Country coverage

The IOM Regional Office for Southern Africa is based in Pretoria, South Africa. The Office covers 15 countries in the region. Formal offices have been established in eight of them, including Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, Mauritius (also covering for Comoros and Seychelles), Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  In addition, IOM has a presence and conducts activities in four other countries in the region, including Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar and Malawi. In total, there are eight IOM Country Offices, additional presence in four other countries, 17 sub-offices.

IOM staff and programme budget in Southern Africa

IOM has over 300 staff in the Southern African region, comprised of 59 per cent male and 41 per cent female. The majority of staff hold national/‘General Service’ type contracts (77%) with a smaller number holder international status (15%), and the remaining being additional short-term/ ‘no status’ type contracts (8%). Mr. Charles KWENIN is the Regional Director for IOM Southern Africa.

The total programme budget in the region for 2014 reached nearly $56 million, with DRC being the largest mission in the region ($ 20 mill), followed by South Africa ($13mill) and Zimbabwe ($ 5mill).

Member States and key stakeholders

All countries in the Southern African region are IOM Member States.  3 countries became new members in 2014, including Malawi, Botswana and Madagascar.

Key stakeholders in the region are migrant communities, national governments, United Nations (UN) agencies, regional organizations and institutions, including the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs), the research communities and donor agencies.

In addition, the beneficiaries of IOM’s programmatic interventions in Southern Africa include regional bodies, central and local government stakeholders, community leaders and members, the diaspora, NGOs and CSOs, as well as refugees, irregular migrants, internally displaced persons, returnees and trafficked persons.

Priorities in the region

IOM has a long history of working in the Southern African region, and has played a critical role with respect to the advancement of migrants rights, establishment of a regional policy dialogue on migration, development of migrant friendly policies, capacity building of government and non-governmental actors on migration management, and reduction of HIV/TB and other communicable diseases in migration communities. It has provided leadership on migration issues by coordinating efforts of various partners at national and regional levels.

Based on current priorities and needs in the region, IOM’s work focuses on six key areas of intervention, including migrant assistance, emergencies and transition, labour migration and development, immigration and border management, migration health, and regional cooperation. In addition, a number of cross-cutting issues, in particular activities related to data collection and research, are being addressed within each priority areas of intervention.

IOM Southern Africa also focuses on strengthening its organizational effectiveness, in particular through the introduction of a results-based management (RBM) approach.

The African Capacity Building Centre (ACBC)

The IOM programmes in the region also benefits from the technical expertise of IOM’s African Capacity Building Centre (ACBC) based in Moshi, Tanzania, which was established in 2009 at the request of IOM’s African Member States to enhance the migration management capacity of African States. It does so by providing technical assistance in migration and border management, supporting migration research and development and promoting migration advocacy and partnerships.