Building Migration Data Capacity

This report analyzes good practices in migration data capacity-building by looking at relatively recent efforts by international organizations to enhance the capacity of National Statistical Systems (NSS) and other national agencies to collect, manage and disseminate official statistics on migration, thereby providing a basis for sound policy and decision-making. This analysis not only includes examples of development activities in the West Africa region, but also in other areas of the world. In addition to identifying some good practices aimed at enhancing data collection, analysis and management, it also looks at use of data for policy making at the national or regional level. The focus is not solely on NSS, but also on efforts to increase the capacity of policy makers to use migration-related statistics in these countries, in line with the recommendations of a recent World Bank evaluation on statistical capacity-building activities. 

The report first examines what capacity-building or capacity-development is, as well as some ideas on the most effective methods to increase national capacity, with particular focus on how to improve migration data collection. Second, the report looks at different types of capacity-building activities in the arena of international migration recently carried out in specific countries. This is an attempt to identify good practices and provide guidelines for future activities, particularly in the African region. This section documents a number of relevant training workshops on how to improve migration data collection, analysis and management, development of technical tools, knowledge-sharing events, ways to establish collaboration mechanisms between migration data users and providers and other activities related to capacity-building. The report ends with some recommendations for future work and areas in which to enhance capacity-development in the West African region and beyond.

Read more: Building Migration Data Capacity: Examples of Good Practices for the African Region