Improving institutional capacity to govern labour migration in North and West Africa

In many countries of North and West Africa, labour force growth has outstripped employment growth and has put pressure on the national labour markets' absorptive capacities. Migration movements have been increasing in complexity and are reorienting policy directions.

The North African countries besides being the countries of origin of migration streams have also become major conduits for people migrating for work from the Sub-Saharan Africa. The policy restrictions of the European countries have also highlighted irregular migration to Europe where the countries of North Africa are being used as bases for these movements. A more orderly conduct of these diverse migration streams is required and the main challenges confronting North and West African regions arise out the realization that there is a need to strengthen the institutional capacity for governing labour migration, to produce a stronger awareness among stakeholders on migration issues and to establish specific international cooperation and collaboration mechanisms between countries and regions to better regulate labour migration as a tool for development. The ILO Regional Office for Africa, in close collaboration with the ILO International Migration Programme in Geneva, is implementing a project on Improving institutional capacity to govern labour migration in North and West Africa, with the financial support of the Spanish government. The project seeks the realization and maximization of benefits from international labour migration for the development of both countries of origin and destination by undertaking actions focused on promoting good governance and effective management of labour migration, based on ILO's Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration.

Additional information can be obtained from Ms. Patricia Isimat-Mirin, Senior International Migration Project Officer, ILO MIGRANT, Tel: +41.22.799.78.64, E-mail: isimat@ilo.org and Ms. Marie-Josée Da Silva Ribeiro, International Migration Project Officer, ILO MIGRANT, Tel: +41.22.799.7430, E-mail: dasilvaribeiro@ilo.org.