MECC in West and Central Africa

Environment have always been part of migration. With climate change, the complex link between migration, environment and climate change (MECC) is increasingly being recognized in the local, national, regional and global agendas. The outcomes of the Global Compact on Migration process reflect the full recognition of this nexus, strengthening other global institutional processes as the UNFCCC Paris Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Sendai Framework.

IOM recognizes the necessity to step up local, national, regional and international efforts to address the MECC nexus through migration governance, policy and practice. Policies and concrete action must reflect the significance of environmental drivers on human mobility, but also that migration is an adaptation strategy to climate change. Last, to ensure the sustainability of IOM’s intervention, environmental dimension must be mainstreamed into all areas of migration management: prevention, preparedness and response to displacement, border management, labour migration and integration, and return and reintegration.

IOM’s Strategic Priorities in West and Central Africa (2019-2020)

With the main objective of contributing in an effective way to an inclusive and sustainable migration management and to the mitigation of environmental drivers of migration in the region, IOM’s West and Central Africa office aims at:

• expanding its regional network of local experts ;
• leading a multi-level policy-work to mainstream the MECC nexus at several levels of governance;
• strengthening the diversity of partnerships and collaboration.

Contact

Ms Hind Aïssaoui Bennani Migration, Environment and Climate Change Specialist. IOM Regional Office for West and Central Africa. Dakar, Senegal.