Project Summary

Currently, development cooperation policies are ostensibly geared towards reducing poverty in developing countries and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, the links between these goals and international migration are yet to be sufficiently explored. Neither the reports published by the Millennium Project Taskforce nor the United Nations Road Map explore the issue. They restrict themselves to pointing out possible connections which are positive (to be encouraged) or negative (to be monitored and avoided).

 Whilst empirical evidence does not show any linear relationship between migration and the attainment of the MDGs, there are nevertheless some crucial links which need to be addressed urgently, owing also to the increasing human mobility today within Africa and particularly from that continent towards Europe.

 In recent years, African migratory flows  has contributed to a rapid development in trafficking networks of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa across the Mediterranean and thus towards Europe. Through this (transport and migrant “services”) market, human flows from Africa have found a potential outlet towards the developed world.

 The Italian and European response to the issue has thus far been of an essentially repressive nature, manifesting itself - through the reinforcement of physical border checks and, forced repatriation at a national level, and intensification of investigative and judicial activity against the criminal networks that run the trafficking, etc at an international level. The latter has hinged on the establishment of new forms of cooperation with the transit countries situated on the southern shores of the Mediterranean (such as Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia), based on the conclusion of agreements and the transfer of resources and expertise aimed at regulating migration.

 This flawed strategy have led to a reformulation of the European Union “external” policy agenda and there has been a flurry of planning documents (the communication on Regional Protection Programmes[1] springs to mind) aimed at integrating the regulatory component with activities intended to reinforce the capacity for international protection of the transit countries through  targeted development cooperation actions. At the same time, research into innovative strategies and resources for development cooperation have focussed attention on migrants as new stakeholders in co-development processes between the territories affected by human displacement.

 Nevertheless, it is still not very clear in what way development cooperation may contribute to supporting appropriate policies in the African nations to fully maximize the role of national and international mobility and, more specifically, migrants, as factors of development, materially alleviating the emergency that transit migration in the Sahara and Sahel regions represents[2].

 In formulating an international cooperation programme as proposed by Italy, which has as its focus the integration of the issue of sustainable management of migratory flows in the Sahel-Sahara region into strategies for the promotion of development and poverty reduction, some key questions may be identified:

• How can institution building and technical assistance interventions aimed at the transit countries in the field of migration management (in the wider sense, covering both migration control and protection activities) be set up so that they make a positive contribution to progress in good governance and democratization of the countries in question, in terms of the broad objective of achieving the MDGs?

•  How can poverty reduction strategies in the Sahel region be adapted to the new migration context which has emerged in recent years?

• What role can the disruptive element represented by social and economic changes, generated by the variation of traditional mobility models, play in the development of the territories affected by migratory movements (including migration, transit and settlement)?

 The year-long CeSPI-SID work programme is geared to formulating a strategic plan for development cooperation to contribute to the management of migratory flows from Africa. This Italian initiative is intended as a contribution to European migration policies and, for this reason, its implementation envisages close coordination with the European Commission and certain interested Member States, such as France and Spain. 

The work programme is divided into two parts. The first, which is divided into three priority streams for research, provides for: (a) the analysis of factors which fuel migratory flows; (b) the identification of the characteristics, dynamics and extent of migratory flows from Africa; and (c) the formulation of possible future policy-oriented scenarios.

 The second part, on the other hand, envisages the identification of principal guidelines for development cooperation policy, potentially suited to making an active contribution to the sustainable management of this problem.

 During the first stage of the programme, the phenomena which are at the heart of the changes (strategic variables) will be interpreted and basic categories will be adopted which are capable of adequately capturing the complexity, multiplicity and elements of uncertainty in future scenarios (in particular, the quantitative extent of the phenomenon and the social, economic and cultural impact of the new African migratory flows in Italy and Europe).

 The analysis of factors which fuel migratory flows from Africa will make reference to the five fundamental contributory causes mentioned above (the impact of the systematic deterioration of the environment in the places of origin, the continuation of conflict situations, the transformations and/or the worsening of the socio-economic conditions of the affected populations, the disruption of traditional socio-cultural balances and population growth). In this study, particular attention will be paid to the Sahel region, insofar as it is one of the principal areas of origin of transit and of African migratory routes.

 In operational terms, a group of experts will be formed who will contribute to the preparation of a summary of the state of knowledge and of debate on the factors which drive internal and external migration within and from Africa, and of a plan for mapping the areas of Africa most affected by migration. Proposals will be identified which are most significant in terms of transforming national and international development programmes, having a substantial impact on migratory flows, into strategic lines of action.

 The first phase will end with an international conference to be held in Rome in July 2006. This event is intended to demonstrate the role of development cooperation in the sustainable management of migratory flows from Africa and to propose, to the new national government, the key elements of a strategic plan which, apart from outlining a new mission for Italian cooperation policy, would also contribute to the formulation of a new European approach. The Conference therefore offers an opportunity of summarising, debating and verifying the research work carried out during the course of the first stage of the project. It will provide a chance to reflect on the role of development cooperation in the pursuit of the sustainable management of migratory flows from Africa and maximization of human mobility as an opportunity for development. The Conference will also be an opportunity for liaising closely with the European Commission and for building stronger cooperation with Mediterranean Europe (especially with France and Spain).

 Based on the strategic lines of action identified at the International Conference, the CeSPI-SID work project will concentrate on drafting a strategic plan for Italian development cooperation, conceived as a document that promotes Italo-African partnerships with the aim of contributing to the sustainable management of migratory flows from the area and to the exploration of new avenues for partnership for the attainment of the MDGs. The Strategic Plan will be drawn up in collaboration with the Spanish and French cooperation agencies, and in close conformity with the European Commission action plan.

The Second Part of the work programme will be subdivided into four principal areas of activity:

Priority Axis 1:

The design of a system for monitoring migratory flows in sub-Saharan Africa.

Priority Axis 2:

The integration of the “sustainable management of migratory flows” component into certain Italian and European development cooperation policy strategic programmes.

Priority Axis 3:

The formulation of decentralized and non-governmental territorial cooperation partnership programmes in Italy with cooperating parties from the Sahara-Sahel regions.

Priority Axis 4:

The establishment of a network of international migration experts who can act as a focal point and technical interface between international stakeholders and local authorities.

i