In Pursuit of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Global Compact on Migration for Safe, Orderly and Regular Mobility of Persons; Status of Migration Data on the African Continent: Reflections from Southern Africa

John A Mushomi, African Institute for Development Policy

Migration has never been straight forward demographic indicator. Fertility data, theory and understanding of fertility and how policies can affect it have taken a quantum leap with the World Fertility surveys as well as the Demographic Health Survey programs since 1967, while the field of migration continues to limp in the 21st Century. Inspired by the recent engagement with the International Migration for Migration in implementing the strengthening migration data assessment in Southern Africa, the paper offers advice on how African countries can strengthen migration data ecosystem in pursuit objective 1 of the Global Compact on Migration. There is need for intensive studies on the contribution immigrants in host economies, determinants and consequences of migration to inform the development of Africa Migration Survey program and exploration of frontiers of migration data collection towards experimenting an African Migration Survey akin to the World fertility survey