Kampala, Uganda, 29 November 2024 – Government Ministers from across the East African Community (EAC) regional bloc, with the support of IOM, the International Organization for Migration, have agreed on a 5-year ‘Action Plan’ on how to work more closely together to realise the benefits of migration.

The Minsters and other senior government officials from EAC Partner States, which include the Republic of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Kenya, teh Republic of Rwanda, the Federal Republic of Somalia, the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republic of Uganda, and the Republic of South Sudan, met at the 5-day East African Community Regional Consultative Process on Migration (EAC-RCP) in Entebbe, Uganda, last week, under the theme, “Harnessing and Consolidating the Benefits Accruing from Migration Within the Community”.

Migration continues to be a major issue shaping the region’s social and economic landscape and future, presenting both major challenges and opportunities. East Africa is home to over 300 million people, with 17 million displaced people and refugees, and close to 6 million international migrants. 

EAC countries have been implementing the EAC Common Market Protocol since 2010, which serves to facilitate the free movement of goods, persons, services, and capital within the region, resulting in a major growth in migration in the region, with people moving mainly for work and employment opportunities. And in June the EAC adopted a regional policy on labour migration with the aim of protecting migrant worker rights and harnessing the benefits of labour migration.

Ahead of the agreement on the Action Plan, Technical Experts, Permanent, Principal and Undersecretaries of relevant government ministries met in Entebbe to discuss critical issues surrounding immigration policies and practices in the region, including in areas of labour, border governance, health, and climate action. Ministers mainly drawn from the areas of labour, employment, and home affairs then signed an outcome report and adopted the 5-year plan.

The action plan focuses on EAC Partner States aligning and further integrating on various issues linked to migration, ranging from health, labour, climate change, environment, youth, gender, development, and border governance.

The newly adopted action plan will help facilitate policy dialogue, align migration policies, and enhance collaboration, with a view to strengthening the capacity of East African nations to manage migration more effectively, respond to its challenges, and exploit the opportunities it presents. 

“The issue of migration has been a challenge that we have been handling bilaterally. It is important that we have come together to draft a common strategy. This meeting lays the foundation for a very fruitful partnership and enables us (EAC) to identify the challenges around migration and deal with them.” Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, 1st Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for EAC Affairs, Republic of Uganda.

“IOM will continue to support the East African Community to implement the interventions outlined in the newly developed Action Plan. The Regional Consultative Process, RCP, continues to serve as an important platform for information exchange on migration trends and best practices”. Frantz Celestin, IOM Regional Director for East, Horn and Southern Africa. 

The EAC-RCP, which will now be held annually in one of the EAC member countries, where progress on the action plan will be extensively discussed at technical and policy level, while taking into consideration developments in international, continental and regional frameworks and commitments on migration.

The meeting was supported by the Better Migration Management Programme, funded by the European Union (EU) and Germany. BMM aims to promote safe, orderly, and regular migration, and support migration governance in the region. The programme is implemented by the British Council, CIVIPOL, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, IOM, and UNODC in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Uganda. 

For more information, please contact: 

Simon Peter Owaka, Senior Public Relations Officer, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Department, EAC Secretariat, on sowaka@eachq.org or call +255 768 552087

IOM East, Horn and Southern Africa Regional Office Media and Communication Unit on RONairobiMCU@iom.int or call +254 797 735 977