Conakry - The United Nations Network on Migration in Guinea launched on 16/11 its first joint programme “Strengthening border management, social cohesion, and cross-border security in the Parrot's Beak area” covering Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and funded by the Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund.
The 30-month duration programme will be implemented in the Parrot’s Beak, located in Guinea’s southwestern region, where the country meets with Sierra Leone and Liberia. The movement of people and goods has considerably increased in this region in the last two decades with recent signs of human trafficking and smuggling.
To address these challenges, the joint programme will take an integrated border management approach, that allows for addressing security, development and humanitarian concerns. It will strengthen management capacity among Guinean authorities at the southern borders while fostering social cohesion among cross-border communities.
“This programme is a great opportunity for Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to tackle together challenges facing communities in the three border countries,” said Dr Vincent Martin, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in Guinea. “The UN fully supports Guinea’s commitment in implementing the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM),” he added.
Ms. Fanta Cissé, the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Guineans Abroad, who attended the launch stressed how migration-related issues are of paramount importance for the government. “Guinea will attend the upcoming summit held in Marrakech in XX[TBC] to share lessons learnt and the efforts made to implement the Global Compact for Migration.”
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), one of the programme’s participating UN organizations was represented by its Chief of mission in Guinea, Ndiaye Fatou Diallo. “Only by establishing cross-border regional collaboration, will we be able to explore the real development potential of our countries and truly leave no one behind,” she said.
The USD 2,7 million programme will be implemented jointly by UN organizations including IOM, ITC, UNDP, WHO together with several ministries, the Mano River Union intergovernmental, Community Leaders, Border Security and Health personnel Civil Society.
Called for by the GCM and established by the UN Network on Migration in May 2019, the Fund has received support from Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Mexico, France, Thailand, Cyprus and Turkey and is today fully operational. With partners ready to deliver quality joint initiatives in many countries and regions, the Fund calls for additional resources and stands ready to allocate future contributions in a timely and efficient manner.
Additional programme ideas [new link] have been approved by the Steering Committee and constitute the pipeline of joint programmes once additional resources become available.
For more information, please contact Florence Kim at the UN Network on Migration secretariat: fkim@iom.int; +41 79 748 0395 or Lucas Chandellier, at the International Organization for Migration in Guinea, Tel: +224 628 33 86 53, E-mail: lchandellier@iom.int
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