MEDIA ADVISORY

INVITATION TO REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MEDIA

What:  Second Edition of the National Dialogue Series on the AU Free Movement Protocol

When: 17-18 May 2023                                                                                                         

Who: The Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC)

Where: Le Labourdonnais Waterfront Hotel, Port-Louis, Mauritius

Background: The African Union has established several policy frameworks to address, manage, and promote migration and mobility due to the pronounced nature of intra- and inter-regional, continental, and global migrant flows within and out of Africa, namely the Migration Policy Framework for Africa (MPFA) and Plan of Action (2018-2030) and the AU Free Movement Protocol.

Despite the existence of the migration policy frameworks, policy uptake among member states and its popularization within African civil society remains low. In an effort to increase the dialogue around the continental Free Movement Protocol (AU FMP), the AU’s Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) has been working on sensitizing decision-makers as well as Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) on the role they can play in advocating for the ratification, domestication, and implementation of the AU FMP across Africa.

Consequently, ECOSOCC will this year, with support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, hold the “National Dialogue Series,” which will be multi-stakeholder roundtable discussions on the AU FMP with key policymakers cutting across different government ministries and agencies, CSOs, representatives of the African Union Commission, ECOSOCC General Assembly members, AU member states and members of the Pan-African Parliament, among others.

This second edition of the series will kick-start in Port Louis on May 17^th. The two-day event will bring together key policymakers, migration experts, CSOs and the academia to develop a CSO Action Plan for advocacy on the FMP in their respective countries and regions. These national exchanges build on the regional CSO sensitization forums on free movement ECOSOCC implemented in 2022 in Ghana, Mozambique, and Morocco. The third and final slot of this series will be held in September, 2023 in Kenya.

Media houses are invited to cover the opening ceremony at Le Labourdonnais Waterfront Hotel, Port-Louis, Republic of Mauritius on 17 May, 2023 at 10:00 AM#

For more information, please contact:

Ms. Carol Jilombo | Senior Communications Officer | AU ECOSOCC Secretariat, Lusaka, Zambia

E-mail: Jilomboc@africa-union.org

Mr. Ernest Kaliza Jr. | Communication Consultant-GIZ-ECOSOCC

E-Mail: EKaliza@africa-union.org

Ms. Onike Shorunkeh-Sawyerr | Project Manager-GIZ African Union

E-Mail: onike.shorunkeh-sawyerr@giz.de

About ECOSOCC

The Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) was established in July 2004 as an Advisory Organ composed of different social and professional groups of AU Member States. The mandate of ECOSOCC is to contribute, through advice, to the effective translation of the objectives, principles and policies of the African Union into concrete programmes, as well as the evaluation of these programmes.

Learn more at: https://ecosocc.au.int/;

Facebook: African Union ECOSOCC; Twitter: @AU_ECOSOCC