A research team known as Migration Aware (MIGRAWARE ) has sought integration of scientific research into Nigeria’s migration policies.
The team emphasised the crucial role of collaboration between the government and stakeholders in response to rising concerns over climate change impact on rural-urban migration and the need for partnership in ensuring research findings to provide strong foundation for institutional frameworks that would help check the trend.
This was contained in a communiqué signed by the team leader of MIGRAWARE Research and director, West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use’s Doctoral Research Programme on Climate Change and Human Habitat (WASCAL DRP on CCHH) of Department of Geography, Federal University Minna, Professor Appollonia Okhimamhe, at the end of a one-day hybrid validation workshop held in Minna.
He said the research also involved collaboration with the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany); German Aerospace Centre (DLR); Coknow (Germany); PiSolutions (Germany); University of Wurzburg (Germany); University of Cape Coast (Ghana); Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (Ghana); Hen Mpoano (Ghana); and University of Nazi Boni (Burkina Faso).
The communiqué highlighted challenges such as the absence of recent census data and limited access to migration and spatial information, which significantly hinder research.
It stressed the need for the government to prioritise a national census and invest in capacity-building initiatives focused on migration drivers and methodologies.
The workshop also underlined the importance of leveraging on the outcomes of the WASCAL CCHH-led MIGRAWARE project to shape national migration policies, especially in line with the domestication of the Kampala Declaration.
The communique also urged authorities to validate and apply research data on migration for effective policy planning and implementation.
