12 Oct 2023

The African Union Commission (AUC) in collaboration with the government of Botswana will hold the eighth Pan African

Forum on Migration (PAFoM-8) Conference in Gaborone on October 31 – November 2. 

Addressing the media on the conference in Gaborone on Wednesday, Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Ms Anna Mokgethi said it would focus on bolstering free movement and trade in line with the African Continent Free trade Agreement. 

Minister Mokgethi said the conference would also discuss the Free Movement Protocol which Botswana was signatory to, at both African Union (AU) and SADC levels. She said the conference, themed “Unlocking integration for Africa”, was expected to attract 300-400 delegates from 55 African states. Minister Mokgethi added that the AU adopted the African Continental Free Trade Agreement as a flagship project of the African Union Agenda 2063, whose aim is to create a single African market for goods and services. 

She explained that Agenda 2063 would be facilitated by free movement of persons, capital and investment to deepen economic integration. Thus, she said, the Free Trade Protocol’s position was that free movement of persons, capital, goods and services would promote integration, Pan Africanism, enhance science, technology, education, research and foster tourism. 

She said the protocol also promoted inter-Africa trade and investment, increased remittances within Africa, facilitated mobility of labour and created employment; improved the standards of living of the people of Africa and facilitated mobilisation and utilisation of human and material resources in order to achieve self-reliance and development. The conference, she said, aimed to promote an improved understanding of the nexus between labour migration, free movement and trade by unpacking socio-economic benefits and positive multiplier effects of the relationship. 

Further, she said, it aimed at attaining advanced dialogue to deconstruct barriers towards advancement of free movement of people in Africa. 

Ms Mokgethi said the December 2021 African Union’s Publication on Politics in Africa showed that intra-African migration rose from 13.3million to 25.4million between 2008 and 2017. 

The causes of such massive movement of people, she said, ranged from economic reasons to the need for security. She said the conference was also to facilitate discussion to highlight the impact of legal identity and border management on free movement and AfCFTA. One of the objectives was to explore digital technological advancement for gathering of accurate data and information to generate critical statistics in contexts of free movement, labour migration and migration for development, she said. 

Minister Mokgethi said Botswana stood to benefit from initiatives geared towards improving free movement of people and goods, and had shared infrastructure and services supporting that. 

These included the Kazungula one stop border post, Mamuno 24-hour border post and use of the national identity documents to cross the borders between Botswana and Namibia. 

The conference, she said, would also be proof of Botswana’s growth in Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events (MICE) initiative and position it as a competitor in the continent to host such events and similar ones in the future. ends