Labour Migration Thematic areas

Well-governed labour migration can contribute to sustainable development for countries of origin, transit and destination, and can provide benefits and opportunities for migrant workers and their families. It can balance labour supply and demand, help develop and transfer skills at all levels, contribute to social protection systems, foster innovation and enrich communities both culturally, economically and socially.

Considering the challenges in promoting safe, orderly, fair and regular migration opportunities as well as on improving labour migration governance, ILO’s strategy on labour migration in the African region concentrates in doing work at the African Union (AU), Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and country level by providing policy-advice, capacity-building, technical assistance, advocacy and research on the following thematic areas:
  1. Strengthening labour migration governance through tripartism and social dialogue in the formulation and implementation of evidence-based and gender-sensitive labour migration policies, legislation and practices

  2. Promoting a rights-based approach to labour migration by upholding fundamental rights at work and ILO Conventions on migrant workers

  3. Ensuring access to social protection and portability of social security benefits to migrant workers and their family members, as well as to refugees and forcibly displaced persons

  4. Enhancing skills/jobs matching, recognition of skills, and labour certification of migrant workers of all skill levels

  5. Promoting Fair Recruitment of migrant workers

  6. Fostering fair labour mobility through bilateral and multilateral labour agreements based on ILO’s Model Bilateral Labour Agreement included in ILO’s Recommendation No. 86, and ACTRAV’s Trade union to Trade union model agreement

  7. Ensuring policy coherence between labour migration and employment policies with the close involvement of labour market institutions

  8. Improving the collection and production of labour migration statistics for evidence-based policy making

  9. Fostering fair working conditions and combating discrimination and exploitation vs migrant workers (particularly women migrant workers)

  10. Addressing the root causes and drivers of migration

  11. Providing support on labour market reintegration to returned migrant workers and their family members through close collaboration with Ministries of labour

  12. Access to Labour Markets for Refugees and Forcibly displaced persons