Dakar – The Ambassador of Switzerland to Senegal, S.E.Mr. Andrea Semadeni, and the Regional Director for West and Central Africa of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Mr Christopher Gascon, signed on 12 December a project agreement for the amount of 250,000 USD, financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation to strengthen the Network of Legal Experts on Migration in West and Central Africa (NoLEM), represented by its president Prof. Abdou Khadre Diop.

The Network was launched in November 2022 with the support of IOM’s MIRAC Fund, bringing together legal practitioners in West and Central Africa (WCA) in order to contribute to the formulation and implementation of rights-based, gender-responsive and evidence-based migration policy and legislation in line with international standards and African Union norms, through expert analysis and dialogue. It will address specific migration-related matters in the region, and serve as a platform for knowledge exchange among academics, practitioners, policymakers, and civil society. The Network aims to become a point of reference for national and regional decisionmakers, and create partnerships at regional level with ECOWAS and ECCAS and the African Union.

To this date, legal experts from 12 countries in WCA have officially adhered to the Network. In the upcoming months, the Network aims at expanding its membership to the remaining countries in WCA.

“This support from Switzerland marks a significant step in strengthening the Network's dynamic and making its contribution impactful.", says Prof Abdou Khadre DIOP, president of the Network.

S.E.Mr. Andrea Semadeni, Ambassador of Switzerland congratulated IOM for steps take to launch and strengthen the Network. “Switzerland supports this initiative by the IOM and congratulates it on having thought of establishing this network of legal expertise on migration in the sub-region. We think that for the states in the region, this is a beneficial initiative that will really help them to draw up comprehensive strategies”

With the support of the Swiss Development Cooperation, the Network will finalize and publish its first comparative law publication on “Detention and Migration in West and Central Africa” in 2024, and it will start a new research cycle analyzing labour migration in the region.

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For more information please contact:

In Dakar: Mrs Sarah Carl, Regional Policy and Liaison Officer, scarl@iom.int