 Good afternoon, and welcome to the United States Institute of Peace. I'm Joseph Sunny, I'm the vice president of the Africa Center at the United States Institute of Peace, which was established by Congress in 1984 as a non-partisan public institution dedicated to prevent, mitigate and resolve conflict, violence conflict abroad. It is my great pleasure to welcome you all here and to this event co-hosted by the US, the United States Committee for Refugee and Immigrants, as well as the International Organization for Migration IOM. We will be discussing the report of migration in the east and the north of Africa report. The inaugural report was co-published by IOM, the East African Community and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development IGAT. We are grateful to be joined by the IOM leadership, as well as the US CRI. Thank you for your partnership in convening this critical conversation. I would like to thank the ambassadors, Sharjeh Dhafe and representatives of the Republics of Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan for joining us today. I would also like to thank all of you in the audience here at the United States Institute of Peace. And so I sincerely appreciate you making the joining. And I would also like to thank you, our audience, for doing us in our various streaming platforms. Thank you so much for joining us. And finally, we are honored to be joined by Eskinder Negash, who is the President of the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants and also Director General-Elect Amy Pope, who will be giving short remarks at some point. Thank you. The goal of today's event is to provide an opportunity to unpack the findings of the report and the implication to the US-Africa relationships, as well as how the findings can inform US engagement with regional institutions, governments and the people of Africa, particularly at this time, where the continent is going through transformative changes both at the security level, economic and political aspects. So the report findings and recommendation provide critical perspectives on several priorities on the pinning the US-Africa strategy, including strengthening US-Africa trade relations and investments, deepening US engagement with the African Union and the regional economic communities, and combating climate change, conflicts, and all the drivers of forced displacement. Thank you again for joining us to this important conversation. Now I would like to pass the floor to my friend, Eskinder Negash, for some short remarks. Thank you. Good afternoon. First, so wonderful to see Amy Pope, someone I worked with many, many years ago. So we are so delighted, Amy, that you are going to be the next IOM Director General. So we are very, very grateful. And I also want to recognize Mr. Mohamed, the IOM Regional Office. We have been working with him, talking to him. I actually went to see him about two months ago. So thank you very much for this groundbreaking report that you did with Seon and Azhar Okaali. So thank you very much. So you may be wondering why USCRI is interested on this one. So in 1968, I believe at that time, President Eisenhower asked USCRI to commission in terms of reporting the migration and refugee issues. So since 1968, USCRI, an unprofit organization where not a government entity, it's not Congress designating us. But President Eisenhower saw after the war in 1968, they asked USCRI to commission report. So since 1968, we have been reporting on a global scale in terms of refugees and migration. So when we found out this groundbreaking report, we felt that they are speaking actually our language. This is a first comprehensive report as far as I know, but maybe there are some people who know that, especially focusing on East Africa. Since then, we spent almost 25 years dedicating on South Sudan issue. Some of you remember, I see Kathleen here, Roger Winter, who actually championing the South Sudan issue for many, many years, and we continue to publish a lot of reports when it comes to East Africa and also other places. So this is a very important publication for us. With a lot of things in this report, we found interesting in terms of mobility, in terms of integration, which is we have been really advocating for a long time. But I wanted to take a few minutes and give you a little bit of historical perspective what this Africa in terms of migration, but I will be focusing on refugee issues. As you know, the migration and form of Africa started going back to 1955, when the crisis happened in South Sudan. And then from that in 1957, when the crisis again in Rwanda, the first genocide in Rwanda happened. And then we continue with that in 1968. We still have refugees in Southern Sudan, Eritrean refugees, been there since 1968. And I was privileged to work in the 80s and at the end of the 1970s. And then of course, we have dead-up since 1991. And I have been to dead-up. I have seen second-generation refugees end dead-up. And dead-up is not actually a good place for human being. I remember the Guardian publishing a report saying that this is not really for human being. And then I just, from there, I think some of you remember, we have also in East Africa we have seen more genocide than any other place in the world. We have Rwanda, in 1977, Burundi in 1972, 1994, and Rwanda and of course Darfur and so on. So this report and the migration report and the refugee issues is very, very critical for IAM, for UNCR and for international community. As some of you already know, there's a lot of experts in this audience. The 1951 Convention actually talks about this issue, about integration, about mobility, about the right to work. All of that is really not new. Unfortunately, we decided to do a refugee camp rather than giving refugees to move from one location to another location to make a living. Some of you remember that the 1951 Convention doesn't actually mention about camp. There is nothing in that report mentioning about camp. So for the past 60, 70 years, we have practiced this refugee containment, means refugees staying in a camp, not having a chance to go to school, not to work, not to move from one location to another location. So very much what USCRI, we used to call it for about 15 years, refugee warehousing. And we have practiced that. And my hope is this report, again, given that the Uganda agreement, I am under new leadership and then separated by President Horuto, Kenya, and others who are really taking this issue, including EGAD, will change the dynamic. Our hope is after 70 years of refugee warehousing in Somalia and Eritrea and other places, it is about time we take this report and we support this report. The ideals in this report are something worth considering and supporting. I think this is the right time. It was a new leadership. We believe we can change this dynamic and give refugees the right to work, the right to move, the right to own the property and to have the dignity that they deserve as human being. I know I was given five minutes, but I told someone here, I paid $14 for Uber, so I'm going to take it from this. There is an African proverb since I'm also from East Africa. The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now. So we have went through this practice of refugees containment. I think this is about time to take advantage of this report, use it, expand it. I think we should support the US government, foundations, international actors should really encourage this kind of engagement. So again, it would be good to say you wish you the best of luck. Thank you very much. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to follow Eskinder, who has been a longtime friend and colleague and ally in addressing the needs of some of the most vulnerable people in the world. So thank you. It is my honor to be here with all of you today and to preside over the Washington DC launch of Migration in East and Horn of Africa report, which is co-published by IOM, the East African community, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, IGAD. We are so pleased to be holding the launch here at the US Institute for Peace, which is not only a highly respected independent organization, but it has been a real partner and a friend to us at IOM. And we're thankful that President Grandi has been able to deliver the keynote speech at a recent event that IOM hosted at Howard University. And we hope to continue the strong partnership that we've had to date. So initially released on May 2nd in Nairobi, Kenya, with the presidents of Kenya and Somalia, if I'm recalling correctly, this report really focuses on what regional integration will mean for the movement of people, the development on the African continent and in the sub-region. And I have to say it's a testament really to IOM's own growth and thought leadership, and I'm looking at you, my colleagues from the East and Horn of Africa Regional Office and Mohamed Eftaker, who's our regional director there, as well as the commitment of the regional economic communities and the African member states to really start to think much more strategically about how we harness the benefits of migration and human mobility so that we can lead to greater political stabilization and economic development. Quite simply, human mobility is at the heart of, it is the foundation of the African Union's Agenda 2063, which envisions an integrated continent politically united and based on the ideals of Africa's Renaissance. And I'm convinced that together we can deliver on these promises, on the promises of human mobility. Migration is first and foremost about people. I know that sometimes when we look at the news reports, we can forget that it's first and foremost about people. And my view is that we at IOM can enable and unlock the potential that exists when people migrate. And my commitment within our organization is to ensure that we are keeping people at the center of what we do, whether it's the migrants themselves, the vulnerable populations, the communities that we serve, our member states, our partners and our workforce. And in this respect, this report provides critical insights into how African governments, the regional economic communities, the citizens within the countries and the migrants themselves can really seize the benefits of migration. You see, when we facilitate the free movement of goods, services and people, regional integration has the transformative power to catalyze socio-economic opportunities, move households out of poverty, increase the shared prosperity of African countries and their citizens. Deeper regional integration will empower migrants. It will enable member states to tackle joint challenges including peace building, security, climate change and the drivers of political fragility and instability. When Eskender spoke about moving away from this camp modality, it's not just because that is the way that we ensure the human dignity of the people who have been housed in camps. It's because that is the way that we enable better economic and social outcomes for all people, not just the people living in camps. The report finds that when we link the free movement of goods and services and people, we can actually unlock the benefits of intra-African trade, including through the African Continental Free Trade Area, which is projected, if we do this well, to lift 30 million people out of poverty. So figuring out how to enable the free movement of people is actually critical to the successful implementation of this free trade agreement. A key piece of this is thinking much more strategically about labor migration. We must take full advantage of the African diaspora for development and we need to recognize that while we must counter brain drain, we must enable the exchange of people and ideas of skills, of competencies to lead to benefits for people within and across the continent. We're already doing a lot of this work at IOM. We're working on border management and cross-border health systems. We have the joint program on labor migration governance. We have regional policy dialogues, but that's not enough. We need to build and enable the partnerships that allow us to deliver really on these promises of migration. It's great to have these dialogues, but if the dialogue is not followed by action, then we're not doing our job. I'm confident that if we not only read the report, which I highly commend to you, but if we act upon the report's recommendations, we can turn this vision into reality. I've got to say I'm really excited that this report is coming out at this moment in time, particularly in terms of U.S. and Africa relations. And I'm very pleased to have Elizabeth Campbell here from the U.S. government. We know the United States is taking an increased awareness and role in recognizing the importance that the continent will play in responding and defining global challenges of the future. And the 2022 strategy towards sub-Saharan Africa reframed the traditional U.S. policy objectives, including advancing democracy and governance, peace and security, trade and investment, and economic development, so that we're really reflecting Africa's contributions, Africa's inputs and priorities, and Africa's potential as a powerhouse of economic growth, of economic innovation, and of global leadership. The State of Migration report demonstrates that regional integration and safe, orderly, regular human mobility, they are conducive to a mutual U.S.-Africa partnership and policy priorities, whether we're talking about increased trade, investment partnerships, policy priorities, fostering peace and political stabilization, or just building more resilient communities and more responsive institutions that are prepared to respond to the challenges of our future. And it has the potential to reinforce and shape the 2022 strategy for the mobility patterns and the trends that will and are affecting sub-Saharan Africa. So I'm extremely excited to hear what our panelists have to say. I am extremely excited about the potential for action as we build awareness of what we can do collectively as a global community. And I'm very grateful to all of you for joining us for this important conversation this afternoon. So thank you. Our panel is here. Please, to the stage. Sonny was, I think, supposed to introduce us, but I will give him a pass. Thank you for coming. Thank you everyone for coming. My name is Andrew Cheetham, and I'm moderating this conversation. It's a pleasure to be here, and I really thank you all, distinguished guests, for joining us today, and thank you panelists for joining us for this conversation. First, allow me just to introduce everyone here for the discussion. Ms. Sian Tereci Abebe, she's the chief editor of the report on the state of migration in the east in the Horn of Africa. And she's also a leading policy analyst on migration and forced displacement at IOM and the chief editor of this flagship report. She's spoken on major global platforms such as the Commission on the Status of Women, the Global Refugee Forum, and the Oswan Forum. Sian also represented the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants in Ethiopia. She's an expert on migration, both forced migration and other forms of migration. We're so happy to have you here today. Ms. Elizabeth Campbell, thank you for joining us today. You are the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. We're really, really happy that you will be with us today. And you served in your position as Deputy Assistant Secretary since 2022. Prior to that, you were a Director of the UN Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and the Representative of the Office here in Washington. And we thank you for all your hard work. You've had a distinguished career, and I won't go on and more about that. Ms. Yamserich Benofo, thank you for coming very far from Djibouti to join us today from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. And you serve as the coordinator for the Migration Policy Implementation Project. And we're happy to hear your views from the EGADS perspective. Ms. Benofo previously worked for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, integrated into the Swiss Embassy on the Al Skirt of Addis Ababa. You were responsible for the Migration and Protection Program there. And as a coordinator at EGADS Migration Policy Implementation Project, you advocate for a strong link between regional integration and human mobility and the potential to achieve development benefits for countries. So thank you all for being here today, and I really appreciate it. I read through the whole report. I didn't read it word for word, but there's not... Well, yes, I think that's actually it now. But I do have a very well... I showed the colleagues before. I really did read through everything, and I found it really important in riveting. I thought riveting might not be the right word. But the data-rich resources in the report were really striking. And I really thought that it was really important to talk about the positive aspects of regional integration and human mobility for strengthening the East African and Horn of Africa countries. And here at USIP, as Sonny said, we work to help prevent, mitigate, and resolve violent conflict. And so often, we're looking at sort of the forced migration aspects, as we've spoken about, and the report certainly speaks to that. But I know it looks forward to more positive things, more ways in which the region can work together with the broader continent and partners internationally to try to bring economic development, employment, and a sense of good management and political integration along with the full regional integration. So I thought that that was really a good refreshment. I just came from the region. I was in Nairobi last week, and we were talking about the conflict in Sudan, which is obviously something that's really horrible. It took place after the writing of this report, but it's an issue that nonetheless will be very much prominent in considering migration issues going forward. And maybe we'll have a chance to talk about how that might be, how the findings in the report might be adapted for the new developments, as we all have to do. I was struck by the context in the first part, and I just want to read a few of the scene-setting context pieces that were in the front of the report that have, like I said, some of these statistics that are very important. And the report claims, it doesn't claim it states, that labor migration represents a key component of the mobility landscape with 4.7 million migrant workers. But there is also 22.3 million displaced persons, which includes 16.9 million internally displaced and 5.4 million refugees and asylum seekers. As we said, the drivers of conflict, violence, climate-related disasters have caused these numbers of displacement and refugees. And it's very prominent in the region. Ongoing conflicts in the DRC, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan are amongst the largest outflows of refugees in all of Africa. But what was also striking is that 93% of the refugee population remained in the region, and several countries in the region are major refugee countries of destination, while simultaneously being major refugee countries of origin. And the report states that no other sub-region in the world shares this same characteristic. I found that really, really striking. I could go on and on about the context, but I know there's much more important things to talk about in the findings and the recommendations. And I would like to start with you, Sian, to talk about, as one of the lead authors, the key findings and recommendations that you would like to highlight, and especially here in this audience, what you think the most important findings to highlight would be for U.S. policymakers, leaders, or leaders and U.S. partners for the region. Thank you so much, Andrew. Good afternoon to all of you. It's my pleasure to be here and share with you my perspectives about this report, The State of Migration in East End Horn of Africa. Thank you really for making time to join us. I would like to focus on three key issues. Number one, benefits of regional integration and human mobility in the context of East End Horn of Africa. Second, factors that make human mobility safe, orderly and regular. Third, enablers of regional integration and human mobility. I would like to conclude by highlighting some perspectives that contribute to the betterment of the U.S. policy at the end. Regional integration is a process whereby countries agree to have a common system, politically, economically, legally, as you know. And in the context of Africa, this happens either at the regional level, which is the East African community, EGAD, or continental. And in this report, actually, as Amy mentioned, we strongly argue that regional integration is about people. We need to sit down and ask ourselves why are our countries integrating? It's for the people. So the ability of people really matters for an effective regional integration to happen. As a labor migrant myself, coming from Ethiopia, working in Kenya, although I'm an international worker and don't fall really under the regional integration mechanism for now, I really wonder if I would see the full potentials of regional integration in my lifetime. Practical questions come to my mind, such as, can I see my bank in Kenya, standard and chartered in the streets of Addis Ababa a few years down the line and benefit from its excellent service? Can I have my Ethiopian coffee in cafes, restaurants across Africa and don't need to carry my coffee every morning because our coffee is very special, as you know? And can I or my children pack our bags and just to travel for leisure or anything from Kazablanca, Morocco to Cape Town, South Africa, from Dakar, Senegal to Djibouti, which is next door? Can this happen? I have these kind of practical questions and these are not distant dreams, by the way, because when we look at the developments particularly in the eastern part of Africa, we have the East African communities that issues common passport, common ID cards, particularly between Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. So maybe we'll see this in the near future. Now let me go back to my three key points. The report has established that trade and labor mobility are the two critical benefits of regional integration and human mobility in the context of Africa and eastern Europe of Africa. Regional integration fosters trade. intra-EAC, East African trade, for example, has increased to 4.36 billion USD in 2021 from 3.36 billion USD in 2020. And the mobility of persons is a critical dimension that makes trade happen. In this regard, the African continental free trade area plays a significant role in making trade and the mobility of persons happen. Particularly through its commitments such as trading in goods, trading in services and investment commitments. Regional integration also advances labor mobility through addressing different barriers to employment through the right kind of policymaking process. Access to work, mutual recognition of skills, portability of social security benefits are critical for labor mobility to happen at the regional level. And the East African community in this regard is making some major progress in encouraging its member states to address such kind of challenges and also, for example, to really get rid of work permit fees. And EGAD is also making different efforts to encourage its member states to do the same. According to the reports, there are four important factors that make human mobility safe. These are health, climate change, gender and sustainable reintegration. And for this session, I would like to focus on two of them, health and climate change. Regional integration and human mobility require people-centered, I really want to focus on this, people-centered health systems. And these health systems, as we have learned from COVID-19, are quite critical to facilitate movement of good services and people. And the mobility responsive primary health care system with cross-border universal health coverage is necessary for effective regional integration and human mobility. The report also calls for enhanced approaches when it comes to climate change challenges. Mobility patterns are constantly changing. Particularly in the Horn of Africa, we have seen one of the worst droughts in 40 years, which is a testimony that individual countries cannot handle this by themselves. They need to approach it individually. We have seen this enough in terms of drought and everything. To cite my personal experience as a five-year-old or four-year-old girl, I didn't travel for the first time for vacation to the beach or something. I traveled for the first time to deliver food to my grandparents, whom we had as a time were facing drought. So we have had this experience for years. We need a serious regional approach to address this situation. And in this regard, regional integration provides excellent opportunity to address it, as we have seen in the 2022 Campala Declaration on Environment, Climate Change and Migration, which was adopted in the run up to COP 27. And this declaration is interesting in a sense. It doesn't only talk about the mobility of people associated with climate change, but also livestock, which is very important in our region. Last but not least, the report argues that integrated border management and digitalization are enablers of regional integration and human mobility. Integrated border management is an enabler of not only movement of people, goods and services, but it's also a catalyst for regional integration and human mobility to happen. The adoption of the EAC passport, which I mentioned earlier, is the strongest demonstration in our region that regional economic communities, countries, can't facilitate mobility of people. One sub-border posts demonstrate the promise and potential of the integrated border management approach in better advancing human mobility. Regional integration also unlocks digitalization. As it encourages recs and member states to invest in digitalization infrastructure linked to digital situations and so on. And digitalization, so many people assume it is very far from Africa, but what we are seeing now is we are having digital IDs, passports, digital financial systems like MPSA, a lot of things are happening. So digitalization is a real enabler. Finally, I would like to conclude by highlighting a couple of points which the US policymakers might find important in enhancing the existing policies, including the Sub-Saharan Africa strategy. And the first one is really to look at closely the important role regional economic communities play in setting very important geopolitical agendas such as climate change, border management issues, counter-terrorism, mobility of persons, they have a real agenda-setting role. So closely working with them will benefit the US government to stabilize countries and support the development. The other key thing the US government needs to pick from this process is not to treat migration as a challenge and an emergency only, but rather as a very positive development, it's a natural development and we need to tap into it and turn it into a socio-economic opportunity which the regional economic communities in our countries as they have clearly stated including in the Agenda 233 that this mobility of persons has the power to turn our current situation into something positive. So we hope the US government will take these points into consideration in advancing its support to our member states. With this I conclude my reflection. Back to you, Andrew. Thank you. Thank you, Sion. Thank you so much for those reflections and that's exactly what I took away, my big takeaway was the positive aspects of migration and working to support that. Deputy Assistant Secretary Campbell, now turning to you, your bureau is focused on population, refugees and migration. So from the report, what are your key takeaways for US policy and partnerships in the region? Thank you so much and it's really such a pleasure to be here and to be talking about this report. Sorry. Which I agree with you, Eskinder, is unique and important and arguably long overdue. I think as all of you know, promoting safe, orderly and humane migration is a top priority of the president and the secretary and something in which PRM is deeply and centrally engaged and this is a really exciting moment because we're in a moment, a dynamic moment and I think when I read the report and the findings what jumps out at me is its comprehensive nature. We as a broad, let's just call ourselves a broad community interested in these issues, human mobility, refugees, migrants, for no reason, no matter the cause. It's presenting a comprehensive picture and it is telling us it's time to break down the silos and to start looking at things not only from a national perspective but indeed from a regional perspective and that's really important. Second, it puts climate at the center. Again, this is a top priority of the Biden administration, something that we in PRM are talking about and engaging in daily to figure out beyond the policy that many of you may have seen or read how do we actually operationalize that? As a top donor, historically a humanitarian donor, a donor that has worked particularly in refugee settings how do we begin to think about what we do about people on the move because of climate? That is really a policy shift for many of us and it's not just a humanitarian question, right? As all of you know, it's a development question, it's a private sector question, it's a peace building question and so finding our way in that conversation it's a very exciting time to be in the administration and this report helps us. The third piece is, and this is I think a little bit a skinder what you were getting at, is that when we think about migration and the opportunities, right? This is the exciting part. It's not migration and the challenges, but migration and the opportunities. It also tells us that solutions are not finite, right? Maybe there is a short term solution for a particular individual or population that may change in the future. I think for a long time many of us have worked in this field we've sort of been stuck in this idea that you have to kind of wait where you are and then there will be in the distant future a solution that will be a permanent solution to the challenges that you face as a vulnerable migrant or someone who's forced displace. But this report tells us, no, there's different ways some of the solutions may be temporary, some of them may be longer term but there's different ways of getting at that and I think that is also very exciting and as mentioned by my colleague I think what is also exciting about this report is that it is about African human mobility. It is not about what do we do, it is not about juxtaposing the challenge with other continents, let's say on the other side of the Mediterranean. It is really about looking at this inside the continent and as you know 70% of African migrants are moving within the African continent, they're not leaving the continent. So that is the correct framing. We should all be looking in partnership with African member states about how we address these opportunities. If I may just say a couple of things about some of the priorities very specifically that we're working on, you mentioned Kenya and Kenya is sort of a global case study of maybe how not to do things well in the sense that we in the United States have supported for over 30 years some 600,000 refugees residing in that country of course with the generous support of the Kenyan authorities and agreement of the Kenyan authorities and it's not that we regret that but after 30 years one has to ask after hundreds of millions of dollars, right? Livelihoods that have been dashed educational opportunities that have been squandered what is a better way of doing that? And it again is a very exciting moment because from President Ruto down the Kenyan government has decided to take a completely different approach and we want to stand in partnership with them on that journey and that approach basically and thanks to its new law that it passed in 2021 and makes it possible is all about inclusion and it gets back to the basis of this report it's about finally freedom of movement it is about easy access to work permits it's about documentation and ultimately hopefully labor mobility in the region. This is revolutionary or it is certainly a huge step forward and it is that type of policy environment and opportunity that we in PRM are poised to support and hopefully hold up as an example of what can be done in other parts of East Africa in particular but the continent in general and this also means working hand in glove as sort of close partners not only with our large sort of IO humanitarian partners but also with the private sector which has to be at the center driving a lot of this the multilateral development banks and other development actors Second, I had mentioned climate migration but again this is something that we're looking very particularly at in Kenya and we're thinking about ways again to operationalize this policy that is now I think we're coming up on the two year anniversary of this policy and again it's an exciting way for us to also I often say build new muscle memory inside the US government about how we do this how are we conceptualizing the problem and then what are the tools at our disposal to begin to address it so that's something I hope that we can continue to make good progress on then I just wanted to mention a couple of other things one of the innovations that this administration has worked on in my colleague at PRM is something called the welcome core which is about private sponsorship of refugees and it is a way to engage average Americans in the important refugee resettlement work that we do together and of course in partnership with IOM but a piece of that innovation is something called welcome core campus I hope I have that right but it's about an innovative legal lawful pathway of bringing refugees through an education channel meaning that universities can sponsor refugees to come so this again is just one example of innovation and something that we're trying to push forward in this administration to begin to think about different ways that we can operationalize lawful pathways and then finally I just wanted to mention without dwelling too much but the work that our colleagues are doing in the western hemisphere on these so called safe mobility offices is very exciting because we hope eventually it can be replicable in other regions and I think definitely East Africa would be an example of a place where you could set up a similar model the idea for those of you who don't know very simply is that those folks on the move can apply through these centers for a wide variety of pathways which may include access to asylum or the US refugee admissions program or labor pathways and those labor pathways don't have to be to the United States or Canada can they can clearly be within the region and other channels so again I think that is a way that we are all trying to work together to be part of what you clearly have articulated in this report which is a broader integration and a broader conceptualization of human mobility and the various components of it thank you so my very much thank you so much and thank you Ms. Bonofle thank you turning to the regional economic communities and I think it's a great opportunity to work you do at EGAD and it's unfortunate that our colleagues from the EAC couldn't be with us today but you work on strengthening the implementation of EGAD's migration policies and could you tell us about within the context of the findings of the report what your priorities right now for those policy implementation plans are and sort of what you have on the agenda of EGAD here namely Ethiopia Sudan and of course our new member Eritrea of course when it comes to our priorities you have as you rightly mentioned the context you have migration but you also have the forced displacement so each also have their own respective policy framework when we look at the migration you have the EGAD free movement of protocol on percent and trans humans that was adopted in 2020 and that actually allows citizens within the EGAD region to move freely so without visa establish themselves and then reside so but this is a progressive process that would allow EGAD citizens to move freely in that regard when we come to the of course that also looks at issues of qualification you know when we look at movement of equality and migrants we don't need to look at it in one profile so you have the skilled ones skilled labourers you have the unskilled one so what we want to see when people move within the region if they have the qualification their certification their certificate needs to be recognised whether they move from Ethiopia to Sudan or Kenya to Uganda so that kind of policy framework third one is on labour migration we because we know labour migration is a big topic for our member states I mean we have countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda that send unskilled domestic workers to the Gulf countries in Saudi Arabia and with lots of challenge particularly protection issues and concerns for the region and the countries framework actually advocates for labour migration to be in a regular manner that protects citizens so that when they move their rights are respected and also when they return back they have possibilities for return in a safe manner but that also allows portability of social protection also working with social partners such as what they call employers association and trade unions so those are some of the main policy frameworks on migration when we come to displacement of course we all know our IGAD region the displacement figures keeps increasing unfortunately we have more IDPs than refugees I mean currently without counting what's happening in Sudan we have about 12 million internally displaced persons and that keeps increasing and then when you look at refugees 0.5 million refugees that also is keeping and keeps increasing and I'm not counting the current figure in Sudan unfortunately so that figures continues so we have existing current humanitarian needs that countries host countries that are struggling at the same time we're also looking for long-term solutions yes you mentioned from PRM like your investment in Kenya for 30 years during well lead to self-reliance of refugees if I were to say that so what we want to see is advocate for humanitarian needs for countries that are to respond to the needs but at the same time work on long-term solutions so durable solutions that would actually have meaningful impact on refugees, returnees and host communities so we look at them also in a holistic manner not distinguishing between one group and the other group so that looks at aspects of education so education access to education system that's such as national education system countries have already developed the coastal plan to include refugees in the national system I would say that the majority of IGAR countries have already done that but also including refugees into the national system so that they can work with refugees and that would change their life meaningfully and then we have policy framework on livelihood that looks at improving or creating the enabling environment when I say enabling environment we're looking at the policy environment such as access to documentation for refugees this could mean work permit could mean access to finance simply as in Kenya it's really impossible for a refugee to have a SIM card it does not recognize refugees your refugee ID is not recognized so small but meaningful change so documentation is one and then we also advocates for involvement of private sector and civil society for job creation of refugees we all know that the governments cannot hire everyone yes they are currently working with other initiatives such as Ethiopia where they did try to hire or include refugees into the different national investment plans but the role of private sector is very critical and then of course this livelihood also looks at issues of natural resource energy but issues of return reintegration people would always move we cannot expect someone to be a refugee their entire life in place actually can they make an informed decision when they go back and reestablish themselves the third aspect is on health again similar to the education ones access to national health systems for refugees yes there are currently initiatives that are happening across the region but those are the I would say some of the key priorities for now there are some great recommendations for supporting returns and reintegration I know colleagues have mentioned actually Ms. Pope you mentioned Ms. Grande who is sorry she couldn't be here today but some of her speech that she did with IOM was about housing land and property rights and how important that is in the context of migration especially for returnies and reintegration I want to stay with you for a minute because you mentioned Sudan and I think we would be remiss for not talking about how your policies that you are working on with EGAD but also some of the findings of the report I know that a lot of them are medium term and longer term priorities but we have a lot of people newly suffering now from this humanitarian crisis are there any priorities that can be expedited from the report or your policies that could help any of those displaced from the conflict currently when it comes to Sudan currently EGAD I'm sure your family with the Quartet group which includes Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan and Djibouti which was recently established to find solution for Sudan particularly on peace yes there were different attempts that were done because I would say the nexus between peace and mobility is very critical for us and we all advocate first that the root causes needs to be addressed because displacement, one of the drivers of displacement is conflict and political instability so unless we address the root causes of conflict in a holistic and inclusive manner yes it would have temporary solution but it would not be lasting Sudan is a very good example yes when we have the civilian government when Hamdo came in power I think we were all very excited even before that when the Darfur conflict ended I know here in DCF years back there was a strong lobby to stop the Darfur crisis but then those underlining issues despite the different peace agreement negotiation has not been really addressed and we have also different actors working either to find solution either as enablers or spoilers I think we all know that so looking at the peace as a long inclusive peace process that which IGAR is currently working I think one is supporting that process because it's very critical it's now, if you can count the dates it's more than 8-7 days since the conflict started the Darfur and the Kordafan and then you have almost 2.2 million people that are internally displaced and then about 500,000 refugees just within this a few days 87 days more but that will continue because the two parties have not yet agreed so we need to advocate first for peace, lasting peace and secondly the two parties need to come together yes, there are different efforts that has been done I know the US is also very working closely with IGAR but I think supporting the IGAR process is very critical I think having different approaches and then meantime providing access to humanitarian needs yes we have the neighboring countries such as Ethiopia, Chad and now receiving on daily basis refugees so those three countries also need to be supported I know they are competing global priorities whether it's in Ukraine and other countries but those we should not also forget what's happening in the IGAR region and then provide humanitarian assistance to the refugees and IDPs thank you so much we hope that something can help the situation there very much Sian I didn't ask you about this I mean I didn't prepare for this but I just thought I would also be failing in my moderation duties to talk about the aspects of the report that speak to the gendered dimensions of migration because it's such an important part of the report and it's mainstream throughout so could you just say a few words about the findings and some of the aspects in the report that speak to gender aspects so I think that's where we turn to our Q&A thank you so much Andrew the gender aspect of mobility of people and integration is something we have given a very strong emphasis in our analysis and thought because we haven't only included a gender chapter but we tried our best to distribute gender throughout the analysis so the key things that come out in this analysis is women actually take part in the regional integration mobility aspect across the board and they are the majority of the cross-border traders for example but now the unfortunate thing is they are into the informal sector so in front of the formal sector they are invisible and due to this they are exposed to a number of right abuses and so on but at the same time the positive thing is the regional integration processes and policies by the RECS they are also very mindful of the gender perspective so the different policies support women which is excellent but the ability of the women to use those policies and advance their economic independence or rights and so on still we need to do a lot because this is a very complicated process we have to do with education exposure knowing your legal rights and also be in the position where you pursue your rights when you go and through the free movement arrangements you can cross the border using your ID card that is a right but now someone a gentleman sitting on the border posts will stop women and ask for a bribe now do you argue with him or do you pay the bribe if you don't pay the bribe what will happen so it's a very complicated process and it's also it has to do with the international perspectives that don't value women as equal to men and a number of things but again I really want to emphasize our policy makers are very conscious of this we have good policies but we need to do a lot to enable women benefit from the mobility arrangements the regional integration processes that include labor mobility and threat so thank you thank you for that perspective I think now we are turning to the question and answer period we have about I think 10 minutes I don't know who's helping me here but we've got some hands and I'll just go ahead and do it well actually I'll start here thank you thank you so much and I would like to thank the speakers for the well articulated insightful presentation this document is really very very very important but I would like to begin with the Sudan from the Sudan and thank you also for raising the issue of Sudan the current conflict in Sudan which was initiated by an insurgent insurgent movement by a unit of the army in the Sudan which unleashed this violence and this catastrophe in the Sudan so what we there are many narratives the narrative which everybody knows including I think some of our colleagues here from the U.S. Institute who were in Sudan when the problem started on the 15th of April is that the rapid support forces which was a part and parcel of the national army rebelled and took arm the story goes and as we are speaking now they are occupying the citizens' houses raping and setting checkpoints taking civilians as human shields and causing all this catastrophe so as our sister from Djibouti said that the priority now is to stop this violence and to support the government of Sudan this mutiny if it takes place in any country it will be confronted as the Sudanese government is doing and maybe with the same also with the same tools of confronting such a mutiny so to stop the violence and the conflict and to assure that civilians go back to their occupied houses internally displaced people go back also to their houses because Sudan is a big and vast country the conflict is in two states the capital city Khartoum and there is another state in the western Sudan with the borders with Chad which is the western Darfur state so this is a priority what we ask our brothers and colleagues in the region and the international community also is to support the government of Sudan address this issue and then after that there will definitely be a political process in the Sudan because it used to be a political process but due to the current developments it is now it is stopped and thanks to IOMF they have a presence in Sudan for tens of years and they are doing very very important and good work and the director General Elector he has a meeting today very big meeting with all African ambassadors at the African Union we discussed these issues in Africa and I just want to remind you also as you promised that you will visit the continent and you said that you will visit Ethiopia and I hope that also you will visit Sudan because Sudan has one of our speakers here said with the presence of millions of refugees from the regions as our sisters and as our brothers Sudan is now used to be also a transit for illegal or for migration but it has become also a destination with the current now situation Sudan is becoming a source and an origin also of migration so you are welcome to visit Sudan and address my question is that this document in fact is a very important document on the state of migration in East Africa and we can say that this is really a manual for addressing this issue and as I have seen here we always have the problem, the challenge of implementing of recommendations implementing of outcome of such research but since we have this comprehensive document so I think we need to concentrate on implementing and realizing the recommendations in the document as it is stated here that 50 authors and contributors from the region and the continent and beyond contributed to the report so in implementing and realizing the recommendations can we make use of some of these 50 contributors to help in the implementation process in realizing the recommendations in moving forward and finding out a way forward for the we don't want this important document to be kept somewhere in one at a corner in an office and I think IOM can play a role let us engage some of these 50 contributors and authors in the implementation process itself can we do that? Thank you so much I'll take note of your question Good afternoon thank you so much for this opportunity to gather and we think the United States Institute of Peace my name is Ambassador Robi Kokonga from Uganda I would like to say that on behalf of the government of Uganda and the people of Uganda we commit to continuing in hosting the refugees we host currently 1.5 million refugees we have one of the oldest camps we've had it since the 50s and I just want to you mentioned that the challenge now is climate change and health and especially when you look at the livestock and it's really when I was in Uganda last summer you could really it's beyond belief what can happen when you have families relying on the livestock and then because of climate change they really don't know what to do they don't know if they should send their children to the city to work as maids because the city becomes crowded if they send them to the Middle East and then there's so many issues and we have the one of the youngest populations in the world 70% of our population is under 30 years old so when it comes to implementing I don't know what we're going to do or how we're going to do it but I just want us to continue in dialogue and make sure that we can do it together because things really can happen I don't want to take too much time but I'll just give another example there's Ugandans in the Diaspora like the largest populations of Ugandans in the Diaspora reside in Boston I was just there over the weekend and during COVID and they really they now even have agencies to take care of the elderly and if we could find ways of certain communities maybe piloting where they can get skills maybe telemedicine again I'm just really looking at how can we leverage telehealth and telemedicine and teleeducation to get ahead of some of these issues so thank you and by the congratulations I also wanted to request that should you make that trip to Africa when you make that trip to Africa Ugandans like 45 minute flight from Kenya and I'll be at the airport waiting for you thank you so much thank you very much we'll just pause and see if there's any responses to the implementation question or the questions about how we move forward to implement thank you so much for that important question thank you thank you for that important question and this is really in line with what we are thinking at IOM in the original office so under the leadership of Mohammed the Eastern Horn of Africa office in Nairobi tends to be forward looking and what we do what we did is right after submitting the manuscript of the report for publication which as you know quite well takes quite a while to print we have started thinking about what is next we have produced this report this many mind took part some of the best African mind is have to emphasize then why are we doing this how are we using it to advance the region's agenda so after some reflection and really appreciating the work of the Rex now we are in the process of thinking to establish original program on regional integration and mobility of persons which I think is one of the most innovative ideas that aims to support our regional economic communities and our member states to advance and benefit from the power of migration and mobility and regional integration so we are taking some baby steps we are not yet there but we are thinking about the implementation of the regional of the region and I think it is a very important aspect a lot thank you I would say governments in the region are already implementing quite a lot I think we need to acknowledge what governments are doing yes they are current policy frameworks but whether it is in Uganda Uganda in fact is very important so in Uganda I would say way ahead in the region but then of course there are different challenges and then each it is not one size fit for all so each country has their own challenge whether it is resources, technical and financial but also priorities so country priorities might change looking at the current dynamics so we also need to acknowledge but I want to emphasize that there are already existing process that are happening and we need to support the governments I think governments should be the center that is my speech thank you so much I think we have time for two more I think there is one here and there is one in the back I think in the back first and then here yes thank you my name is Mahari Andrew thank you so much for this opportunity but I want to also appreciate and demonstrate and also Muhammad Abdiqir Abdiqir for your dynamic leadership and for this report and may I also congratulate the director General-Elect for your victory I want to emphasize on one point I think most of you have emphasized and I think Andrew rightly saw you characterize the report as pivoting towards more the opportunities the positive narrative and we need that Africa needs the positive aspect optics in this kind of report as most of the reports are of course on the displacement displacement in Africa but I think it's very important we cannot hide ourselves or put our head in the sand when we deal about migration and its relation with governance governance governance governance why am I saying that in the report they are mentioned but I think as we speak we have more than 44 million displaced persons in Africa and the total displacement internationally is more than 100 million as we speak this is a record high now Sudan about 3 million Ethiopia close to that number and DRC which are both DRC about close to 5 million in the Horn of Africa and East Africa is a big number and at the center is actually misgovernance of transition in Sudan transition in Ethiopia or other kind of misgovernance that we see and my question is we have been building for decades institutions like the UN including the African Union, EGAD and others to prevent or respond to the the root causes of displacement and the bad aspects of migration like trafficking and so on even if we have the good migration or good mobility now my question is are these institutions supposed to prevent in the first place from causing displacement or bad mobility trafficking are these institutions who are supposed to prevent respond even predict in some aspects fit for the purpose after decades and if it's not done this kind of assessment and the adjustment is not done by countries like the US who have leverage of the resources of otherwise capital, political and diplomatic influence or those institutions that have been established before if they don't move towards that like UN and others can we really resolve the problems that we are talking or are we actually slow walking sleepwalking to more displacement and trafficking that will come for us. Thank you for that. We'll just take one more question. I think in the second row here Ambassador. Thank you so much my name is Matilda I'm Ambassador of Rwanda and first of all congratulations Director Pope we are so happy you are here and thank you the Institute of Peace for convening this important meeting we've worked with IOM for quite some times and especially they were doing a database on diaspora and to see how we can really harness the importance of diaspora in the development of our countries but also when it comes to migration and what can happen and I like among the presenters that you put out there is really that dialogue because countrywide as I say my country has been always thinking out of the box when it comes to mobility and to migration and many different things because we have a big experience and history in being refugees as a whole nation we live in all these countries that we are talking about whether it's Tandania, whether it's Uganda whether it's Burundi and all the countries combined. So one of the things I'm talking about the dialogue is that those kind of solutions that have been brought even in the forefront can give you one specific example when my president was the heading the African Union on that rotational base he took the opportunity to help the people who were dying in the the Mediterranean coming from Libya and we allowed them to come and be a process in the country of Rwanda and all the steps that were taken that we did again we just partnered with the High Commissioner for Refugees to bring the people who want to come there who were dying, there are many who are still dying but to say why don't you come on the continent in Africa like what you are saying and then through a certain process that is very established you can either decide to remain in the country or you can be resettled in a third country that will accept you or you can go back to your country at one particular time in history so those are stuff that I think the dialogue as we go there is really to be to put on the table all the people who can bring good ideas especially in Africa because if you are talking about the East African community and you went over the fact that we have studied real time integration when we talk about even the African passport this is not just a document it has really changed our lives that I can go to any embassy in Washington whether it's Tanzania, whether it's Kenya, whether it's Uganda and I can do all the processes of any for instance when you want to go and do your you are trying to travel in Africa and you go from any entry point so those are major thing, major development so what I would like to see happening and then my colleague from Sudan was talking about silencing the dogs first before the freedom of movement because that can be a very big impediment because even in our region we have great lakes sometimes because of insecurity because of chaos it's very difficult to have segregation of people and movement because of what is going on among countries and states so how are you going to broaden the scope of conversation to go from this report and to say these are the people who should be on the table to discuss talking about security talking about all these things that are here and how is it going to look especially bringing the key partners in Africa from Africa because these are the people who should be in the forefront to also give ideas that they might work thank you so much so those are the two questions we put to the panelists here first are institutions fit for purpose which is something that's on a lot of people's minds to broaden the scope of the conversation to use the report as a catalyst for a broader discussion on the themes and with a broader scope of stakeholders to discuss the issues anyone here just on the question about our institutions and are they fit for purpose this is of course something that has been also on the mind of the Biden administration and it is in part why we ran an Amy Pope for IOM so it's a very I don't know if it was a planted question but no but in all seriousness we all know that these institutions were born out of a particular historical moment in response to a very specific thing that happened and so I think we all agree and we use words very broadly about the need for modernization and reform which means different things to different administrations in this administration what it means and what it means in particular for IOM under Amy's very able and dynamic leadership is working across all of these various sectors and this is why IOM is actually such a unique agency within the UN system it can do everything from emergency humanitarian response to development to peace building to many other things and having the expertise in a single agency and the ability to work across those so called sectors or areas and to try to find a common or a more comprehensive solution to these very complex problems and of course you're completely right if we're dealing on the response end which is frankly where we put a lot of our resources at this moment that means all of the upstream things that we should have been working on to prevent that we've collectively failed and so IOM is very uniquely positioned to try to work more on the prevention side but that will require discipline from all of us those who negotiate our budgets in parliaments in congress to member states to see the value and the investment on the upstream side of things so to put it very simply no I think we have a lot of work to do with our institutional partners but we obviously deeply believe in Amy's leadership and think that she's a key piece to moving us forward and I think we'll all be very excited to go together on that journey with her thank you so much and on the second question on broadening the scope of the conversation you want to thank you ambassador for that important question and I think the key point you highlighted which is quite critical for our region is the importance of silencing the gun for effective productive regional integration and human mobility so the way I take this is I think we need to have a kind of two simultaneous approaches going at the same time since we don't have time and we cannot afford to wait till all the guns are silenced we need to pursue the regional integration economic development efforts and but at the same time conflict we know it is so destructive it's one of the leading causes of displacement migration in our region and also it comes with all kind of distractions that could be avoided so in my opinion regional integration provides an excellent opportunity for countries to see the joint destruction conflict brings and to stand together against it and in the context of Africa we have seen a cause countries doing it in West Africa they have a very strong stand when it comes to conflict when it comes to coups and so they really try to act strongly and to really discourage countries from going to that direction so in my opinion if we manage to pursue the regional integration agenda actually we can use it as a conflict prevention mechanism thank you thank you so much and we're well over time but I want to invite Mr. Mohammed Abdukar the regional director of IOM's regional office of the east and the Horn of Africa please for some closing words before we go off to the reception thank you very much first I have to maybe put this pot because the US government continues to be our largest contributor in eastern Horn of Africa if I look at between this year and the next two years we have about over a billion dollars that is supporting all the countries in EGAD and the east African community and while we were sitting here she just approved another 1.9 million dollars for areas of high return of Burundian refugees we are talking about that as well so thank you for all the support we continue getting from the US government I'm not sure how many of you have watched Wakanda the fiction of African country and I always say we'll get there one day and I say also that Africa is a continent of the future that's where we are and if I look at our ambassadors who are here right now and I'm always very proud to walk around with my east African passport with the first few regional communities that three countries Kenya, Uganda, Burwanda have come together and have one passport where we can move around and also the ID cards and that is very much about the regional integration that we are talking about every day as we speak here the report took two years and I remember having many meetings with Sion and the team on how we're going to make this something different and I said you do your job you're the chief editor we'll try to get the political buy in to mention that we have our member states agree on every single thing that we put in that report and working very closely with EGAD and east African community and each and every single member states I was very impressed with the reaction we got from the member states when you mentioned to President Ruto about this report he said give me a week to read it I didn't believe he's going to read it but after one week he came back and he said I want to put the forward in that report because you're talking about what I believe in for example when we want Kenya commercial bank to work in Rwanda when we want to have an equity bank for Kenya in DRC when Ethiopia and Kenya signed the SafariCom to open up the first mobile private sector mobile company of SafariCom in Kenya he said the report talks to me it tells me what my problem is and also the report talks about climate change and he said I am hosting he is hosting the first Africa climate summit on the 4th to 6th of September this year and he said it talks to me it's what we want to do and last week Amy and I were in Cape Town and it was interesting because as soon as I walked into the room the first person I saw was someone from the secretariat of the African continent of free trade area and the first thing he says is the next report has to be on migration and trade because we want to make sure that we break the barriers so the African continent of free trade area we have more and more governments ratifying that so we can open up the whole continent for trade and mobility for everyone else I can tell you many more stories but today you've heard from the panelist on the benefits of the mobility dimensions of regional integration in eastern Horn of Africa and its contributions to the implementation of the US policy and strategy in the continent and in the region as well as the state of migration in eastern Horn of Africa report demonstrates regional integration holds a transformative potential to catalyze African economic opportunities move households out of poverty and increase the shared prosperity of African countries their citizens and migrants themselves through mutual standard setting and cooperative frameworks regional integration empowers African governments to tackle a range of joint challenges that intersect with mobility from trade and economic development to addressing climate change counter-terrorism armed conflict and transnational organized crime in ways that are true to the continent's aspirations development agenda and the vision of African renaissance the US strategy toward sub-Saharan Africa has made important strides in recognizing African leadership and agency in responding to these challenges as the US seeks to deepen African partnerships policies that support the continent's regional integration and mobility aspirations will go a long way to consolidate a united state strategy that is based on humility and trust for regional and continental visions and reflective of Africa's concerns and realities deepest thanks to our panelists today USIP very grateful my very good friend USRI as our gracious co-hosts today the East African community and EGAD as the reports co-publishers and the African policy community in Washington DC for joining us here today I won't stop you from what's going to happen next please join us for reception immediately following this panel to continue the conversation with the panelists thank you very much thank you Mohammed as he said please join us for the reception thank you all for