Opening remarks by Amb. Olawale Maiyegun, AU Director of Social Affairs, at the Labour Migration Statistics Validation Workshop – 29th September-1st October 2015, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

I start by wishing you, on behalf of the Commissioner for Social Affairs, a warm welcome in Addis Ababa and at this particular gathering for a technical session on labour migration statistics. We are making breakthrough in one of the strategic deliverables of the AU-ILO-IOM-ECA Labour Migration Governance for Development and Integration in Africa, which is a comprehensive blueprint for managing labour migration with a focus on flows within the continent.

It is worth mentioning that the said programme was endorsed by the AU Assembly of Heads of States during its session in January 2015, as means to facilitate the implementation of one of the Six Key Priority Areas of the Declaration and Plan of Action on Employment, Poverty Eradication and Inclusive Development adopted the same date. Though the main goal is the creation of decent jobs at home for youth and women in particular, it is also recognized that labour migration can reduce unemployment, including through remittances and skills transfers.

The meeting is also a significant milestone on the implementation of the AU Labour Market Information System Harmonization and Coordination Framework, adopted in April 2011 by the AU Conference of Ministers of Labour, and further endorsed by the Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance before the blessing of the Assembly of Heads of States and Governments. This Framework is crafted in line with the AU Charter on Statistics and is under the joint stewardship of the Department of Social Affairs and the Department of Economic Affairs.

Allow me to underscore the importance of your work to remove an impediment to good governance of labour mobility in Africa, by quoting the Joint Programme:

“A major constraint is absence of reliable, accurate and comprehensive data on labour migration, on migrant workers as well as on labour markets. Existing data is primarily ‘movement’ data, at best providing some indication of stocks and flows, while there is little or no data on migrants’ skills and employment profiles, labour market participation, conditions of work, or social protection coverage.”

As a global concern, migration has prompted the new Sustainable Development Goals, under its Systemic issues, to “enhance capacity-building support to developing countries... to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts”.

Availability of reliable, accurate statistics on labour migration will lead to a balanced understanding of the phenomenon in the continent and a well-informed debate and policy making in an area where anxiety and xenophobia shadow the benefits of labour migration. This will permit Member States to elaborate an evidenced based, statistically supported, safe and orderly national labour migration policy, according to the Joint Programme.

Increasing global and regional economic integration has a direct impact on prospects for the movement of people. At global level, the Sustainable Development Goal calls to “Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies”. It is easy to foresee that the new momentum of regional integration at the level of the RECs and at continental level, in particular with the Continental Free Trade Area, will be an accelerator of the labour migration in the continent, along the line with improvements in transportation and communication.

Indeed, ECOWAS policy frameworks on free movement of persons as well as on trade and their well-working administrative procedure explain why citizen of its member states migrate more within the region than out of the region. These frameworks anticipated the above call of the Sustainable Development Agenda, though there are still rooms for improvement. Other RECs will reach this level soon and this will result in significant accelerated labour migration in the whole continent. This will be to the benefits of the continent.

These trends request increased and better management of labour migration statistics and data. It is crucial that the National Statistic Offices take the natural lead. However, there is need to work with the other stakeholders, in particular the ministry of labour and its relevant administrations. To this effect, it is my plea that Member States set up national LMIS coordination Unit, involving the social partners, as requested by the LMIS-Framework. The Commission will provide technical support in collaboration with the ILO.

I am pleased that we have been able to devise an innovative and credible approach to progressively develop a labour migration data and statistics system in Africa. For a first attempt, more than 40 National focal persons were nominated by National Statistics Office of Member States. Member States actively participated in the data collection process by completing the International Labour Migration Questionnaire (ILMQ), building on ILO experience in the ASEAN region.

At this juncture of my statement, I fell honored to thank the NSOs of Member States for such a laudable engagement. We also understand that this is a kind of test requiring that over the next three days, you work on the definitions, and concepts, sources, gaps, inconsistencies, etc unveiled in the process. It is essential that, further to the validation of labour migration data gathered, you define appropriate strategies and mechanisms for improving data collection of labour migration statistics in Africa. We are grateful to Member States for permitting all of us to be proud to be among the architects of the first edition of labour migration statistics in Africa report which will be published in 2015.

As we move toward the implementation of the Declaration and Plan of Action on Employment, Poverty Eradication and Inclusive Development, the Commission seeks the active collaboration of the NSOs in Member States in view of defining national baseline to support the monitoring and evaluation process of this important policy.

The Commission will seize the opportunity of your gathering to start sharing a model of baseline which also bridges with the AU Agenda 2063 related goals and targets. In the same vein, you will also have the opportunity to be informed about the AU Minimum List of Employment and TVET Indicators which I am glad to observe that Member States have already started to use to inspire their Labour Force Survey at home.

I thank the international partners engaged in the Joint Initiative. I call upon the ILO to work with the Member States and step up its technical assistance to strengthen the national collection and analysis mechanisms for better quality labour migration statistics.

I wish you successful [deliberations] and wait for the conclusions for follow-up.

Thank you for your attention.