Named “Building Migration Partnerships” the project is being implemented by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), for the UN Network on Migration (UNNM), in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior.

Funded by the European Union (EU), the government would receive support to implement the National Migration Policy towards safe, orderly, and regular migration towards sustainable development.

The renewed effort to tack­le migration is in line with the Global Compact for Migration, the first-ever UN global agreement on a common approach to internation­al migration of which Ghana is a signatory.

Additionally, the government would be assisted to establish a National Coordination Mech­anism (NCM) on Migration and a secretariat to enhance institutionalised coordination. At the project launch on Wednes­day, the Minister of the Interior, Ambrose Dery, in a speech read on his behalf by the Ministry’s Chief Director, Adelaide Anno-Kumi, said the project would enhance ongoing migration efforts.

“We, as policy makers, are working to put in place measures to manage our migration programmes effectively to derive migration benefits for the country’s social and economic development. This proj­ect is crucial in supporting Ghana’s migration governance.”

The Chief of Mission , IOM and UNNM Coordinator , Fatou Ndiaye Diallo said , despite the progress made in improving migra­tion governance in Ghana, there were critical actions that should be taken immediately, including the set­up of NCM, to ensure the effective implementation of the migration policy.

She said the IOM, in contin­uation of technical and other support provided, would, through the project and IOM country strategy (2022 – 2025), reinforce the policy and legal framework for migration governance in Ghana to enable the country to derive the benefits from effective migration governance.

The EU Ambassador to Ghana, Irchad Razaaly, said the project was significant because the chal­lenges and opportunities implied in migration were too significant and too complex to be dealt with unilaterally.

“Recent experiences have shown that a coordinated, partic­ipatory and inclusive approach to migration management is not only the better option, but the only option if we want to ensure that migration benefits all,” he said.

The UN Resident Coordi­nator in Ghana, Charles Abani said the project was important because Ghana was a country of origin, transit and destination for migration with more than 470,000 migrants here.

He said the estimated one mil­lion Ghanaians living outside the country contributed $4.29 billion in remittances, equivalent to 6.1 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product according to the World Bank, 2022.

The project, he said, would not only help achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 10, target 10.7 on migration but help get the benefit from well management migration.

“The increasingly complex migration phenomenon and its obvious effects on development clearly makes the case for a robust national migration governance,” he said.