National Dialogue Series on the AU Free Movement Protocol in Zambia, Mauritius, and Kenya

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What: National Dialogue Series

When: 27-28 March 2023

Where: Intercontinental Hotel; Lusaka, Zambia

Speakers:

Mr. Robert Phiri; ECOSOCC Deputy Presiding Officer of the Region

Mr. William Carew; Head of the AU ECOSOCC Secretariat

Felicitas Mukurarinda; Head of Project Support to the African Union on Migration and Displacement, Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH AU Office

Representative of the African Union Commission (tbc)

Representative of the Pan-African Parliament from the Republic of Zambia (tbc)

The Honourable Stanley Kasongo Kakubo; Minister of Foreign Affairs and Internal Cooperation (tbc)

Background:

In an effort to increase the dialogue around the continental Free Movement Protocol (AU FMP), the AU Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) has been working on sensitizing decision-makers as well as civil society organizations (CSOs) on the role they can play in advocating for the ratification, domestication, and implementation of the AU FMP across Africa.

Starting in 2023, ECOSOCC in partnership with the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, will hold a “National Dialogue Series,” which will be multi-stakeholder roundtable discussions on the AU FMP with key policymakers cutting across different government ministries and agencies, CSOs, representatives of the African Union Commission, ECOSOCC General Assembly Members concerned Member States and Members of the Pan-African Parliament, among others. GIZ implements these activities on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The first edition of this series convenes in Lusaka, Zambia in March 2023. The two-day event will have one day of exchanges with key policymakers; the second day aims at sensitizing CSO actors and supporting them in developing a CSO Action Plan for advocacy on the FMP in their country and region. These national exchanges build on the regional CSO sensitization forums on free movement that AU ECOSOCC and GIZ implemented in 2022 in Ghana, Mozambique, and Morocco. In 2023, events will be held in Zambia, Mauritius, and Kenya.

Media houses are invited to cover the opening at Intercontinental Lusaka Hotel on 27 March, 2023 at 10:00 AM.