Geneva, Switzerland – IOM’s African Capacity Building Centre (IOM ACBC) celebrated its 10th Anniversary in Geneva on Friday September 13th, 2019.

The centre used the occasion to also launch one of its latest products and an important tool in Migration Management especially for Developing Countries, the Passport Examination Procedure Mobile Application (PEPM II App).

Representatives from IOM’s African Member States, donors, partners and IOM colleagues from the field and Head Quarters participated in the event. The Government of the United Republic of Tanzania that, is generously hosting the centre since its inception in 2009 was represented by the Commandant of the Tanzania Regional Immigration Training Academy (TRITA) in Moshi, where IOM ACBC is also located, Mr. Maurice Kitinusa.

IOM Chief of Mission to the United Republic of Tanzania and one of the two Supervisors of IOM ACBC, Dr. Qasim Sufi, opened the event by thanking the United Republic of Tanzania for generously hosting the centre in Moshi and for providing all necessary support for ACBC training participants as well as the IOM ACBC colleagues who he referred to as “professionals and tireless”.

"The outcome of the ACBC work will positively contribute into the implementation of:

1. Land mark decisions of the African Union (AU) i.e. the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of establishment,

2. United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),

3. Global Compact of Migration (GCM)", he added.

Mr. Nelson Goncalves, Senior IBM Training Specialist and IOM ACBC Manager presented current achievements in terms of trainings and trainees by IOM ACBC i.e. 241 and 6,500 beneficiaries respectively. This figure includes 40 Certified Trainers in all four major languages in the continent i.e. English, French, Arabic and Portuguese as well as Kiswahili, the main indigenous language in Africa.

Additionally, he demonstrated the PEPM app – developed by the IOM ACBC thanks to financial support from the Kingdom of the Netherlands – which is a staple in means of digitalized verification to maximize crossborder facilitation especially in remote border crossings in Africa and elsewhere as it works without internet once the App is downloaded.

The IOM ICT Director, Ms. Marietta Muwanga-Ssevume speaking in the event, underlined the steadily increasing need for advanced IT technology and systems such as artificial intelligence to meet needs and demands in the field of IBM by IOM Member States in this globalized world.

Mr. Florian Forster, Head of IOM IBM Division and the Second Supervisor of IOM ACBC in his closing remarks stated that, the centre is ready to widen its training portfolio to other important Migration domains i.e. Labor Migration and Migration Health to meet arising needs and demands of the African Member States provided required resources are secured.

Looking forward, some of IOM ACBC upcoming activities include promotion of Essentials of Migration Management 2.0: a program built for Government Officials that consists of 30 training modules. The pilot training will be carried out in Tanzania while rollout trainings will start towards the end of 2020.

IOM and the Government of Tanzania are at advanced stages of signing of a new 5-years Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on IOM ACBC which will enable, IOM, the UN Migration Agency to implement various initiatives in strengthening national institutions in the area of International Border Management in the foreseeable future.

For more information, please contact:

Nelson Goncalves at IOM ACBC  ngoncalves@iom.int or +255 688 700 090

Melissa Tui at IOM ACBC  mtui@iom.int or  +255 745 919 355