By Richard M Kavuma

The IOM Uganda Chief of Mission, Sanusi Tejan Savage, has emphasized the importance of collaboration and concerted action among entities tasked with migration governance.
Mr Savage spoke in Entebbe on 20 February, at a training workshop for government officials on the Migration Governance Framework in respect of the Flexible Mechanism on Migration and Displacement. 
The workshop was a component of a collaborative initiative between IOM, UNHCR and the Government of Uganda, with funding from the European Union. Titled “European Union Support to Uganda’s engagement on forced displacement and migration”. The project aims to strengthen Uganda’s national and sub-national institutions and systems to address the challenges of forced displacement and migration.
The Entebbe workshop is the first of three, with the others soon to follow in Mbarara and Fort Portal. Addressing the opening session, Mr Savage reiterated that the crosscutting nature of migration governance makes cooperation an operational imperative.
“Migration governance is a cross-cutting issue with various key actors and mandates; If we talk about labour mobility, it has key actors like the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If we talk about Refugees, we think of the Office of the Prime Minister, but also of border control (Ministry of Internal Affairs).  For human trafficking – we think about Internal Affairs, Directorate of Public Prosecution,” Mr Savage said.
He added: “If we can revitalize inter-ministerial cooperation; if we can strengthen inter-departmental collaboration; if we can breathe new life into inter-agency thinking about migration challenges, we shall end up with stronger migration governance.”

Among the topics covered by trainers included: Migration governance indicators and actors; Humanitarian-Peace-Development Nexus in migration and displacement response; migration and refugees in the National Development Plan III; the role of policy; and migration data management.
The workshop was formally opened by Mr Irumba Roger Kaija, Under-Secretary for Relief, Disaster Management and Refugees in the Office of the Prime Minister. He, too, reiterated the importance of working together within the boundaries of statutory mandates. Migration, he said, has many actors with separate mandates derived from different laws. All actors needed to reflect on their respective mandates and work with others in a harmonious, complementary manner. 
“This workshop is helping all the stakeholders to be able to define clearly their role and particular contribution in respect of responding to migration and displacement,” Mr Kaija said. “We would want to harmonize our migration governance actions so that we move together in tandem with the expectations of Government from each entity.”
Mr Kaija talked up Uganda’s exemplary response to international displacement, with the country hosting 1.6 million refugees, among the largest number globally. 
In terms of migration governance in general, the country has the National Coordination Mechanism on Migration (NCM), which brings together several government and non-government entities, chaired by the Office of the Prime Minister. 
However, Uganda is yet to finalize its National Migration Policy (NMP), which has been in the pipeline for more than a decade. IOM has variously supported the NMP process, which is currently being coordinated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The present Flexible Mechanism project will further support the validation of the draft NMP at national and regional levels.