Ghana experiences complex migration flows, as it is a country of origin, transit and destination for thousands of migrants. Ghana has porous borders. As a result there has been an increase of both smuggling of migrants and trafficking of nationals and non-nationals for forced labour and sexual exploitation. The country is also constantly affected by conflicts and crisis in the region. The current Ebola crisis brings into the sharp focus of importance of migration and the interconnectedness of Ghana to other countries.
At the same time, there is growing significance of migrant remittances into Ghana, which has also become an important source of finance for many rural and urban households. Return migration of Ghanaian diaspora/professional is on the increase facilitated by the improved economic conditions and political stability. Recent oil and natural gas discoveries have implications for changing the dynamics for both international and internal migration.
However, migration data to describe, reflect and support a better understanding of what is happening in Ghana and to make more informed policy decisions do not exist. Migration data is scattered between agencies and ministries, or there is no sharing or common reporting system. A lack of coordinated approach to migration data management hinder Ghana’s capacity to understand its migration dynamics and design appropriate migration and development policies.
“Establishing a better migration data management system is becoming urgently needed to ensure evidence based policy making and help implement the recently approved national migration policy for Ghana”, says Sylvia Lopez-Ekra, Chief of Mission, International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Ghana.
The GIMMA project addresses these issues through developing a national migration data sharing framework as well as providing trainings on migration data collection and analysis. Following successful implementation of the data sharing framework, the project will update the Migration Profile which was developed in 2009.
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With its overall objective to contribute to the Ghanaian government’s effort to manage migration more effectively, the GIMMA project is helping to build GIS’ institutional capacity to protect the country’s borders; empower migrants to make informed migratory decisions; and improve the country’s migration data management capacity. The three-year EUR 3 million project is funded by the European Union under the framework of 10th European Development Fund.
For more information please contact Kazumi Nakamura at IOM Ghana, Email: gimma@iom.int, Tel. +233 (0)302 742 930. |
