Developing a National Labour Migration Policy for Namibia

As a country of origin, transit and destination, Namibia has benefited and can benefit further from labour migration, but this potential is not yet being fulfilled to a large extent. In this regard, the country is committed to scaling up data collection efforts to inform its policies and to harness the benefits of migration to contribute further to the national development priorities of economic growth, reduced unemployment and increased income equality.

In May 2013, upon the request of the Namibian Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration, IOM organized a workshop for a wide range of officials to facilitate the migration and development policy process, during which several issues pertaining to labour migration were raised and recognized as priorities by the Government of the Republic of Namibia (GrN). It is against this background that the government requested IDF support.

The overall objective of the project is to support the GrN to develop and implement a labour migration policy within the context of existing regional frameworks. The IOM, in partnership with the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation, will achieve this objective through the following outcomes:

1) A comprehensive and finalized labour migration policy is developed and made available to government and other stakeholders; and
2) A roadmap for the implementation of the national labour migration policy inclusive of a resource mobilization plan is developed and available to all government agencies and other relevant stakeholders.

This project is also designed to complement the 2015 IDF regional labour migration project Developing a Roadmap to Facilitate South-South Labour Mobility in Southern Africa, which aims to bring together selected SADC Member States in order to facilitate South-South labour mobility arrangements with a view towards ensuring the protection of the fundamental human, labour, and social rights of migrant workers, their families, and associated communities of origin and destination.