Through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda, migration has been explicitly integrated into the global development agenda. Measuring, monitoring and reporting of how migration and migrants shape development outcomes — and vice versa —remain vital.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) held a training on Migration and the 2030 Agenda in Dar es Salaam for officers from the Tanzanian National Bureau of Statistics, as well as technical experts from the Tanzanian Immigration Service Department and the Ministry of Finance and Planning, among other stakeholders. The training (16-17 April) covered to improve the collection and use of migration data, among other topics.

The training, facilitated by experts based at the IOM Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC) in Berlin, Germany, also highlighted the role of migration in development.

“There are significant gaps in the quantity, accuracy, timeliness, comparability (over time and across countries) and accessibility of migration data,” said Qasim Sufi, IOM Tanzania Chief of Mission, in his opening remarks.

“Currently, migration data that are poor or difficult to access and understand make it challenging for decision-makers around the world to create sensitive and intelligent migration policy. Low- quality, scattered or poorly disseminated information can also distort public debate on migration,” he added.

GMDAC guided the participants through migration data concepts, definitions and key sources, and introduced the growing importance of migration data in the context of the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the SDGs.

“Policymakers need timely, reliable, accessible and comparable data on international migration to manage migration effectively and protect the rights of migrants,” Sufi continued. “While the lack of data can be an immediate challenge for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) monitoring, the 2030 Agenda is a key opportunity to improve the collection, analysis, sharing and management of migration data.”

The Government of Tanzania, through its Voluntary National Review process, is committed to working with partners like IOM to improve the collection, analysis and dissemination of data with a view to accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Facilitated by the Regional Data Hub (RDH), the training took place thanks to the support of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration of the Department of State of the United States of America, which is financially supporting IOM Tanzania within the scope of the regional project

Africa Regional Migration Program-Phase IX East and Horn of Africa.

Established in early 2018, the RDH aims to support evidence-based, strategic and policy-level discussion on migration through a combined set of initiatives across the East and Horn of Africa region. These include: strengthening regional primary and secondary data collection and analysis; increasing Information Management capacity across countries; conducting regional research and analysis on topics of immediate interest to both programmatic and policy-level stakeholders; and facilitating the design of different set of capacity building initiatives in partnership with governmental counterparts on return and reintegration activities and migration data.

For more information please contact:

Laura Nistri at IOM Regional Office for East and Horn of Africa (RDH), Email: lnistri@iom.int

Elisa Mosler Vidal at IOM GMDAC, Tel: +49 (0)30 278 778 31, Email: emoslervidal@iom.int

ABDEL LATIF Heba, RMMP Program Coordinator, Tel: +251-11 557 1707 (Ext. 1429) Email: habdellatif@iom.int