Kampala - Reliable data is key to managing migration. With this in mind, the UN Migration Agency IOM, with the support of the Better Migration Management (BMM) programme, collaborated with Uganda’s Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) in organizing training workshop in Entebbe on 25-27 February for members of the National Coordination Mechanism on Migration (NCM) on migration data management.

A key objective of the training was to strengthen the capacity of government officials and other stakeholders to collect reliable and comprehensive data on migration, as a way to advance understanding of issues and to promote evidence-based policies.

Participants at the Entebbe workshop were members of the National Coordination Mechanism on Migration (NCM). Chaired by Office of the Prime Minister, the NCM includes officials from the Ministries of Internal Affairs; Foreign Affairs; Education and Sports; as well as Gender, Labour and Social Development. Other members are from Uganda Bureau of Statistics, academia, UN agencies, and non-governmental organizations. The NCM, established by Government of Uganda in 2015, promotes a whole-of-Government approach to migration by bringing together relevant Government and non-state actors to deliberate on current and emerging migration issues.

The BMM is a regional, multi-year and multi-partner programme funded by the EU Trust Fund for Africa and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), coordinated by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). IOM is one of the main implementing partners alongside UNODC, GIZ, Expertise France, Italian Department of Public Security, CIVIPOL and the British Council. Apart from Kenya, BMM also covers Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.

The BMM has already supported training on international migration law, and in migration and development. It also funded a benchmarking mission by Uganda’s NCM members to their counterparts in Kenya.

“BMM programme has not only built the capacity of NCM members in migration management but has also brought the members together to discuss about migration issues for purposes of policy development”, explained NCM Chairperson Douglas Asiimwe.

The workshop was facilitated by data analysis experts from IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Center (GMDAC) as well as experts from Uganda Bureau of Statistics, among others.

Speaking on the first day of the workshop IOM Uganda Chief of Mission Ali Abdi said: “Globally, migration flows and their drivers are becoming increasingly fluid and complex. The current situation in Uganda is no exception, as the country is responding to different concurrent inflows and outflows of migrants and refugees.”
Abdi added that “rigorously-collected and analyzed migration data” was now imperative for the understanding of multi-faceted challenges and opportunities arising from migration. “The lack of reliable and up-to-date data collection methodologies [would] jeopardize our ability to meet acute humanitarian needs of affected populations in a timely manner,” he said.

IOM and the government of Uganda have worked hand on hand to improve migration data through pilot activities such as Flow Monitoring Points (FMPs), as well as the establishment of a border migration information system at official points of entry.

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For more information please contact, Erika De Bona Fofana, IOM Uganda Programme Coordinator: edebona@iom.int