The International Organization for Migration and Egypt’s Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding have formalized a strategic partnership targeting migration governance, peace building, and climate security across Africa and the Middle East. The memorandum of understanding signed during the Fifth Aswan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development on October 19 to 20 establishes frameworks for collaboration that could reshape how the continent addresses displacement challenges.
Mohammed Abdiker, IOM Chief of Staff, emphasized the agreement reflects shared commitment to advancing sustainable peace and inclusive development across Africa and beyond. Through this partnership, both organizations reaffirm dedication to empowering national institutions and communities to lead in shaping resilient responses to displacement, conflict, and climate challenges, building bridges of peace and progress for the continent.
The MoU establishes collaboration across multiple interconnected areas including human mobility, conflict prevention, peacemaking and peacebuilding, women and youth empowerment, peace and security frameworks, and the climate peace development nexus. This comprehensive scope acknowledges that migration cannot be addressed in isolation from the broader political, environmental, and social contexts shaping population movements.
The partnership will develop joint actions within the Aswan Forum context, Egypt’s COP27 Presidency’s “Climate Responses for Sustaining Peace” initiative, and capacity building activities on countering cross border crimes while advancing integrated border governance. These connections position the collaboration at the intersection of multiple high priority policy frameworks rather than operating as a standalone initiative.
Senior officials attending the signing ceremony included Ambassador Amr El Sherbiny, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Multilateral Affairs and International Security, Ambassador Seif Kandeel, Director General of CCCPA and Executive Director of the Aswan Forum, Mohammed Abdiker from IOM, Othman Belbeisi, Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at IOM, and Carlos Oliver Cruz, Chief of Mission at IOM Egypt. The diplomatic weight of attendance signals both organizations view this partnership as strategically significant.
Ambassador Seif Kandeel described the signing as an important milestone representing continuation of longstanding collaboration between the two institutions. Over years, CCCPA and IOM have maintained strategic partnership translated into wide ranging joint activities in Africa and beyond, reflecting shared commitment to addressing the complex nexus between migration, peace, security, and development.
Othman Belbeisi, IOM’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, stated the organization remains committed through its Cairo Regional Office and offices across Africa and the Middle East to working with CCCPA toward shared goals of advancing development and prosperity for Africa. The agreement reinforces commitment to sharing technical expertise, building partnerships, and driving collaborative community led solutions making real differences to people’s lives.
The Aswan Forum itself represents a significant platform for continental dialogue. Launched by Egypt during its 2019 African Union chairmanship, the forum convenes heads of state, government leaders, regional and international organizations, civil society, private sector representatives, and experts to address interlinked challenges of peace, security, and development across Africa. IOM Egypt has partnered with the forum since its inaugural edition, contributing to preparatory expert workshops, policy dialogues, and implementing the humanitarian peace development nexus.
This year’s fifth edition operated under the theme “A World in Flux, A Continent in Motion: Navigating Africa’s Progress Amid Global Shifts,” reflecting recognition that African development occurs within rapidly changing global contexts demanding adaptive responses. The timing coincided with global reflections on the 80th anniversary of the United Nations, the 25th anniversary of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, and the 10th anniversary of the Youth, Peace and Security Agenda.
Egypt’s leadership as champion of the Global Compact for Migration continues inspiring regional cooperation and innovation in migration governance. The country’s multifaceted engagement across migration policy, peace building infrastructure, and climate security positions it uniquely to facilitate partnerships connecting diverse stakeholders around shared objectives.
The partnership’s emphasis on climate responses proves particularly timely given mounting evidence linking environmental degradation to population displacement. Climate change exacerbates resource scarcity, drives agricultural failures, and triggers conflicts over diminishing water and land resources. These dynamics create cascading effects where environmental pressures combine with governance failures and security threats to generate complex humanitarian emergencies.
CCCPA’s role extends beyond this specific partnership. Founded in 1994 by Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the center serves as an Egyptian public agency specializing in capacity building, convening, and research in sustaining peace and development across Africa and the Arab region. As an African Union Center of Excellence and the only civilian training center on peace and security issues in the Arab region, CCCPA occupies a distinctive institutional position.
The center engages across multiple topics including conflict prevention and resolution, peacekeeping, peacebuilding, preventing radicalization and extremism conducive to terrorism, women peace and security initiatives, transnational threats, and climate security development linkages. This breadth enables CCCPA to approach partnership opportunities from integrated perspectives rather than narrow technical specializations.
IOM brings complementary strengths to the collaboration. With global reach spanning 175 member states and presence in over 100 countries, the organization possesses operational capacity and technical expertise that CCCPA’s convening power and regional relationships can leverage effectively. IOM’s experience implementing migration programs across diverse contexts provides practical knowledge that can inform policy frameworks emerging from forums like Aswan.
The partnership’s focus on border governance reflects recognition that effective migration management requires functioning border systems balancing security concerns with facilitation of legitimate movement. Many African borders remain porous, inadequately staffed, and lacking technological infrastructure supporting effective control. This creates vulnerabilities exploited by smuggling networks, trafficking operations, and terrorist movements while simultaneously impeding legitimate trade and travel.
Countering cross border crimes requires coordinated approaches transcending individual national capacities. Criminal networks operate regionally and internationally, demanding responses matching their geographical scope. Partnership frameworks enabling information sharing, coordinated enforcement actions, and harmonized legal frameworks prove essential for disrupting illicit activities that thrive on jurisdictional gaps and enforcement limitations.
The emphasis on women and youth within the partnership acknowledges that these demographics experience displacement and conflict distinctively while simultaneously representing crucial resources for peace building and development. Women often bear disproportionate burdens during crises while possessing insights and capabilities that peace processes frequently marginalize. Youth populations face particular vulnerabilities to recruitment by armed groups and criminal networks but equally represent demographic dividends that proper engagement can channel toward constructive purposes.
Implementation challenges will inevitably emerge as the partnership moves from signing ceremonies to operational activities. Translating memoranda of understanding into concrete programs delivering measurable impacts requires sustained political commitment, adequate resource mobilization, effective coordination mechanisms, and accountability frameworks ensuring activities align with stated objectives.
Resource constraints pose persistent challenges for African institutions despite ambitious mandates and genuine needs. While partnerships can facilitate resource access through donor coordination and joint programming, sustainable institutional capacity requires predictable funding streams enabling long term planning rather than dependence on episodic project based financing.
Coordination across multiple stakeholders operating at different levels from local communities through national governments to regional organizations and international agencies demands sophisticated management systems. Without clear delineation of roles, responsibilities, and decision making authorities, partnerships risk becoming talk shops producing declarations and communiques but limited tangible outcomes.
The partnership’s success metrics will ultimately focus on whether collaboration produces demonstrable improvements in how African countries and communities manage migration, prevent conflicts, build peace, and address climate security challenges. Measuring such outcomes proves methodologically challenging given complex causality and long time horizons between interventions and observable results.
Early indicators might include numbers of officials trained through joint programs, policy frameworks adopted incorporating partnership recommendations, border infrastructure improvements supported through coordinated investments, and community initiatives piloted addressing climate displacement nexus. These outputs, while not equivalent to ultimate outcomes, can signal whether partnership mechanisms function effectively.
For Ghana and other African nations, partnerships like this IOM CCCPA collaboration matter because they shape continental policy frameworks and capacity building programs that national governments can access. While Ghana doesn’t face displacement crises matching Sahel or Horn of Africa severity, the country manages migration flows both as origin and transit location while confronting climate pressures affecting agricultural livelihoods and coastal communities.
Ghana’s participation in African Union mechanisms, engagement with migration governance frameworks, and vulnerability to climate security challenges means continental partnerships addressing these issues carry direct relevance for national policymaking. Technical assistance, training opportunities, and policy guidance flowing from IOM CCCPA collaboration could strengthen Ghana’s institutional capacities managing migration and climate security intersections.
The Aswan Forum’s evolution from inaugural 2019 edition through this fifth iteration demonstrates sustained Egyptian commitment to providing platforms for African dialogue on peace security development linkages. Egypt’s continental influence derives partly from consistent institutional investments like CCCPA and forum secretariat functions that provide ongoing value to African partners beyond episodic summit declarations.
As this partnership unfolds through implementation phases, critical questions remain about whether stated ambitions translate into programs delivering substantive benefits to vulnerable communities experiencing displacement, conflict, and climate pressures. The test lies not in signing ceremonies or policy documents but in whether affected populations experience improved protection, expanded opportunities, and strengthened resilience through collaborative actions this partnership enables.
Source: newsghana.com.gh
