Context
The Horn of Africa is characterized by sometimes lacking rule of law as well as internal and cross-border conflicts and natural disasters. The region is home to more than three and a half million of refugees and about eight million IDPs, due to armed conflict, individual persecution, serious human rights violations or by natural disasters.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is a regional organization of states in the Horn of Africa, which supports its members in areas such as peacekeeping and integration. Its member states include Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda, Sudan and South Sudan. The majority of member states are simultaneously countries of origin, transit and receiving countries of migrants and refugees.
The " New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants" of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR ) is the politically binding framework for two global pacts: the "Global Compact for refugees" on the distribution of burdens and protection of refugees as well as the "Global Compact for Migration" , which sets out the principles of safe, orderly and regular migration.
In this context IGAD is facilitating a regional approach for Somali refugees and plays also an important role in the implementation of the "Global Compact for Migration ". Apart from the potential of IGAD a strong focus is on national coordination and implementation, as well as cross-border cooperation.
Objective
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is strengthened to implement its mandate for migration and refugee.
Approach
As the first regional organization IGAD adopted in 2012 a regional policy framework on migration and refugee. On this basis IGAD formulated a migration action plan. Even the Nairobi action plan , pooling measures for the long-term solutions for Somali refugees in the IGAD member countries and to return and reintegrate Somali refugees.
As a regional organization IGAD has the mandate, to harmonize regional and national migration policies, to implement global policy processes, to facilitate the knowledge management as well as to promote dialogue and cross-border cooperation. The project improves the conditions to implement international, continental and regional frameworks in the area of migration and refugees through regional and national workshops and consultations with the IGAD - Member States.
In addition, the project supports IGAD initiatives and local administrations in providing services for host communities, refugees and migrants in selected border regions. Furthermore it supports to gather learning experiences and data on migration and refugees in the IGAD region. At the same time the dialogue between state and non-state actors - such are statistics offices and research institutions – are supported.