Dakar, 8 August 2024 - The International Organization for Migration (IOM) facilitated a first exchange of ideas between the Network of Legal Experts on Migration in West and Central Africa (NoLEM), Georgetown University Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM), and other stakeholders to address the urgent challenges posed by climate migration and its impact on legal frameworks governing international migration. This event, held online on Thursday, 8 August 2024, brought together experts from academia, international organizations, bilateral partners, and regional bodies to develop robust, gender-responsive, and rights-based approaches to managing climate-induced migration.

The meeting, organized by IOM’s Regional Office for West and Central Africa, aimed to enhance understanding of global, regional and other legal frameworks related to human mobility in the context of climate change. In addition, the meeting aimed to foster collaboration and exchange on climate migration issues at the intra-continental level. Participants included notable figures such as Christopher Gascon, IOM Regional Director for West and Central Africa; Professor Elizabeth Ferris, Director of ISIM at Georgetown University; Professor Abdou Khadre Diop, President of NoLEM; Walters Tubua, Regional Lead for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Regional Consultative Committee for West and Central Africa; and Khadim Mboup, the Representative of the Embassy of Swiss Confederation.

“As established by the Global Compact on Migration, cooperation with academia is obviously instrumental," said Mr. Gascon during his welcoming remarks. “This helps us to foster research that contributes to evidence-based policies, and it's important to cooperate with academia to encourage research and other knowledge products that generate evidence on regional/national issues, including the impact of climate change and necessarily migration.”

The exchange between academic experts, policymakers, and legal professionals comes at a critical time as displacement and other forms of migration accelerated due to climate-related factors. According to the IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), of 10,996 migrants surveyed in Niger, Mali, and Cameroon who noticed environmental changes and/or disasters in their places of origin, 39% said that it impacted their decision to migrate. These factors and others are highly likely to increase migration in the coming years – with the vast majority being interregional – and pose a challenge to existing frameworks on migration governance.

Key topics discussed included the impact of climate change on migration, the need for robust legal frameworks, challenges specific to climate migration in West and Central Africa, and the benefits of ongoing collaboration and knowledge sharing between international and regional experts to address these multifaceted issues. Professor Ferris highlighted the complexity of climate change-induced migration and how they are covered by existing legal frameworks while emphasizing the leading role of West Africa in establishing key legal frameworks.

“We know that it's never just climate change that leads people to move, it always interacts with other factors: socioeconomic, demographic, political,” Ferris said. “For example, we know that people who have economic resources are better able to adapt where they are, but also to move if they need to…So that makes it particularly difficult for policymakers and legal experts who would like to single out climate migration for some individuals.”

The event also featured presentations on various aspects of human mobility in the context of climate change. Pablo Escribano, Senior Regional Thematic Specialist on Migration, Environment, and Climate Change at IOM, outlined that IOM has established three strategic objectives to address the link between migration and climate change: (i) Finding solutions for people on the move; (ii) Finding solutions for people to move; and (iii) Finding solutions for people to stay. Another topic of interest was climate justice and the need to have tailor-made policies with a gender-based approach. Professor Cheluchi Onyemelukwe, a lawyer and law professor at Babcock University, Nigeria, spoke on need to establish more legal protections, clear definitions, and most importantly, more funding to properly address the needs raised by climate change.

Professor Abdou stressed, “Africa has innovative texts on displacement, including the recent Kampala Declaration which mentions natural disasters and catastrophes which can factor into internal displacement and refugee flows. The question that we must reflect on as legal experts in Africa at NoLEM is how we can further create and innovate through policy on legal frameworks that specifically address human mobility linked to climate change.”

Ms. Kristina Mejo, Senior Liaison and Policy Advisor at IOM’s Regional Office, in her closing remarks, highlighted that these discussions underscored the necessity of ongoing dialogue between policymakers, academia, and other professionals working at the intersection of climate and migration to better craft policies to strengthen migration frameworks and better deal with the effects of changing temperatures.

This initiative is part of IOM’s broader commitment to addressing the impacts of climate change on migration through comprehensive, multidisciplinary approaches. The exchange between NoLEM and Georgetown University marks a significant step in starting conversations around creating legal frameworks that are adaptive to the realities of climate-induced displacement. The Network of Legal Experts on Migration is an initiative funded by the Swiss Confederation that provides a platform to legal experts and academia to share, discuss and deliberate on legal matters pertinent to migration.

For more information on IOM’s work on climate migration, visit: Migration environment and climate change

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For more information please contact:

Edlira de Andrés, Network of Legal Experts on Migration in West and Central Africa, edeandres@iom.int