Migration, Environment, and Climate Change (MECC) Regional Policy Forum for Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean
The IOM regional Project “Migration, Environment, and Climate Change: Evidence for Policy in Southern Africa and in the Indian Ocean”, which is implemented in the four target countries of Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, and Namibia; works with and supports Ministries of Environment, other relevant ministries and government entities in selected SADC and IOC Member States to strengthen the knowledge base on the relationship between migration and environmental change, including climate change, to inform the formulation of related national and regional policy and operational planning.
At the request of the respective government counterparts in the target countries, IOM has set up technical working groups (TWGs) and supported national inception and/or capacity building workshops. Four individual country-level assessments on Migration, Environment, and Climate Change (MECC) have been conducted in Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, and Namibia. While each country has developed its research questions to the specific context and priorities for evidence based policy development on MECC that can be actionable by the respective government, research tools have been developed so as to enable some level of comparability and cross fertilization amongst countries. In each of the countries, a national consultation was held and facilitated in the last quarter of 2017, to take stock of findings, and develop a blueprint for policy and operational planning purposes.
Beyond the evidence collected at the level of individual Member States, MECC is of paramount relevance for both the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC). Against these, IOM seeks to undertake and facilitate a two-day Regional Policy Forum for SADC and IOC, where officials from the two entities and representatives from Member States will discuss the findings of the country assessments, and have an opportunity to debate, and develop a regional policy-guiding document that would establish priorities, stimulate cooperation, and cross fertilization amongst Member States.
