They said that would help to facilitate free movement across the continent while giving migrants the opportunity to use their skills to contribute to the development of both the destination and their home countries through remittances.

The speakers were the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Horn of Africa, Hanna Serwaah Tetteh; Chief of Mission, Ghana, Togo, and Benin, International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Fatou Diallo Ndiaye, and the Commissioner, Political Affairs, Peace and Security, ECOWAS, Dr Abdel-Fatau Musah. 

They were sharing their thoughts at a panel discussion at the third Kofi Annan Peace and Security (KAPS) Forum in Accra last Wednesday, on the theme: "Migration and societal resilience in a multipolar world order: Addressing conflicts and building peace in Africa.”

It brought together more than 200 delegates from Africa and Europe, including experts in migration, security and development.

The panel discussion was on the sub-theme: “Building regional capacity to mitigate migration and conflicts in Africa”. 

Assets

Ms Tetteh, who is also a former Minister of Trade and Industry, said refugees were assets because they possessed different skills sets which when properly harnessed could benefit the country enormously.

While advocating that countries remove movement and trade barriers, she also stressed the need for the formulation of sustainable policies simplified for the public sector and other agencies for effective implementation.

“Economic integration is not going to happen if we increase bureaucracy and cost of doing business.

“We must have greater collaboration in the security systems, as well as intelligence sharing to open the systems and structures up for migration,” she added. 

Working together

Ms Ndiaye observed that the continent had some of the best protocols and policies on migration but said states were struggling with their implementation.

She said migration was never an ending issue and, therefore, needed to be tackled through synergies since its dynamics kept changing.

“Addressing development issues and humanities in silos will not give us the right path to reach our goals,” Ms Ndiaye added.

She further underscored the need to strengthen and ensure inclusive governance in marginalised communities to address security concerns emerging from such places. 

Leadership

For his part, Dr Abdel-Fatau Musah mentioned governance deficit as a critical issue which needed to be addressed on the continent.

“We have been able to have several alternating of power but the quality of governance leaves a lot to be desired,” he said.

He emphasised that the continent could not retain its talents if the issue of terrorism was not resolved.