He therefore, urged policy-makers and governments across the globe to make conscious efforts towards finding policy decisions that would ameliorate the socio-economic and cultural challenges posed by migration and mobility.

He said, as a policy-maker, he valued research into such important national and global issues because it provided guidance for policy formulation.

Vice President Bawumia said this at the opening of a two-day International Conference on Migration at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana, in Accra.

He urged researchers attending the conference to pay attention to the south-south movement in terms of the number involved so that Ghana would draw experiences and lessons from it.

The Vice President said the objectives of the conference hinged on the key concerns Ghana was grappling with, such as urbanisation, internal migration, internally-displaced persons, irregular migration and migrant smuggling, return, re-admission and re-integration of migrants, as well as border management and asylum seekers.

The conference is jointly organised by the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) and Africa Research University Alliance (ARUA) , which brought together policy-makers, researchers and development partners, to discuss migration issues facing the world and find pragmatic solutions towards ameliorating socio-economic challenges associated with the phenomenon.

The event is on the theme: “Migration and Mobility- New Frontiers for Research and Policy”.

The participants would engage in plenary discussions on some of the prominent topics relating to migration, including;”Conflict, forced migration and international policy”, ”Migration within Africa: defining the governance challenges”, “Immigrant integration, transnationalism and societal relations among  sub-Saharan African immigrants”, “Impacts of displacement on host communities in Rwanda and Tanzania”, among others.

Vice President Bawumia said migration and mobility issues featured prominently on the national, continental and global agenda, saying; “There is a great deal to learn from such international collaborations and research experiences to ensure equitable development and structural transformation”.

He said the first migration policy in Ghana was released in 2016, which aimed at providing a framework to manage migration for sustainable development and would, therefore, continuously monitor effective policies in that direction.

The Vice President commended UNU-WIDER and ARUA for mobilising resources to promote dialogue, which would ultimately promote sustainable development across the world.

Dr Bawumia alluded to a presentation he delivered at the Cape Coast University, on the topic: “Building Stronger Economies in Africa- What is the missing link”, which highlighted on the factors that affected the production abilities of nations.

He noted that one of the prominent issues that came up during the discussions was the exclusion of people from the production process and thus, advocated the inclusiveness of all the segment of the society in the development process.

He said if people were not allowed to participate in the local economy, there was a likelihood that, they would leave the place for a better life elsewhere.

“People who feel excluded in terms of education, healthcare and infrastructure in particular communities are likely to move either at the south-south or south-north direction,” he noted.

Professor Finn Tarp, the Director of the UNU-WIDER, in his welcome address, said the conference provided a suitable platform to fashion out strategies in dealing with migration and mobility across the globe.

He said international migration was likely to increase in the coming years in view of the continuing conflicts around the world, and cited the Syrian war.

Prof. Tarp said stakeholders around the world should make conscious efforts to strategise towards addressing it, saying; “There is the need for countries in the African sub-region to mobilise resources and come up with policies to address migration and mobility since no country can be isolated”.

Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, the General-Secretary of the ARUA, on his part, said rural-urban drift had not been properly evaluated and appreciated by the African sub-region and there was the need to gather ideas and resources towards addressing it.

He therefore, called for rigorous research by African countries towards formulating policies to address the challenge.

Prof. Aryeetey said ARUA was ready to support research, academic and intellectual discourse towards ameliorating the socio-economic and cultural challenges posed by migration and mobility.

UNU-WIDER began over three decades ago in Helsinki, Finland, as a research centre, which provides economic analysis and policy advice with the aim of promoting sustainable and equitable development while ARUA was inaugurated in Dakar, Senegal, in 2015, comprising 15 leading universities in the Sub-Saharan Africa, aimed at enhancing the quality of research conducted by researchers and influence policy development.