The first component of the Project, focusing on the regional level, aims to strengthen the capacities of the ECOWAS Commission to lead an intra-regional dialogue on free movement and migration issues and act as a platform for policy development and harmonization. Several baseline assessments have been carried out during the inception phase to allow FMM to identify the existing capacities, gaps / needs and priorities of the ECOWAS Commission and to design relevant follow-up activities.

During the project implementation period, capacity building for the ECOWAS Commission was conducted to close identified capacity gaps in migration policy development, migration data collection, border management, counter trafficking and labour migration. In addition, key recommendations have been made towards the development of labour market information systems, implementation of the ECOWAS General Convention on Social security and development of public employment services database as a strategic response to labour migration governance.

Progress has also been made towards the institutionalization of the Migration Dialogue for West Africa (MIDWA) under the lead of the ECOWAS Commission, with the formal approval of the MIDWA working modalities at the MIDWA Ministerial Meeting on 8 May 2014. On 6 – 8 October 2015, the MIDWA ministerial and expert meetings were held in Nouakchott, Mauritania, producing important recommendations on how to tackle irregular migration in West Africa – which was also the main theme of the high-level conference. On 18 February 2016, the first MIDWA Steering Committee meeting was held in Dakar. The main objective of the meeting was to set up the MIDWA Steering Committee and its implementing bodies (the Permanent Secretariat, the National Secretariats and the thematic groups).

In August 2016, the MIDWA Ministerial meeting was held in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) and officially created the MIDWA Institutions. By the end of 2016 the newly created MIDWA Regional Secretariat was set up together with three thematic working groups (Border Management, Migration Data and Return and Reintegration) under the leadership of the ECOWAS Free Movement and Tourism Directorate with the support of the Humanitarian and Social Affairs and Research and Statistics Directorate. The first MIDWA Working Group on Data Management and collection met from 25 – 26 May.

Within 2017, three thematic working groups on migration data, border management and return and reintegration were organized for expert consultation, coordination, information exchange and capacity building. Between the 12 – 14 September 2017, the MIDWA Steering Committee and Ministerial Meetings and consultations were held in Accra on various migration themes to streamline ECOWAS priorities for the Global Compact on Migration and to review and approve the recommendation formulated by the working groups. The Ministerial meeting deliberated on the creation of an 8th additional regional thematic working group on Mixed Migration to mainstream all aspects of protection of migrants that was set up in May 2018. The MIDWA Secretariat held six meetings to prepare for MIDWA and the Working Group meetings.

In the area of counter-trafficking, the project produced two baseline assessments during the inception phase (Counter Trafficking Baseline and ECOWAS Plans of Action; Assessing the Impact). Building on the recommendations the assessments, FMM continued to provide support through the Annual Regional Meeting of ECOWAS TiP Focal Points (2014, 2015 and 2017) as well as through support on child protection, activities, including the finalization of the strategic framework for the protection of children in West Africa and developed guidelines for the implementation of the child protection strategic framework, adopted by the Council of Ministers in 2017. The project supported the review of the ECOWAS 2009 Child Policy and its strategic plan which was also adopted by the council of Ministers on the 25th of January 2019- The project also Furthermore, FMM was very instrumental in the development of ECOWAS’ new Plan of Action on Combating Trafficking in Persons (2016 – 2020) and capacity building for the National Focal Points. FMM also strengthened the capacity of the ECOWAS TiP Unit in monitoring and evaluation through the development of a new reporting template for the ECOWAS TiP Unit, in line with the new Plan of Action as well as the compilation of ECOWAS TiP annual synthesis reports in 2012/2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. FMM’s commitment to the protection of the vulnerable extends beyond pure counter trafficking measures. The Project also assists ECOWAS in its efforts to better manage and mainstream the concept of Mixed Migration as evidenced by FMM’s involvement in updating the 2011/2012 edition of the Joint IOM, UNHCR and ECOWAS Manual “Protecting Refugees and Other Persons on the Move in the ECOWAS Space”. The manual has been completed with a Trainers’ guide that was piloted during a regional event on Mixed Migration held in May 2018 including a high-level panel discussion, a regional training and the setup of the MIDWA regional working group on Mixed Migration.

In the field of immigration and border management, the project has supported the ECOWAS Free Movement and Tourism Directorate through successful organization of three Heads of Immigration meetings (2014, 2016, 2017). Improving the skills of our ECOWAS Immigration partners is extremely important to the project. In this regard, FMM organized a high-level Master Class on Identity Management in 2015 for the region’s immigration and border officials. Even though it is in its 42nd year of existence, the Free Movement Protocol has not been fully implemented. Some of the obstacles include lack of proper travel document and effective implementation of the existing instruments. Cognizant of that, FMM developed a Roadmap for the Roll-out of the National Biometric ID Card (NBIC) as well as the first draft of the ECOWAS Border Management and Free Movement manuals. In May 2017, the manuals were pilot tested during two distinct regional trainings to evaluate their quality and usability as a training manual and to identify possible content gaps. The manuals have been submitted for final validation to the ECOWAS guide and they were incorporated into the final version of the Trainer’s Guide. The manual was presented at the 2017 Heads of Immigration meeting held on 3 – 4 August 2017 where it was recommended for approval at the subsequent Council of Ministers’ meeting to effect its operationalization across the 15 MS. Meanwhile, the Border Management State and Government. Demand Driven Facility (DDF) has successfully completed the action at the regional level for a scalable end-user training strategy using both the Border Management and the Free Movement Manuals developed under this component. Three regional ToTs involving border officers from the 15 member states already took place

The project has supported labour migration initiatives through the implementation of the ECOWAS General Convention on social security through the development of a roadmap following the validation of a study on the ECOWAS Member states’ social security and their consistency with the General Convention, the development of labour market information system in the region and the extension of the experience of “Accueil-Emploi” a job matching database in all ECOWAS Member states. Support has also been provided to the harmonization of labour laws in ECOWAS through the development of a draft Directive on the harmonization of labour laws. The project provided support to ECOWAS Tripartite Social Dialogue Forum for 2014, 2015 and 2017. The capacity building on labour migration issues of key Staff of the ECOWAS Commission, other ECOWAS Institutions and social Partners has also been one of the priorities of the project during the last three years of implementation. ECOWAS staff has participated at the Labour Migration Academy in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. A tailor-made training workshop on the Governance of labour migration in the ECOWAS region was conducted for ECOWAS Staff from the 30 May to 1 June 2017 in Abuja. The project in collaboration with another social security project funded by the European Commission in May 2018 established the committee of expert for the monitor the operationalization of the ECOWAS General Convention on Social Security.

To strengthen the capacities of the ECOWAS Commission to lead policy development and harmonization in migration data collection and management, a regional workshop on migration data management was held from March 15 – 18, 2016, bringing together key officials from the ECOWAS Commission who manage migration issues, representatives from the national statistics offices of Member States, and international development partners in the field of migration data. Amongst other things, the workshop focused on developing structures for improving migration data collection in the region. By January 2017 the guidelines for the harmonization of migration data management in the ECOWAS region were drafted with the support of IOM GMDAC and submitted for the approval of ECOWAS. In May 2017, the guidelines were piloted through a Training of Trainers with representative from the Member States, ECOWAS and researchers. The cascade trainings in the member states started in the second semester of 2017 and targeted all the stakeholders involved in the collection, management and analysis of migration data. To this date 13 out of 15 cascade trainings took place (see national component).

FMM is currently reinforcing the ECOWAS Commission’s capacities in the area of migration data management, immigration and border management, labour migration management and counter- trafficking. Through the realization of several baseline assessments, the Project identified the existing capacities and needs of the ECOWAS Humanitarian and Social Affairs Directorate, Free Movement of Persons Directorate and other relevant Directorates in the above-mentioned areas. Based on the results of these assessments, the Project started to implement follow-up activities that are aligned with the ECOWAS Commission’s capacities and needs

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During the period under review, progress has been made towards strengthening the Migration Dialogue for West Africa (MIDWA) as a structured, fact-based and result oriented intra-regional dialogue on migration under the leadership of the ECOWAS Commission, with the formal approval of the creation of MIDWA institutions including the regional Secretariat and eight thematic working groups. An additional institution, the national secretariat, will be substituted by a structured relation between the MIDWA institutions and the national Committee on Migration in order reinforce sustainability and avoid duplication of concertation structures. In February 2018, the Regional Secretariat approved the work plan and the budget for 2018-2019 to ensure continuity of activities beyond the FMM program.

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In line with the priorities identified by the baseline assessment on immigration and border management undertaken by the action in its initial implementation phase, FMM started providing advisory services and technical support to the ECOWAS Commission’s Free Movement of Persons and Tourism Directorate with the aim of implementing of the ECOWAS National Biometric Identity Card (NBIC) decision. The introduction of the NBIC is among the top priorities for the ECOWAS Heads of States and seeks to further promote safe and facilitated regional travel of ECOWAS citizens. At the request of the Free Movement and Tourism Directorate, the Project developed the ECOWAS training Manuals on Border Management and Free Movement. These ECOWAS training tools will enable the ECOWAS Commission to support and ensure comprehensive, high-quality and standardized training of ECOWAS Member States’ immigration officials and officers dealing with labour migration.

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On counter-trafficking, the Project supported the Trafficking in Persons (TiP) Unit of the ECOWAS Commission in the development of its new Plan of Action on Combating Trafficking in Persons, based on an assessment of the impact of the previous plan of Action. Furthermore, the Project contributed to strengthening the ECOWAS TiP Unit’s Annual Review Meeting. Through the Project, efforts were made to re-establish contact between the ECOWAS TiP Unit and Cabo Verde, which had been dormant since 2009. This resulted in the appointment of a new National Focal Point (NFP) for TiP in Cabo Verde, and the active participation of two of its representatives in the 2014, and 2016 Annual Review Meeting. Cabo Verde’s presence at the 2014 Annual Review Meeting was its first time in five years. In the 2015 Annual Review Meeting, the Project again provided both technical expertise and logistical support to the ECOWAS TiP Unit. Two representatives each from 13 ECOWAS Member States participated in the meeting. Cabo Verde and Mali were, unfortunately, not represented. However, FMM organized the participation of two delegates from Mauritania as observers. Due to budget constraints, ECOWAS was unable to organize a review meeting in 2016, however, an Annual review meeting was organized in 2017, with representatives from 14 MS and 2 representatives from Mauritania as observers.

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The project also strengthened the capacity of the ECOWAS TiP unit on monitoring and evaluation through the development of a new reporting template for MS. This template is already being used (from 2018) by Member States in submitting annual reports to ECOWAS on the implementation of the Plan of Action at the national level. These reports are used in compiling the Annual Synthesis report on the implementation of the ECOWAS Plan of Action. The project has supported the compilation of the synthesis report for the year 2012/2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Two staff members from ECOWAS TiP Unit and 11 National Focal Point members from 11 Member States have their capacities strengthened on various thematic issues related to human trafficking, child labour, forced labour and training methodology by ITC/ILO. Over 190 anti-human trafficking stakeholders were reported to have been trained by the trained NFPs from Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Ghana. The project also conducted a rapid assessment on ‘Tools to Strengthen Cooperation Mechanisms in the enforcement of Laws against Human Trafficking in West Africa and Mauritania’. The study was presented at a sub-regional collaboration meeting under the DDF. The project also supported the initiation for the review of ECOWAS Child Policy and the development of a Strategic Framework for child protection in West Africa.

Within the migration and protection sector, the FMM program supported the elaboration of the ECOWAS manual and trainers’ guide on Mixed Migration. UNHCR contributed to elaborate the chapter on statelessness and the IOM lead expert completed the manual and the trainers’ package. Representatives of the ECOWAS Member States and Mauritania were trained during a regional ToT that took place in Saly, Senegal in May 2018. The trainees remain as the respective national focal points for matters related to Mixed Migration through the regional coordination of the MIDWA homonymous working group.

With regards to activities on labour migration, key recommendations have been made towards the development of labour market information systems and development of database for the ECOWAS Member States public employment services as a strategic response to labour migration governance. In addition, the capacity of key staff of the ECOWAS Commission was built through their participation in the 2014, 2015, and 2016 ILO Labour Migration Academy in Turin and through a tailor-made training workshop held in 2017 involving all relevant ECOWAS Directorates, the ECOWAS Court of Justice, ECOWAS parliament and regional social partners ‘organizations (workers and employers).

The capacity of the Directorate of Research and Statistics was further enhanced through expert advice, information exchange and exposure to international forums on migration data. From 20-22 June 2017, one staff of the Directorate was sponsored to participate in the United Nations Expert Group Meeting tagged Improving Migration Data in the Context of the 2030 Agenda which was held at New York, USA. The project has continued to advocate for mainstreaming migration data activities in the Regional Statistics Strategy as well as strengthening the linkages between migration data and policies. The project also developed the Migration Data collection Tool (ECOMIS) to enable Member State collect data under 12 indicators and also ECOWAS to aggregate data submitted by member state.

Towards promoting EU-ECOWAS dialogue and donor coordination, the project organized a meeting in Accra in February 2016) on the implementation of the Valletta Action plan by ECOWAS Member States. The meeting aimed at supporting the ECOWAS Commission in promoting their strategy on migration and free movement of persons, mobilize resources to meet its strategic objectives and strengthen coordination between the ECOWAS Commission, development partners and actors engaged in the migration field.