On 12 and 13 May, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation hosted the High-Level Meeting “Migration and Development in 2022: The Role of Cooperation on Migration – New Actors for a New Context”. The meeting was opened by the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Pilar Cancela Rodríguez, and the Secretary of State for Senegalese Abroad, Moïse Diardiegane Sarr, representing the two countries co-chairing the meeting.
In her remarks, Pilar Cancela stressed that “migration and development are a priority for Spanish Cooperation in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly institutional strengthening at national and regional level in migration management, tackling the root causes of migration, raising awareness of the risks of irregular migration, preventing it and combating migrant smuggling and human trafficking. Young people, women and diasporas are actors with the potential to become transformative forces and catalysts for the positive effects of migration.”
In recent years, under the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, Spanish Cooperation implemented migration-related projects worth €235 million in the areas of resilience, rural development, job creation and institutional strengthening in migration management. The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) also carried out initiatives with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), financed by the Spain–ECOWAS Fund for Migration and Development.
The meeting was closed by the Director of AECID, Antón Leis, and the Director-General for Senegalese Abroad, Amadou François Gaye. In his address, Leis reiterated the Agency's commitment to achieving decent living conditions, employment and development opportunities through cooperation with partner countries. “We work to ensure that migration processes are orderly, safe, voluntary and regular, with respect for migrants' human rights and dignity guaranteed. To achieve this, it is essential to take into account the role of young people and diasporas and, in particular, work on gender equality, which is a hallmark of Spanish Cooperation.”
The meeting brought together a broad range of participants from Member States, the EU and ECOWAS Commissions, international organisations and agencies, migration think tanks and specialised civil society organisations. The action-oriented discussions paid particular attention to three groups whose potential added value has yet to be fully realised: diasporas as agents of change, young people and the promotion of entrepreneurship among them, and women as an undeniable driving force for development. Good operational practices for future action were identified.
The Madrid Meeting formed part of the activities under the First Pillar of the Rabat Process. It achieved its objective of jointly examining how to make development cooperation more effective in tackling the root causes of involuntary migration. In this regard, participants had the opportunity to analyse the new opportunities offered by the current EU Multiannual Financial Framework, particularly the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe (NDICI–Global Europe), as well as initiatives such as the Team Europe Initiatives for the Atlantic/Western Mediterranean and Central Mediterranean routes, and projects developed within the ECOWAS and African Union frameworks.
The Rabat Process is an intergovernmental migration dialogue established in 2006, bringing together 57 States (29 European and 28 African), as well as the EU and ECOWAS Commissions. Funded by the European Union, it provides an active forum for action-oriented discussions on migration opportunities and challenges across a broad geographical area encompassing the Atlantic and Western Mediterranean routes and much of the Central Mediterranean route.
The Rabat Dialogue is structured around the five pillars of the Valletta Action Plan and the Marrakech Programme of Work: root causes and development; legal migration; protection and asylum; combating migrant smuggling and human trafficking networks; and return, readmission and reintegration.
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