Botswana Migration Profile: Supporting Evidence-Based Migration-Related Policymaking and Planning in Botswana

Improving migration management, through the use of reliable and timely data for policy making and development planning has been identified as a priority for the Government of Botswana. Currently, the limited available migration data is fragmented in multiple documents across different ministries and departments, and accessibility has proven to be a challenge. In view of this limitation, the Government of Botswana has requested assistance from IOM to develop a National Migration Profile (MP) in order to collect, analyse and report on migration related data which is to be collected across ministries, departments and agencies. Through this project, IOM seeks to work with Statistics Botswana, relevant government line ministries such as Ministry of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, local academic institutions (i.e. University of Botswana), and other stakeholders to strengthen mechanisms of data collection, analysis and utilization for policy making, development planning and programme, and project implementation.

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to evidence-based policy making and development planning in Botswana, through improved data collection, analysis and dissemination. The project will support the assessment of data collection tools and systems in identified key ministries and institutions, and information sharing between different stakeholders through capacity building interventions. An inter-ministerial and multi-disciplinary Technical Working Group (TWG) will be established and trained to provide technical guidance and oversight during the project implementation.