News

Following the Thematic Meeting on Awareness Raising Campaigns, hosted by The Netherlands between the 19th-20th of June, a series of videos have been produced to capture some of the content of the meeting. A number of speakers present at the meeting have agreed to summarise their views in a short video format. 

In this first video of the series, Bram Frouws, Head of Mixed Migration Centre (MMC), talks about Mixed Migration trends in the Horn of Africa with focus on Eastern & Southern routes, and shares some thoughts & findings on risks, drivers, decision making, information sources and risk awareness.

The rest of the series will be made available in the Media section of the Khartoum Process website here.

Within the framework of the Khartoum Process, a Thematic Meeting on Awareness Raising Campaigns was organised on 19 – 20 June, in The Hague, Netherlands. The meeting, hosted by The Netherlands and co-hosted by Ethiopia, brought together representatives of Khartoum Process Member States as well as a wide range of practitioners working with INGOs, NGOs and social enterprises active in the field of migration management. The meeting was centered on the issues of impact and effectiveness of awareness raising campaigns and how do awareness raising campaigns fit in the broader context of policy coherence and whole of government approach to managing migration in countries of origin, transit, and destination.

Furthermore, the meeting aimed at taking stock of various types of awareness raising campaigns implemented by organisations such as UNHCR, IOM, Seefar and others, as well as Khartoum Process member states such as Ethiopia, Egypt, Germany or the UK, but also regionally within the African Union. Some of the key issues underlined during the meeting included:

• Successful awareness raising campaigns have generally been aimed at entire communities, rather than potential migrants only, while messages coming from trusted sources (such as family members, community leaders, celebrities and high profile individuals) are more likely to trigger a change in attitudes and, ultimately, in behaviours. The likelihood of success is further increased by a thorough understanding of the communication habits of the target audience and developing messages that take this into account, i.e in an accessible language, via an accessible medium etc.
• Monitoring and evaluation of past and ongoing campaigns are essential in understanding the impact of such campaigns and improving future efforts to raise awareness and prevent the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in human beings, with the caveat that it is often difficult to measure changes in attitudes and behaviours, as well as attributing change to specific interventions.
• Reliable data and evidence on irregular migration should be at the basis of every awareness raising campaign.
• The importance of integrating awareness raising campaigns within broader socio-economic development policies as well as directing potential migrants to legal migration pathways.

Throughout the thematic meeting, electronic opinion polling was used at different moments to enable the audience to express its opinion on specific aspects of the topic.

Moving forward, participants concluded that the topic deserves further exploration, particularly in terms of identifying ways of enhancing coordination and coherence, with the aim of maximising the cumulative impact of such efforts and prevent overlap and inconsistent messages.

Event photo gallery available here.

A meeting highlights video is available here.

The Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) of the Khartoum Process took place in Nairobi, Kenya, on 8^th May 2018, following a Steering Committee meeting, and was chaired by the 2018 Italian Chair of the Process.  The meeting was dedicated to the Khartoum Process state of play, an update on the related projects, and the implementation of Thematic Meetings’ Conclusions through a possible stock-taking exercise in the coming months. The roadmap to the 2018 Joint Valletta Action Plan (JVAP) SOM, which is scheduled to take place in mid-November 2018 in Addis Ababa, as well as the contribution of the Khartoum Process to this important meeting, were deliberated upon. The questions of governance, namely the future chairmanship of the Process in 2019 and the expansion of the Steering Committee, were addressed.

The SOM was followed by the Thematic Meeting on Data Collection and Management, on the 9th of May, which was hosted and chaired by Kenya. The Meeting offered the participating states an opportunity to share practical insights and knowledge on the data collection mechanisms as well as data management, analysis, and dissemination. An overview of key concepts and definitions was provided, thereby laying ground for the informed discussion regarding the data collection and management practices in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region as well as in the individual countries, such as Kenya, Italy, and Malta. Data collection management that ensures the accumulation of country-specific or regional findings for the purposes of informed policy- and decision-making was placed in the centre of the discussion. Additionally, the use of the available data, including for the purposes of optimisation of migration management, was deliberated upon. As a means of discussing possible ways forward and setting priority actions that could help reduce data gaps, on the one hand, and promote a better use of existing data sources, on the other hand, the Regional Operational Centre Khartoum (ROCK) Meeting charted the avenues for the operationalisation of data. Furthermore, an overview and a live demonstration of the activities and outputs of the Knowledge Centre on Migration and Demography (KCMD), which include accurate and relevant knowledge and analysis to the EU policymakers pertaining to the migration data, was provided. In conclusion, with the aim to offer the Khartoum Process participants an opportunity to share their country’s experience, good practices, and approaches as well as related challenges pertaining to the Data Collection and Management, a round-table discussion resulted in a fruitful exchange on the subject matter and laid the ground for further activities in the framework of the Khartoum Process.

An introductory online training to the Joint Valletta Action Plan (JVAP) monitoring database will begin in February. This training is offered to all JVAP partners to help them easily and effectively use the JVAP monitoring database. It is essential to ensure the success of the next Valletta Senior Officials Meeting, in Addis Ababa - Ethiopia. If not already done, the Khartoum Focal Points are invited to nominate as soon as possible a Contact Point, supporting them in the data collection and entry process.

Nominations shall be submitted by latest 9^th February to the JVAP team: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

On 7th December 2017, Members of the Khartoum Process met in Rome, for the last Senior Official’s meeting of the year which solidified Ethiopia’s handover of its Chairmanship of the Process to Italy.

Italy made reference to the Rome Declaration, adopted at the Ministerial Conference in Rome in 2014, whereby the members of the Process agreed to assist participating states in tackling human trafficking and smuggling between the Horn of Africa and Europe. Three years later, those present again in Rome agreed on the need for an assessment of achievements to date, with a view to explore further paths of cooperation through a range of dedicated thematic meeting and trainings put forward as a rich programme for the year.

The new Chair also stressed the importance of regarding migration as a transnational phenomenon which as a result cannot be addressed by one state alone and therefore requires a high degree of coordination between the EU and AU as well as between European and African partner countries; both continents should work together towards common goals.

 As well as a review of the Projects and initiatives under the Programme, the meeting more broadly looked to the preparation of the Joint Valletta Action Plan (JVAP) Senior Officials Meeting foreseen for the 2^nd quarter of 2018. This meeting will, amongst other topic discussions, look concretely at the means of implementation of projects under the JVAP priority actions as its framework for follow up and review.

In November 2017, in Sudan, Members of the Khartoum Process met for their 7^th thematic meeting since its inception. The theme: addressing the root causes of irregular migration.

Since its inception, the Process has acknowledged the importance of addressing the root causes/drivers of irregular migration. Its 2014 Rome Declaration lays emphasis on "addressing the push and pull factors, and the root causes of irregular migration and mixed migration flows between Africa and Europe and underlining in this context the importance of promoting sustainable development, in line with the global development agenda".

The meeting, which took place on 22^nd and 23^rd November in Khartoum, focussed on the factors behind irregular migratory movements on both national and regional levels, with the aim of better understanding the drivers of irregular migration in the specific context of Khartoum Process countries. In this respect, the meeting encouraged partner countries to target strategies and policies in country, in  response to the fruitful discussions of the meeting where gaps where idenitified and best practices shared.

On 8^th and 9^th November, the Trilateral Meeting between the representatives of the AU-Horn of Africa Initiative, the Khartoum Process, and the Rabat Process took place in Luxor, hosted by Egypt.

Delegates, country representatives and international organisations as well as experts from all three Processes, engaged in a series of plenary and breakout sessions throughout the two day meeting. What ensued were fruitful discussions between the representatives of all Processes on the matters of migrant smuggling and trafficking of people, focusing on unaccompanied minors, where participants agreed to enhance operational synergies, advance joint efforts in addressing the common challenges, and expedite information flow between the processes.

Endorsed Chair’s conclusions will follow in due course.

Photos of the meeting were taken by Ziad Abdelbasit and can be found here.