Commissioner Piebalgs at the launch of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Observatory on Migration
On Thursday evening Commissioner Piebalgs participated in the closing session of the launch of the ACP Observatory. The Commissioner said: «South-South migration flows tend to receive less attention than South-North movements. Yet, the number of people migrating from a Southern country to another is extremely important and has impact on development. The ACP Observatory on migration will help us to have a clearer view on these migratory flows and to shape adequate policies.»
The European Commission and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries worked together to create the ACP Observatory on Migration. This new body will provide reliable data and information on migration flows in ACP countries. The objective is to design better policies to enhance the migration contribution to development. The Observatory will cover all six ACP regions and start in twelve pilot countries, namely Angola, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Papua-New-Guinea, Senegal, Tanzania, Timor-Leste and Trinidad and Tobago.
The ACP Observatory on Migration will tackle existing data and information gaps and will improving policy-oriented knowledge on migration flows of ACP countries. Indeed, available data on ACP migration is often scarce and sometimes unreliable. As a consequence, in many countries, migrants’ needs are not taken into account appropriately.
The Observatory will introduce an innovative approach to enhance research capacities in ACP countries and provide policy makers with the tools to improve their actions. Research will focus on key topics such as, labour migration, migration and health, remittances, brain drain/gain, forced migration and climate change.
The Observatory will foster networking and cooperation between research institutions, private researchers and government agencies. It will be placed under the responsibility of the Secretariat of the ACP Group and funded by the European Union. The total budget for the project is around € 9.4 million. The European Union contributes with around €8 million financed from the 9th European Development Fund.
Read the Commissioner's blog entry on the topic
Visit the observatory's website
