The Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) has requested the assistance of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to strengthen its capacity to collect, analyse and utilize migration data, and ultimately to prepare a Migration Profile.
Improving migration management at a national level has been identified as a priority for the Government of Zambia. This comes at a time when migration dynamics in the country, region and indeed globally, have become increasingly complex; however, at present in Zambia there is a severe lack of reliable migration data and analysis on which to base policy formulation and planning. Additionally, the Government of Zambia is in the process of developing its Seventh National Development Plan. Data, including Migration Data, is required as part of this process, including the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of actions under the plan.
IOM Zambia has been providing support to GRZ to have access to and utilize an increased level of reliable data on migration through a current and ongoing 12-month IDF project: Migration Profiles Phase I. Phase I is intended to provide a foundation for the development of a full migration profile and to feed into policy making and planning processes through the development of a migration data assessment, which will highlight data ability, data gaps and recommendations. Following a new request from the Government of Zambia in 2017, IOM intends to carry out a follow-up project, ultimately to develop a full migration profile under Phase II of the project. Phase II would support the Central Statistics Office and key line ministries (in particular the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Labour) with strengthened systems to collect, analyse and utilize migration related data.