gaps, developed a 2-year action plan and defined recommendations for the MIDWA ministerial level meeting.
The MIDWA thematic group on border management was held from 1-2 August 2017 in Abuja, Nigeria. During the meetings, participants prepared higher level discussions for the Heads of Immigration meeting and reviewed the baselines, terms of reference and action plan for the working group. Immigration representatives from 10 Member States participated in this meeting.
The MIDWA thematic group on return and reintegration was held from 30-31 August 2017 in Niamey, Niger. Representatives from all ECOWAS countries, including Mauritania, in charge of return and reintegration participated in this meeting. As in other working groups, terms of reference, baseline and action plan for the working group were reviewed by the participants and group members and approved.

MIDWA 2017 Steering Committee and Ministerial meeting was held from 12 – 14 September 2017 to review the activities of the MIDWA Thematic Working Group meetings and to begin inter-governmental regional consultations on the Global Compact on Migration. 13 ECOWAS Member States participated, including the European Union Delegation, IOM, ILO and UNOWAS. During the meeting, ECOWAS Commission presented a draft report on priority actions identified under six GCM themes namely:

The FMM program provided support to the regional migration policy initially through only the technical expertise of the consortium staff. With the support of other donors, the ECOWAS Commission, under the leadership of the Free Movement and Tourism Directorate, developed a first draft of the regional migration policy. The policy is intended to be a follow-up to the ECOWAS Common Approach on Migration. The draft migration policy was shared with FMM for review and inputs. The FMM conducted a full revision of the document and provided its comments to the ECOWAS Commission in October 2014. In the following years ECOWAS reviewed further the document based on the inputs received from various stakeholders but couldn’t reach a satisfactory final draft.
The final Regional Migration Policy was presented to experts at the MIDWA Thematic Working Group Meeting on Border Management, Migration Data, Mixed Migration, Return and Reintegration and Labor Migration in Lomé, Togo

A regional training on migration policy development was organized by the Project in partnership with the ILO International Training Centre (ITC) and in close cooperation with the ECOWAS Commission, from 13 – 17 May 2014, in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. The training targeted officials from ECOWAS Member States and aimed at providing an overview of existing regional migration policy frameworks as well as tools and mechanisms to develop national migration policies and to mainstream migration into national development strategies.
The training workshop brought together 20 participants from ECOWAS Member States and 3 participants from the ECOWAS Commission. The evaluation of training by the participants revealed a high level of satisfaction with regards to the overall quality of the activity (95% of satisfaction) and on how the different institutions will benefit from the participation of their representatives (100% of participants).
Challenges faced in relation to this activity include the non-participation of Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania and Ghana in the training, despite invitation letters sent by the ECOWAS Commission and confirmations received from Ghana and Guinea Bissau. Guinea Bissau cancelled its participation at the last minute because of the presidential election, participants from Ghana did not show up, Cabo Verde designated its participants too late to find flights and Mauritania did not send any representative despite persistent follow up.

Terms of reference for the recruitment of an expert to develop guidelines for peer review evaluation were developed and published. Four experts-consultants applied. The list was shared with ECOWAS Free Movement and Tourism Directorate, and the selection of the expert and assessment were done in 2016. An assessment was conducted in January 2016.

The first draft report of the monitoring and evaluation mechanism to monitor the implementation of the Protocol Free Movement by member states has been developed and is available. Comments were received from ILO and ECOWAS on the draft report which was shared and validated in April 2017 in Cotonou.
In response to the findings of the study, a draft document entitled: “Guidelines for the evaluation of the implementation of ECOWAS Protocols on Free Movement of Persons by ECOWAS Member States” was developed and shared with experts during a technical workshop held in Cotonou, Benin, in April 2017. The Draft Guidelines was finalized by a small group of experts at a technical review meeting held in July 2017 in Dakar, Senegal. The draft Guideline was also presented at the Head of Immigration (HOI) meeting held in Abuja, Nigeria in August 2017 and at the MIDWA meeting in Ghana in September 2017 for its validation. The HOI and MIDWA groups, which serves as experts Committee on Migration, validated the viability of the document testifying to the expediency of the guideline within the region and recommended that it should also be reviewed to cover the assessment of the ECOWAS Commission interventions in operationalization of the Free movement protocol and that an independent body be engaged to implement the evaluation.

The Guideline was thereafter validated at the Council of Ministers meeting in Accra, Ghana, pending the review. Based on some technical recommendations, a final technical review meeting with about 10 experts was held in Accra, Ghana on the 4 and 5th of January 2018. The team recommended that a separate guideline for monitoring the implementation of the Free Movement Protocol by the ECOWAS Commission be developed as the parameters for evaluating ECOWAS Commission will not be the same as that of the Member States. The guideline document was finalized and renamed as: ‘Draft Guidelines for the Assessment of the Status of the Level of Implementation of The ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of Persons by Member States (A/P1/5/79)’. It has been submitted to the ECOWAS Commission since January 2018 and will be presented at the 2018 ECOWAS Heads of States Meeting for adoption

Implementation of this activity is planned to start by the last quarter in 2018 and 2019. This training will be organized after the adoption of the ‘Draft Guidelines for the Assessment of the Status of the Level of Implementation of The ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of Persons by Member States (A/P1/5/79)’ by the Heads of States. A concept note and training workshop for the regional training have been developed and shared with the Free Movement Department of the ECOWAS Commission. The ECOWAS Regional workshop on the Guidelines for the assessment of the implementation of ECOWAS Protocols on Free Movement of Persons, the right of residence and establishment, was held at the Swiss Spirits Alisa Hotel in Accra, Republic of Ghana, from the 9th to 11th March 2020. A total number of 39 Experts from Twelve ECOWAS Member States (Cabo Verde, Burkina Faso, Benin, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Togo) participated at the regional workshop, which provided a platform for discussing ways to operationalize the guidelines for the assessment of the implementation of the Free Movement Protocol. There were also high-level representatives at the workshop, these are: The Ghana Minister of Interior ably represented by the Chief Director of the Ministry, The Deputy Minister Manpower Planning, and Human Resource Development of the Government of Liberia, the Director of ILO Abuja Country Office, the Director of ECOWAS Commission Free Movement and Tourism Directorate, representing the Commissioner for the Trade, Customs and Free Movement, and the Secretary-General of the ECOWAS Brown card.