APN Migration Platform 

End of Year Report 2022

By E.K.Bensah Jr

Deputy Executive Director 

22 December, 2022

Although the year has ended reminding us about the centrality of migrants to development, with the celebration of Migrant’s Day on 18 December, we also received a solemn reminder that the paucity of coverage in the media speaks to an important necessity of re-shaping messaging around migration. Despite the launch of maiden edition of Africa Migration Report in October 2020, and work on the second edition underway already, it is clear much work needs to be done to give visibility to international Migration.

With the year fast winding down, it has become important for us to revisit some of the highlights of 2022 and assess the extent to which we gave greater coverage to Migration governance.

In 2022, our greatest work started in February 2022, when APN TradeNews newsletter was created to help amplify the work of APN around media sensitization of AfCFTA and the larger Agenda 2063. The newsletter did not start of offering coverage on Migration governance as a priority, but we know this will change in 2023.

By April, the month of the APN-IOM webinar, we were poised to offer our first ever joint APN-IOM webinar.

Entitled “The State of Peace & Security in Africa: A Look at the Sahel Coups as a Threat to Free-er Mobility of Persons and Trade Regimes in Africa”, the webinar used experts to help unpack how the-then spate of coups in the Sahel inhibited development of what had largely been a region that had been enjoying free movement since 1979. The response to the webinar was positive, with plans to do a follow-up. Recordings and communication products for the webinar are available upon request. 

Earlier in April, APN, through the Deputy Executive Director, had been invited as a panelist to speak on a webinar organized by Afrobarometer. which was entitled “Beyond borders: African views on self-reliant development, free trade and open borders”.

This webinar requested APN to serve as partners and discussants, which we gladly did to what would prove to be a lively discussion.

Also in April, APN, represented by Deputy Executive Director, participated as a speaker in CARISCA’s flagship conference, entitled “Supply Chain Implications of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on Africa.” 

In May, we shared regular updates of the AU Extraordinary Summit, which focused on “Humanitarian and Pledging Conference” for the establishment of an AU Humanitarian agency.

Kindly find below some of the highlights of postings on APN Migration throughout 2022:

  • we set up Wednesdays as Agenda 2063 day as a way of reminding our members and followers of the centrality of the Agenda 2063 narrative
  • the AU announced the launch of an AU Humanitarian agency
  • in May, the 4th Ordinary Session of STC on Migration, Refugees, IDPS took place
  • the Secretariat of Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) launched a 74-page book on SACU@15
  • The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) revealed the desire to establish an African Credit Rating Agency. 
  • IOM Addis contracted APN to do communication outputs around videos of maiden edition of Africa Migration Report (AMR)
  • IOM Senior Staff from regional offices were featured, and interviewed by Host and Deputy ED Bensah. There has been a call to memorialize these meetings in some kind of infographic
  • APN’s E K Bensah was featured in GIZ’s annual report 2021. Bensah revealed how Tana Forum helped change perspective on AU’s work on peace and security and GIZ’s role in it.
  • In the news, we revealed how ECOWAS had undergone a one-week trip to East Africa’s Busia Border
  • APN Migration made progress in establishing a YouTube account, which was where the videos submitted by IOM to APN were uploaded. 
  • Deputy Executive Director Bensah was, in May, invited to speak about AU Day on Ghana’s MX24 Channel
  • In June, APN Secretariat finally opened its Secretariat at CiTA House, in Osu, off Labadi Beach Hotel. Janet Adama, of Peace & Conciliation Resources, was one of the first members to visit the office for a discussion about her Peace and security work
  • we shared a NEPAD Summary of challenges around Freedom of Movement Protocol (FMP) on whatsapp platform
  • In the news, we shared details about a massacre of migrants in Morocco.
  • On events,  APRM held its 3rd Youth Symposium in Uganda–to popular acclaim. The meeting reportedly trended on twitter under #APRMYouth
  • Still on events, APN held the second edition on “State of AfCFTA Trading” at the University of Ghana Business School.
  • DED Bensah introduced “Friday Wrap 14” as an opportunity to summarize developments on the platform every two weeks. 
  • Bensah shared two important stories: High-Level Summit in Accra on Reparations and African Business & Human Rights Forum
  • Bensah made a presentation to South Korea’s African Development Forum Talk Show, which focused on *Role of Freedom of Movement and Health in Context of AfCFTA Policy”
  • Bensah absorbed his consultancy work on migration health at IOM Regional Office in Nairobi into the office of Deputy Executive Director.
  • DED Bensah attended APRM’s Technical Symposium on African Migration Governance in Cape Town, South Africa in December 2022.

PLANS FOR 2023

  1. APN will continue to shadow APRM’s advocacy on building global solidarity around migration, including developments around the Migration Dialogue, and African Migration Conference, both scheduled for 2023
  2. APN will use APN Migration platforms as a one-stop shop on updates around
    1. SAATM
    2. FMP
    3. AfCFTA, Peace & Security
  3. APN will use platforms for continuous popularization of FMP, and AMR 1, with updates, including on ratifications, especially on @APNMigration on twitter
  4. APN will build strategic partnership with ECOWAS Business News to amplify and ramify Migration governance 
  5. APN, through Office of DED, will offer updates around the state of migration health, regional integration, and FMP since August 2022
  6. APN to reprise #AfCFTA4X4 identifying 4 different countries
  7. APN will continue *Friday Wrap 14*
  8. APN will offer relevant updates around a visa-free Africa, including visa updates.

www.twitter.com/APNMigration

www.afcftapolicy.net

ENDS

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