OPENING STATEMENT

FOR

DR. SABELO MBOKAZI, HEAD OF DIVISION, LABOUR, EMPLOYMENT AND MIGRATION,

 AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

DURING

THE PEER-TO-PEER LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE-SHARING TO SUPPORT MEMBER STATES IN STRENGTHENING THEIR LABOUR MARKET INFORMATION SYSTEMS

FROM 10th - 13th JUNE 2025, IN GABORONE, BOTSWANA

Your Excellency

Distinguished representative of the Government of Botswana, Kenya, Malawi and Uganda

Distinguished Representative of IOM, and ILO

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Good morning and a warm welcome to everyone in this peer to peer learning workshop. On behalf of the African Union Commission, and the Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, I would like to welcome all of you to the Peer-to-peer learning and knowledge-sharing workshop to Support to Member States in Strengthening Labour Market Information Systems and Labour Migration Governance here in Gaborone, Botswana. I want also to share our appreciation to the Government of Botswana for the gracious hospitality accorded to all of us. I am really encouraged to see all of you here: experts from the government agencies, the national statistical office, social partners, academia, and other partners involved in the production and utilization of labour market and labour migration statistics in the country.

Ladies and Gentlemen;

The AU-ILO-IOM-ECA Joint Programme on Labour Migration Governance for Development and Integration in Africa (JLMP) aims to improve labour migration governance to achieve safe, orderly and regular migration in the continent. It is through the programme that various initiatives have been rolled out to support Member States towards improving policy coherence, partnerships, and coordination between different stakeholders at national, regional and continental levels with the aim of supporting MS on labour migration and employment policy development.

As you are aware, it is through the availability of accurate, reliable, and timely data that we can be able to develop evidence-based policies, and national development plans to achieve the prospects of the Africa we want. A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development. Also, developing, and harmonizing labour statistics in Africa plays a significant role towards improved comparability of information and thus improving our management on labour migration governance at national, regional, and continental levels with reliable information.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Labour Migration data and labour market statistics have proven to play a pivotal role in understanding the economic benefits and social impacts of migration to both countries of origin and destination. Indeed, the importance of quality, accessible, disaggregated, reliable and timely data to inform policies, actions and public opinions is well recognized and highlighted in multiple international and regional frameworks.

It is obvious that the labour migration and labour market trends in Africa have been increasing over the years with women and children migrants increasing over the past decade. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to collect more information about migrants’ characteristics and legal status, indicators which are important for policy purposes.

Additionally, recording migrant’s characteristics by member states on the employment status, industry/sector, occupation, individual earnings, and skills would have a transformative effect on the ability to understand the impacts of past and future policy choices by different labour actors at all levels. However, the reliability of producing accurate and reliable gender statistics data based on various labour market indicators continues to be a challenge for many African countries.

In this regard, the African Union Commission is working towards supporting Member States on expanding the use of administrative data sources in the production of labour statistics and harmonization of key concepts, indicators and methodologies for improved comparability of data in the continent. We have developed and validated the AU guidelines and Toolkit for the collection of quality administrative data for labour migration statistics. These tools will provide better guidance to member states in the collection and utilization of data from administrative sources that remains highly underutilized in many of our countries.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

The labour market dynamics in the modern world keep changing drastically thus affecting the labor supply and demand, economic regeneration initiatives, minimum wage policies, education, and instructional programs as well as the working populace. It is through these challenges and the call from the Ministers of labour that the Joint Labour Migration Programme (JLMP) sought to support selected African Member States to put in place mechanisms and strategies to establish well-functioning and effective labour market information systems to address lack of harmonized information on the labour market as well as understand the composition of the labour market.

In the assessment that we have conducted on LMIS in Malawi and Cote D’Ivoire, a number of recommendations have been identified for implementation so as to support the Member States initiatives of establishing the long-term undertaking of an effective and full-fledged labour market information system.

It is my call that as we look into sharing our experiences, insights and reflections on our management of labour migration governance and the effectiveness of the systems we have put in place at our countries,  we need to consider the quality of information collected, its, completeness, reliability and timeliness, so that we make our day-to-day labour market decisions grounded on evidence. In addition, there is need to strengthen the governance architecture of the labour market through coordination and improved data sharing mechanisms amongst producers and users of labour statistics.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

In a world that is rapidly being transformed by globalization, advanced technological developments, changing demographics, climate change and migration, labour market policies need to be reviewed ever more frequently. It is therefore important to develop a better understanding of the impact that different labour market policies will have on men or women, disparities between young and old, the formal and informal sectors as well as the vunerable populations in our countries. To achieve this, it is of paramount importance to ensure that the LMIS will avail reliable, timely and robust labour market information for policy-making, monitoring and evaluation. It should also provide high quality information for better education planning, career guidance and development of enterprise strategies. Some of the strategies we are going to learn from each other in this workshop.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Finally, it is my sincere hope that the peer-to-peer learning and knowledge-sharing workshop will enlighten your knowledge and overview of the LMIS and the labour market context in the countries as we advance and put measures to improve our labour market governance to meet national sustainable development imperatives.

In closing, a labour market characterized by efficiency, equity, growth, and social justice will be a critical component in making Africa the “place of choice, to live, work, raise families and do business”.

I thank you all.

Mercy Beaucoup.