In October 2000, under the auspices of the Government of Senegal, and with the support of IOM, the West African Regional Ministerial Meeting on the 'Participation of Migrants in the Development of their country of Origin' was held in Dakar, Senegal. The meeting produced the Dakar declaration and follow-up documents, which include a number of suggestions for ways to achieve the objectives identified at the meeting. The International Migration Policy Seminar for West Africa, organized by the International Migration Policy Program (IMP) and IOM in cooperation with the Government of Senegal and UN agencies involved in the field of migration, represented an opportunity to move a step closer to achieving some of these objectives.
The seminar gathered representatives from the ECOWAS Member States and Mauritania. It focussed on several issues including labour migration; data collection and exchange of information; smuggling and trafficking; migration and human security; global, regional and national migration dynamics and strengthening regional cooperation.