African Union Development Body To Strengthen Institutions To Tackle Migration - Head

ADDIS ABABA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th February, 2019) The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) will work with the African Union (AU)'s Department of Political Affairs at the 32nd AU Summit in order to strengthen institutional capacity to fight the negative effects of migration, Emmanuel Nnadozie, the ACBF executive secretary, told Sputnik on Sunday.

This year's edition of the summit, which is currently underway in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, focuses on migration. The numbers of African youth migrating to Europe raise AU concerns.

"We are discussing with the panel of political affairs of the African Union, which is the leader in this area, how to build the capacity for managing refugees and internally displaced people and returnees as well. We believe we need to strengthen institutions that are dealing with this problem. We also know that we need to build the capacity of men and women who are in the forefront of fighting this," Nnadozie said on the sidelines of the summit.

He added that chances to deplete the capacity were decreased during conflicts, since people were "affected directly" through being killed or injured.

"You also lose capacity by migration, human capacity. You are likely to destroy your institutional capacity as well. That's why we are concerned about that. You spend so much time and effort in building capacity, and suddenly, when the conflict is over, you find that there is no more capacity [and] you have to start all over again," Nnadozie said.

The ACBF is an AU agency coordinating capacity development programs. Since its establishment in 1991, the foundation has been providing its expertise to facilitate the implementation of national, regional and continental agendas that promote economic growth.