The Programme Migration & Diaspora (PMD), which is part of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Ghana, together with its state and non-state partners held a workshop in Ada last week, to validate Ghana’s 2023 labour migration institutional workplan.
The workshop also presented a platform for participants to discuss the collective efforts needed to implement the national labour migration policy in its third year, as well as build the capacity of the national labour migration technical working group.
Through a collaborative effort of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, a 17-member cross-sectorial national labour migration policy technical working group was established and has become the main platform for soliciting and harmonising technical inputs towards the successful implementation of the national labour migration policy.
“The development of the labour migration institutional work plan warrants strong collaborations among institutions with labour migration mandates and members of the technical working group,” said Benjamin Woesten, Head of Migration Projects at GIZ Ghana. “We are glad that participants gained additional knowledge, especially on the emerging issues in labour migration and they now have a 2023 blueprint to implement some labour migration activities within the national labour migration policy, which we believe, would subsequently contribute towards the development-oriented shaping of labour migration governance in Ghana.”
GIZ through PMD and on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has since 2018 been supporting the Government of Ghana in three main migration policy areas – the national migration policy, diaspora engagement policy, and national labour migration policy.
Sabelo Mbokazi, Head of Division of Labour, Employment and Migration in the Department of Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, at the African Union Commission said the AU in collaboration with partners has taken the lead to fast-track continental integration through its flagship programmes, including the African Continental Free Trade Area, the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons and the African Passport, the Single African Air Transport Market and Joint Labour Migration Programme.
“The nature of labour migration is changing globally with new trends and perspectives,” said Gloria Noi, Director of Policy Planning and Monitoring and Evaluation at MELR. “These changing aspects continuously create gaps in information dissemination for the effective management of migration issues. This workshop provided us with the requisite knowledge in ethical recruitment to deal with emerging trends and issues related to labour migration.”
