 good morning everyone thank you for coming in today and we're sorry a bit late but we were waiting for everyone to come in my name is basma sirug I'm representing Egypt representing the World Youth Forum which is happening in December of this year it's a conference inviting all youth from around the world yesterday we spoke about one of our initiatives it's called World Youth Forum Labs which is supporting startups around the region and it's it's a beginning of a regional hub for in Egypt for startups and entrepreneurs today we're talking we have like very dear colleagues here beside me from the African Union there we're going to discuss challenging traditional norms around youth migration some of the questions that we're going to be addressing are what are the current migration trends we're talking about challenging the narrative on African migration what are the opportunities and challenges in youth migration and how do we close the information gap and enhance the access to true and dissemination of information to youth so we have very interesting speakers this morning we have Ms. Nanjala she's a writer and independent researcher and political analyst currently based in Nairobi in Kenya her work focuses on conflict and post-conflict transitions with a focus on refugees and migration as well as East African politics generally she's going to present today some information from the report on African migration and I'm going to give her the floor and then I'm going to present the our two other speakers good morning everyone I hope you had a good evening as you heard my name is Nanjala I wanted to begin my presentation by just sort of bringing into the room some of the people some of the stories that are happening outside because I think sometimes we lose sight of the context in which these stories are being told so to just remember in name the tens of thousands of people who have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea victims of xenophobic violence migrants victims of xenophobic violence in South Africa to bring into the room Eritreans and Ethiopians in Sudan and many other African voices that might not have an opportunity to be heard the way they need to be heard as you've heard my name I'm an independent consultant I've we've been working on a project with IOM at the African Union on the first ever African migration report and the reason why there is an African migration report is because we wanted to challenge some of the presumptions and some of the assumptions that go behind telling the story of African migration as in my own presentation we tend to focus on the things that are going wrong and the things that are being challenged we tend to focus on telling a story that criminalizes or even penalizes migration when in fact migration in Africa is a complex historical political process it enriches our cultures it enriches our communities enriches our societies and it's really problematic that we've come to a point where the only story that's finding its way to the surface is the violent one is the terrifying one is the painful one so the Africa migration report is a multi-year project from IOM Africa to capture the contours of the migration debate as it pertains to Africa the objectives are simple we wanted to create an informed public debate about migration we want people to have an evidence-based perspective on migration an evidence-based project implementation on migration in Africa but we also wanted to give African people African scholars African researchers the tools that they needed to better be able to articulate their own experiences their own challenges and the opportunities that they see lying ahead the key findings in the document I could give you a breakdown it's a it's an edited volume that contains about 13 to 15 chapters we're still writing one it's an edited collection that tells a very interesting story some of the chapters are very quantitative it's about numbers and about statistics some of the chapters are very are about stories it's about bringing as I did in the beginning bringing people into the conversation bringing human experience back into the conversation the African migration report essentially tries to construct a narrative from facts from data that pushes back against some of the negative assumptions that exist about what how Africans move the three themes that I would say unite all the chapters the thread behind the thread as it were I would summarize as follows the first is to challenge or to reexamine the data who is an African migrant 79% of all people who are migrating in Africa are remaining in Africa the vast majority of Africans have no interest in leaving the continent very few have even an interest in leaving their regions many are simply looking for temporary opportunities to allow them to improve the circumstances that their families face most of the stories that we hear about migration from Africa are male centered but in actual fact 47% of all migrants in Africa are women the one thing that the dominant narrative does get right is that this is a youth centered process primarily because it takes a lot of time energy to be able to make some of the journeys that some of our people are making and so the average age of the African migrant is a startling 31 when we look at the numbers we we see we see a shift in the ways in which we respond to we should be responding to the migration challenge in Africa so far one of our chapters engages on the concept of securitization and how building higher walls and building higher stronger ramparts to keep migrants out actually works against what the majority of people are trying to do our chapters also look at how people are mostly interested in transient migration these 31 year olds these young women are crossing borders to sell food to be enter a new community temporarily and then move back to support their families to support their communities as I said most remain in the region and the challenge that some of our chapters ask is are we doing enough to support countries in the region to welcome people to provide them with the opportunities that they need to help them be safe in migrating and being incorporated in going back home the second theme or thread behind the thread that comes through on the chapters is we are appending the narrative as I've implied and specifically where are people going behind this is also an effort to recenter African narratives the story of migration across the Mediterranean has dominated the narrative on migration in Africa for the last five years rightfully so because of the risks that have the people have faced in that process but at the expense of the majority of people who are moving on routes that have much less well understood and much less well supported I mentioned the example of people in South Africa Zimbabwe and Ethiopian Somali migrants in South Africa who might not necessarily be receiving the support that they need to integrate in the communities that welcome them but to respond to the challenges that emerge from a country that hasn't necessarily provided them with the support that they need we wanted to recenter some of these stories and to ask ourselves questions about are we doing enough to support the people who are not who are moving in places where our attention is not what the African migrants need we wanted the stories that we saw in the edited that we see in the edited collection look at resisting securitization resisting the urge to frame migration as a security threat most people as we've mentioned have no interest in bringing harm to the communities that they're entering have no interest in moving even permanently in fact what they are trying to do is to create opportunities and many and up end up creating opportunities in the communities that they enter we have chapters on migration and development and migration and trade in Africa where we look at some of the data that reminds us that migrants bring so much to the communities that they enter they're building businesses and they're building community we have an examination of borders for example where we look at the border between the DRC and Rwanda for example where every day on average 20,000 mostly women cross back and forth back and forth to trade to build communities to build to invest in small businesses which doesn't conform with our narrative of who we think foreign development and foreign investment is and finally the last thread behind the thread is reclaiming protection many of the migrants that are moving in Africa do not receive the sustained attention that they need and the chapters that we have put together in this book draw attention towards places that might not necessarily be centered on we're talking about fixing the remittance system for example and our chapter on migration and remittances how can the remittance system be made be optimized in order to enable people to maintain connections to create new connections to sustain connections we talk about reflections on internal displacement and are we doing enough to support African countries through these systems overall what our report is putting on the table is the idea that migration is a lifeblood of human of human existence migration in Africa just as migration anywhere else in the world is as old as time this is how our languages are built this is how our communities are built this is how our cultures are built they're influenced by people being able to move and build and invest and grow roots and maintain connections that might not otherwise make sense we want to remind people who engage with this report that African migration is not a pathology it's not a crime it's not a problem and it's not something that requires the kind of panic response that we've seen emerging over the last few years we must resist the co-optation and the corruption of the language that we use to frame African migration and recent to the stories of people and recent to the experiences of community rather than the anxieties of security that are coming to dominate the conversation thank you thank you very much our next speaker is Ms. Walusongu she is an international development specialist she is the founder of the organization that helps the marginalized in Malawi called inspiration corner youth led initiative it's basically providing solutions for the vulnerable in the society especially youth and women drawing from the sustainable development goals currently she is based in South Sudan with the UNDP where she works as a project field coordinator in Turit a state capital of the eastern equatorial region on the recover and resilience project youth employment and empowerment through private sector and value chain development I'll give you the floor as well for 10 minutes thank you thank you good morning distinguished ladies and gentlemen let me begin by thanking IOM for hosting the international dialogue on migration and taking the leadership and responsibility to dedicate this multi-stakeholder partnership to unlocking the potential of youth to respond to the new challenges and opportunities of migration today I stand before you with so much gratitude in my heart humbled to have this opportunity to not just represent my voice but the voices of youth all around the world especially youth in Africa youth living in the cities and in the villages those on the streets both the deprived and the privilege mine is to amplify their voices why because they all have something to contribute towards the global world we live in and towards the Africa we want it is my hope that as you hear my voice you will hear their voices and begin to take steps towards solving the problems they are faced with because here in the youth means taking action as expounded by my fellow panelists Nanjala Africa is often portrayed in the media as a continent of mass exodus as we see images of desperate Africans on overcrowded boats bound for Europe or those of stranded migrants in transit countries plastered across the television and computer screens the often sensational and one-dimensional reporting on African international migrants has played a role in evoking fear of the so-called flood of migrants to European shores one of the most striking aspects about international migrants in Africa is that most move within the region country lead to much media coverage more than 80% of African migration occurs on the continent they largely move to neighboring countries for many people in Africa moving to a country within the region is the only viable solution the prospect of relocating to countries such as those in Europe or America is often quickly tempered by the reality of cruel cumbersome and highly restrictive visa requirements unlike citizens of more developed regions many Africans by virtue of their passports they carry have limited options in terms of the number of countries they can access let me bring this point home by telling you a story about the first time I traveled out of my country at the age of 16 to South Africa I had meticulously saved for this travel and it was a church trip I was very excited to experience new culture and to see new things we traveled by bus because it was the most affordable for me now when I arrived the first thing I did the next day was to go out in the streets I wanted to experience the beauty you know to experience what I had been hearing about and seeing on the television as I walked on the streets I heard I'm when Emily Wange I'm when Emily but one G is my Malawian language Chichewa and it means how are you my brother I was very startled because I do not expect to see you know anyone speaking Chichewa in South Africa but of course I knew that there were a lot of Malawians in the country I looked at the young man he was talking on the phone and when I saw him he was selling apples so that caught my attention because I was thinking is he just in South Africa to sell apples so I waited for him to finish his phone conversation and I dived in I was like hey how are you and we started talking and he now told me that he's staying in South Africa and he is selling apples and I did not believe it I was like how are you surviving because the rent was alone so you know there's so much personally I came and I could not even afford to rent a room I was staying at a friend's place but he told me how in Malawi he had been suffering and so traveling to South Africa for him was a better option because he could afford to leave a certain lifestyle but also he could afford to send money back home to support his family I personally did not understand why anyone would want to suffer in that way especially when he said he always has to run from the police because he does not have the legal papers but I was young then first forward five years later I'm a young graduate at my first job things were not okay at the organization I was working we had not been paid for four months that night I came home to the shared house with my sister who is a civil servant in government and there was no food we looked at each other with no expression there was no food no money and we were going to sleep hungry as I tried to close my eyes fear gripped my heart as I thought about how I was going to get to work the next day I had no transportation what were we going to eat how was I going to pay my young brother's cookies right at that moment the thought of the young man in South Africa crossed my mind he was selling apples to survive in a foreign country I was a graduate he wasn't but I was facing the exact challenges that he had met while staying in the country if a graduate was going through this was their hope for the youth who had no education young mothers those on the streets these are the youth voices I want to amplify today these are the youth voices we recognized and we remembered as we met at the Pan-African Youth Forum in Addis Ababa Ethiopia this year from the 24th to the 27th of April the forum brought together about 400 young people from across the continent and the diaspora to deliberate on key topics challenges opportunities and solutions for issues affecting young people of Africa as well as to co-create solutions around the African Union Commission's chairperson initiative on reaching one million young people by 2021 the solutions we provided are directed to the greatest monsters which youth in Africa face among other things poverty and employment lack of education and skills which also happened to be the major drivers of migration solving these problems will be killing two birds with one stone solutions were provided under the four E's entrepreneurship education employment and engagement for African youth by African youth with the hope of harnessing their potential we proposed the following under entrepreneurship two solution pathways were identified for the entrepreneurship stream number one growth capital and nurturing startups under employment three pathways were identified these are internships and apprenticeships digital skills and job centers under education three solutions were also identified these were scholarships alternative learning pathways and models for teacher development lastly under engagement four pathways were identified these were leadership programs youth forums exchange programs and youth engagement mechanisms about 400 youth came together and one common theme united the discussions and the solutions for the four E's under the one million initiative I remember my team which was tasked with the interpreneurship during the preliminaries as we got to know each other we realized that we each had an opportunity one way or another of being exposed to an international open African opportunity whether it was studying abroad or participating in trainings which had automatically increased our chances of being accepted for the forum a forum that required us to represent the two million plus youth in the continent and diaspora most of this youth if not three quarters live in rural areas these are the grassroot youth with not without access access to internet transport quality education who were we to represent their voices did we understand their struggles to represent them well enough this conversation made us realize that this youth who make up majority of the continent should be consulted if real change was to be with within shooting distance rather than using a top-down approach this is my biggest recommendation as I wind up if we want new approaches innovative ideas within the spectrum of migration then we need to bring the disadvantaged and marginalized youth into the pictures most of these youth migrate and first challenges in their destination countries because they have no skills and therefore end minimum wages and live in drastic situations they also deserve to be heard and by engaging with them new pathways to addressing migration can be identified in the process of developing policies and youth-centered approaches to migration let us go the extra mile to reach the unreach to youth without access on the final day the African Union Commission private sector and NGOs committed and launched the one million by 2021 initiative African youth had spoken they committed to implementing the solutions provided by the youth under the four E's I will conclude by bringing the voices of this youth youth I have built a relationship with over the course of the months as I've stayed in South Sudan what amazes me about this youth is the passion they have for their country most of them had migrated to get quality education from their neighboring countries Kenya and Uganda and yet they came back home despite the challenges when they heard I was coming for this conference they were happy to share their views on migration and I am happy to amplify their voices today in the video have that chance to grow up and enjoy the the culture of my own tribe I was taken to Uganda security and the civil war that was ongoing by then waiting for peace for the station to calm down at home it has given a career gap which it's really hard for me to like feel it because I feel my city somehow is been affected it's not up to date I add I'm adding for other international communities with peace partners they can be given helping hand the reason why I migrated from Nimule to Torip town one of the reason was about my education another reason also it's about no job the national body can also make some scholarships for those who are unable to go there they can do it we need total peace and stability in the country I left South South Sudan at a very tender age because I felt I wanted to go for education that's why the institution my institutions here of education were not good enough so that's why I went to Uganda to go and see better education during the war for Sudan we have been displaced from our affiliate and it affects mostly some of us especially me I was supposed to start my education my primary school 2000 and some some of the challenges are also the shortage of food it was also one of the challenges what we need is peace they used to make up most of the population in Africa they are used to have to be that we deserve to be had we deserve to be here in them means action action needs to be taken it needs to be taken thank you very much thank you for this very interesting video and I hope you continue doing this great work even elsewhere other than South Sudan our next speaker is the winner of the best African migration report cover Mr. Mekaya Andrea Naivo-Nirvana I hope I said it correctly yes it's good congrats on winning the the best African migration report cover and I'm going to give you the floor for some of your thoughts on how you design the report or your thoughts on migration in African general thank you my name is very difficult to pronounce you can call me Chaz it's easier so I am graphist a graphist who comes from Madagascar and it is a real pleasure In fact, to come here, it's a big first for me to come out of my country. So here it is, it's impressive to talk to you, to present what I did for the IOM. And for that, I am deeply recognized for the IOM and the African Union, the program for youth, which allowed me to have this opportunity and to be able to present my reflections on the migration in Africa. So when I started, I saw a file like that just on social networks, where he had a competition, a design competition, and I was interested since design is my daily life. And even more so, it was a competition in Africa. So I think it's great to be able to participate in something more global than doing something just in Madagascar. And I confess to you that in the first report, I didn't have a lot of ideas about the situation of migration in Africa. So I had to make this documentation. And that, I was surprised because there were a lot of initiatives, a lot of programs, which were actually a kind of hope for me. I particularly loved reading the Agenda 26003, on which we could see the commitments and have a more global vision of what we want as an Africa. And above all that, the start of the inspiration for the years, the cover page of the report on migration. So in these commitments, I think you already know them, but it was actually an African who was integrated, who was part of his people, who was powerful internationally, and who was also a nation of peace. In fact, I believe in the task that the Union has done. And in fact, the strength to stay strong, the nation to work together, to exchange, to share resources, to share skills, to learn a little about each other, to learn what is happening in other nations, what they have done, for example, if we saw yesterday, on the Loirent project, for example, who will be able to adapt to other countries. And in that sense, I believe that to be strong, we have to go in the same direction, we go in the same rhythm, and we follow the same path, a same rhythm as a heart pattern. And what do you have? I believe that this same heart pattern is a bit like music, and when we think about Africa, we think about Africa, the heat, the heat of people, and the conviviality. And it was a point of fear for me to start using this music, because music is the ensemble of many criteria, many people playing instruments, same rhythm, same volume, and all that. And that's a sort of image. For me, for Africa, because we have to move together to have a better future, a future that has more light, because at first, when we talk about migration, we always think that the flow of life needs something negative. So in the competition, in the concept note, the IEM talked about a better future for migration, that it is more positive. And I admit that without talking about projects, documents that I could read, this future for Africa is the movement of a people that makes the continent move. And in a sense that is positive, with a positive effect of freedom, independence, courage, and conviviality. For me, this future for Africa inspired light and very vivid colors. As you can see on the slide, it's very vivid lines with very vivid colors in the image of the African Union, the green, the blue, in a very modern sense and that move together to give the same rhythm, even of different amplitude. It gives the same rhythm and it makes it move progressively to touch all African nations. And for that, the main message was that the African people are African and we are also the future African. That was it, especially the message. Thank you very much. I think it's a great way to end our talks with your design and honestly, as Egyptian, I'm very proud of my African roots, even speaking with all of you and listening to all of your projects and what you do to the continent. And as I mentioned yesterday, our generation, if we're giving the opportunity and the chance, we'll definitely seize it. And I think the examples here on the panel prove this today. I'm going to open the floor now for some questions or comments or thoughts that any of our attendees have. So please just come forward if you have any questions. Yes, please. The presenter from the EU. Good morning. Thank you very much. I am Massimo Prugna from the EU mission here in Geneva. I follow in particular migration. I found the presentation very interesting and the speaker is very passionate. I am very interested in this report because I see there is a way to also change maybe the narrative, which is spread very often in Europe. And I would like to have two questions. One is to Miss Neabola regarding the profile of the people who are migrating. Because you spoke about the majority of females, so maybe if you can expand a bit of that, because I have information that maybe sometimes it depends probably on which directions people are going. And the other one is to our friend from Madagascar and Charles. And I wanted to know what was his inspiration in finding such a beautiful design for the thing. Thank you. Thank you. Not the majority. 47%, so it's a slight minority of those who are migrating are women. And the other thing that comes up in the data is that we said about 79%, 80% of people are remaining in the region. And so a lot of women, especially the long-distance travel because of the risks that it has, because of the challenges that they are more likely to face on the way, are more likely to remain within the region, are more likely to maybe cross the border, maybe remain within the country of origin than their male counterparts. So not a majority of people are women, just 47%. The further away it is from the country of origin, that's what the data suggests is that the more likely it is to be majority male. But if you look at the picture as a whole, then that's what you see that discrepancy. I hope I've answered your question. Yes, you have. Probably have a more... I have more a vision of flows from Africa to Europe. That's maybe why. And this is one of the things that we are really trying to push back against because we want to tell a story from Africa and not begins from Europe and then sort of looks at what is happening relative to that. We wanted to tell a story that begins in Africa and is grounded in the African reality. And this is one of the statistics, this is one of the factors that keeps getting lost in the data. As I mentioned, we look at, for example, the border between the DRC and Rwanda, and 20,000 women cross that border every day in one direction and the other direction, trading and doing all sorts of things. When you start from that story and you think about how we talk about free trade and free movement of people on the continent and people say, well, we need to create an African passport. Well, we are interrogating that. Do we need to create an African passport or do we need to make it much more feasible, easy, possible for people who are already making these movements safer? Is that where the conversation needs to start? When we look at the youth question, that's another issue that comes up. Who is able to walk across the Sahara? Who is able to walk across Sudan from Eritrea? Who is able to walk from the most common route on the continent right now is not the one that's going up to Europe. It's the one that's going from East Africa. People who are remaining in East Africa, first of all, but then moving from East Africa down to South Africa. When the report comes out, I would encourage you to really engage and we have two very strong data chapters that really start from, well, we're not going to start with any presumptions about anything. Let's just start with the numbers and let's just unpack what the numbers are telling us. And I think a lot of the narratives that are dominating the popular conversation and migration in around relating to Africa will really be challenged by those two chapters. What inspired me was a basic definition of migration already. So the movement, the reflections, the documents that I was able to read. So in Africa, in fact, an export of prosperity, of a very positive future. So it was from these concepts that I was able to create this and in addition to music, in fact, it was one of my first days. I saw on TV just your music and at some point, I had these clicks to represent the movement. In fact, music, when you represent music, it's not the only thing, but with the waves, boom, boom, like in the equalizers. So I wanted to transmit this wave, let's say a positive wave that will draw Africa, because what we want is that it is a nation that moves and migration is that. It's the movement, the movement of people. And besides, it's beautiful because at present, it has actions and all that, that we undertake, that we undertake and that all governments follow. And that's what we want. We want Africa to move and to be beautiful. Thank you. Do we have any other questions? Togo, yes, please. Just use the mic, yes. Hello everyone. It's a pleasure to be among you. I would like to invite all the others to thank Loïm and express my pride to be here today to represent Togo. So I have a question for the consultant, it's from the African Union. So in his presentation, it's true, we're talking about migration from Africa to Europe. It's a lot of scandalous images. But through his presentation, we have the impression that it concerns the immigration of Africa that there is no difficulty. We have, in memory of the last image of the news in relation to South Africa. I would like to know what is going on in relation to this. Because we must not also hide this reality. And in terms of Africa, in terms of Africa, I would like to know about the African Union. What is the effect, in terms of politics, to facilitate immigration internally, in terms of Africa? That's my question. Thank you. Hello. I wouldn't say French because it's not my first language, but in English. First of all, I don't work for the African Union, unless I say something that is attributed to the African Union out of turn. We are definitely not trying to gloss over the challenges that exist. As I mentioned, when I began my presentation with bringing people into the room so that we can have a context for these conversations, one of the groups that I mentioned, were the many migrants, refugees in South Africa who have been displaced and fled because of the challenges of xenophobia that they're meeting there. And we know the South African example because it's been in the news, but certainly it is not to say that everything is rosy all across the continent. In fact, we have a chapter that engages with migration and urbanization that looks at the challenge that urban migrants in Africa face in various large cities. We see cities not being identified as a site or a primary response. Cities not being empowered. Municipalities not being empowered to provide the services that migrants need. And therefore, a lot of people falling through the cracks of service provision so they are not able to, for example, access schooling, access adequate housing, access adequate sanitation facilities simply because they first received by the municipality. But the municipality does not have the political, the social, the social services that they provide the services that the migrants need. And meanwhile, the national government is not probably as acutely aware of the situation within the country as they could be. And therefore, we see a lot of people falling through the cracks. I need to underscore this. The point of this challenging the narrative framework is not to paper over the challenges. It's not to pretend that everything is all great. It's not to pretend that everything is all right. It's not to pretend that everything is all right. We have a significant amount of nuance. We are trying to ask ourselves the right questions about what it means. Who is a migrant? Where are African migrants going? What do they experience on the way? What do they experience once they arrive? We want to start from the right questions to make sure that the policy responses are positive. What we want to do is centering on a security response, centering on the fears of Europe creates a disproportionate emphasis on security challenges and not enough on services, not enough on safety of the migrants, not enough on community, not enough on society. And this is where the challenges emerge. What we've seen in South Africa, what we've seen between Ghana and Togo, what we've seen between Nigeria and Togo, Sudan and the Retrea, Sudan and Ethiopia, this is where these challenges emerge because we don't see the experiences of people and the communities. We simply focus on the experiences of the state. What you'll find in our report is a set of chapters that try to figure out and start from the individual and starting from the community and kind of building up from that to try and push back against the idea that the only thing that people need to be happy, safe is quote-unquote security. I hope I've answered your question. Thank you, everyone. I think we're running out of time. I'm going to thank again Ms. Nanjala, Ms. Walsungo and Charles, and thank you, everyone, for coming in today. I hope this panel was insightful. It was for me honestly a lot, so thanks again. Thank you.