Good migration governance and health
Good Migration Governance and Health in Uganda and East Africa
July 2022 to December 2024
The initiative aims at capacity building in East-Africa in the field of health and migration by building a community of experts who work for and with migrants, refugees and local communities. It addresses knowledge gain, program development and coordination, and policy making in the field of health and social care. Its approach is intersectoral, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary and relates to good migration governance.
Tasks include the roll-out and further development of online courses on health and migration, the initiation of an alumni network of successful course participants, and deepening and enlarging partnerships of stakeholders from international organizations, NGOs, local, regional and national authorities, and academia.
The project builds on the successful implementation of online courses on health and migration with Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, in cooperation with international organizations and experts, in the years 2020-2022.
The initiative is funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior.
The Center for Health and Migration (CHM), Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology , School of Public Health (JKUAT), and IOM-UN Migration RO East and Horn of Africa cooperate in the further development and roll-out of the Health and Migration online courses.
Prof. Robert Kinyua, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, welcomed the project team at JKUAT, Nairobi, Kenya on March 31, 2023 and expressed the university’s support for the initiative.
From left to right: Dr. Jackline Mosinya Nyaberi, Ms. Jemimah Kalekye Abel, Dr. John Gachoh, Prof. Robert Kinyua, Dr. Sonja Novak-Zezula, Dr. Ursula Trummer, Dr. Prof. Kenneth Ngure, Dr. Michela Martini, Mr. Gerry Mtike
Dr. Justin MacDermott, Deputy Regional Director IOM RO for the East and Horn of Africa, on April 4, 2023 welcomed the team at IOM and expressed IOM’s interest to continue and deepen collaboration in capacity building in the region.
From left to right: Dr. Michela Martini, Dr. Jackline Mosinya Nyaberi, Dr. Sonja Novak-Zezula, Dr. Ursula Trummer, Dr. Justin MacDermott, Dr. John Gachoh, Ms. Caroline Musita, Ms. Jemimah Kalekye Abel
Health, Migration and Climate Change
Climate change is an increasingly important theme in Africa, where a large majority of its people depend on livestock and agricultural activities for livelihood. Concurrently, the topic of health of migrants and people on the move is rapidly raising both in the health debate and migration governance agenda in the Region.
In November 2021, a webinar was conducted to collect and discuss first-hand experience with 25 participants from a postgraduate online course on health and migration funded by the Austrian Government and implemented in a co-operation of the Center for Health and Migration, Austria, with Makerere University, Uganda, the International Organization for Migration – UN Migration, and Lancet-Migration.
Based on the webinar results, researchers from Africa and Europe jointly drafted an article to contribute to the discourse on the interrelation of climate change, migration, and health by providing contributions of experts in the field of health and migration directly working with migrant and refugee communities in Africa. As a result from the discussions, two cases from Sudan and Zimbabwe were selected to be further analysed with desk research to illustrate and underpin the points made.
Corporate Social Responsibility Project 2021/2022
CHM and all experts are contributing with their expertise and work time on a social basis.
Migration Governance and Health in Austria and Uganda
With this project, adult education courses on Health and Migration at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, are developed and implemented.
The courses focuses on the nexus of health and migration in an interdisciplinary approach and in relation to good migration governance.
The courses are designed in close cooperation with stakeholders at international, national and sub-national level. They contribute to better working and living conditions and migration sensitive health care provision in Uganda. They improve awareness and knowledge about legal migration to Europe/Austria as well as shed light on the dangers and pitfalls of irregular migration. Participants receive a certificate from Makerere University, Uganda, the Center for Health and Migration, Austria, and the International Organization for Migration – UN Agency.
The project is funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior. It was developed and is implemented in partnership with Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, the Center for Health and Migration, Vienna, Austria, and the International Organization for Migration – UN Agency. The project started in June 2020 and ends in September 2022.
Symposium „Migration Governance and Health“
Kampala, September 1-2, 2022
Organizers:
Department of Social Work and Social Administration, School of Social Sciences, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Makerere University
IOM – UN Migration, RO for East and Horn of Africa
Center for Health and Migration, Vienna, Austria
„Health and Migration“
3 online courses
2 open forums
353 participants from
17 countries (Uganda, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Turkey)
17 thematic sessions, covering foundations of and research on migration and health / global and African perspectives on migration health governance / regular and irregular migration in the context of South to South and South to North migration / COVID-19 impact / rights to health and social protection for migrants / gender issues /mental health and well-being /physical health, including communicable and non-communicable diseases / humanitarian and complex emergency settings
21 facilitators from 11 countries
1st online course „Health and Migration“
2nd online course „Health and Migration“
3rd online course „Health and Migration“
WORLD HEALTH SUMMIT, Regional Meeting-Africa 2021 Kampala, Uganda
Panel Migrant and Refugee Health: An Agenda for Africa
Input by Ronald Kalyango Sebba, School of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University and Ursula Trummer, Center for Health and Migration
MHADRI
The global Migration Health and Development Research Initiative (MHADRI) aims to advance evidence-informed global migration health policies and practices (through the unique international migration health researchers’ collaboration) that will improve the health and wellbeing of people and communities affected by migration.
The network aims to develop an international community of practice focused on the generation of quality, ethical, and rights-based research to inform the development of policy and programming to improve the health and wellbeing of people on the move.
Membership represents multiple actors, including academics and researchers based in civil society organisations who work with migrant groups. Ensuring that the voices of migrants are included in the network’s activities is central to MHADRI’s approach.
Ursula Trummer is member of the MHADRI executive board.
Advancing the migration health research agenda for evidence-informed policy and practice
Lunchtime panel discussion at the 109th session of the IOM council
The panel focused on Global Compact for Migration (GCM) objectives calling for better data for migration governance, and the ways in which Member States can be supported in developing evidence-informed, migrant-sensitive health systems and policies. The high-level panel was joined by representatives from the Global Health Centre, Center for Health and Migration, Migration Health and Development Research Initiative (MHADRI) network, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and IOM.
Capacity Building for Migration Health Training, Research and Policy Analysis in the East African Community and the European Union
particularly Austria
In 2016, CHM started cooperating with the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala/Uganda.
This cooperation aims to contribute to reducing push-factors of migration such as lack of opportunities for education, work, and lack of access to health care; and to provide better knowledge about frameworks of migration to Europe and a realistic view on working and living conditions there. It works cross-sectional and combines migration governance with building resources for a public health system in Uganda.
