Migration Management and Policy

Migration is becoming an increasingly complex area of governance, inextricably linked to issues of economic and social development, human rights, security, stability and regional cooperation. The ability to address migration issues comprehensively and cooperatively is today a fundamental requirement for responsible national governance, effective international relations and full participation in international or regional institutions.

The challenges facing governments are complex and include: reducing irregular migration, promoting the rights of migrants, protecting the most vulnerable, reducing economic pressures that influence outward migration and directing regular migration to strategic national goals.

Effective migration management is increasingly a matter of effective joint management among states – identifying, shaping and working to the achievement of shared goals.

IOM’s Regional Office for Southern Africa, assists governments in Southern Africa with migration management and policy issues through:
The Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa Process
The Technical Cooperation on Migration Management programme

Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA)

Since the establishment of its Regional Office for Southern Africa in Pretoria, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has promoted the need for the regional co-ordination on migration management within the Southern Africa region. In the absence of regional Migration Protocol, there exists no formal mechanism in the Southern African Development Community to coordinate migration management.

As part of globally on-going Regional Consultative Processes on Migration (RCPs), IOM’s Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA) aims to fill this gap and foster informal regional dialogue and cooperation on migration-related issues.

The MIDSA initiative is a collaborative effort between IOM and its partner, the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP). IOM and SAMP are the main facilitators of the MIDSA workshops, which bring together senior government officials from SADC countries to discuss and agree upon migration-related issues of regional concern. Sixteen governments currently participate with senior officials from two to three ministries/departments from each country. MIDSA operates by organising workshops two to three times per year.

MIDSA initiative creates a framework for a regular migration dialogue that includes:

• Provision of a forum in which to build trust and confidence between participating SADC migration officials;
• Promotion of the positive aspects of migration among SADC Member States;
• Development of regional institutional capacities to deal with migration, while strengthening the capacity of Governments to meet their migration challenges in a comprehensive, interactive, self-reliant and, ultimately, sustainable way;

MIDSA workshops have addressed migration and development; migration management; labour migration; forced migration; migration health; and irregular migration concerns such as human trafficking and migrant smuggling.

Donors have included: DFID; The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC); US State Department (PRM) and the South African Department of Foreign Affairs.

IOM is involved in numerous regional consultative processes on migration (RCPs) across the globe. In 2006 and 2007 MIDSA invited speakers on other RCPs, notably The Puebla Process, The Bali Process, The 5+5 Dialogue and The Colombo Process, with the aim of fostering further inter-RCP contacts.

Please click here to read the MIDSA Workshop Reports.