The East Africa Community partner states have moved to ease cross-border labour movements with approval of Policy and Legal frameworks governing labour migration and the outcome of the national and regional consultations.
- The overall aims of the policy are to advocate for the protection of migrant workers; strengthen labour migration governance and maximise the benefits accruing from labour migration
- The policy recognises that Partner States have also put in place robust efforts to recognize, certify, and qualify skills acquired through experiential learning.
- A notable gap remains at the EAC level where there is currently no specific mechanism for the recognition of such skills.
The policy, whose implementation Plan spans from 2025-2030, has ten (10) key Priority areas namely: Labour Migration Governance; Harmonisation of Labour Migration Policies; Protection and Empowerment of Migrant Workers; Access to Social Protection and Social Security Benefits; Mutual recognition of Academic and Professional Qualifications.
Other priorities area are; Recognition of Skills Obtained through Informal Training; Promotion of Fair and Ethical Recruitment Practices; Remittances by Migrant Workers; Exchange of Young Workers; and Labour Market Information Systems.
The gap underlines the urgent need to integrate skill recognition components into the ongoing development of frameworks across labour, education, vocational training, and skills development sectors. The policy also takes cognisance of the fact that remittances by migrant workers is not explicitly addressed in the EAC legal and regulatory provisions, and thus, the need to develop appropriate mechanisms for migrant workers engagement in the development of the Community, becomes critical.
The current information on remittances from the World Bank indicates that, Partner States rose from 5,495,480,000 in 2017 to 9,399,804,228 in 2022 (World Bank Data, 2022).
Director of Social Sectors at the EAC Secretariat Dr. Irene Isaka commended the Directors and Experts for timely implementing the directive of the 44th Council of Ministers which called for the finalisation of the labour Migration policy and report to the 33rd Sectoral Council of Ministers responsible for EAC Affairs and Planning.
Dr. Isaka noted that the policy was not a legal instrument with a legal binding force, but it would serve as a guiding document to Partner States with similar policies to align them with them to regional standard, or Partner States with no policy would customise the regional labour migration policy. The policy would also assist in the review of Partner States policies that had been undergoing implementation.
30% of the Kenyan Labour Force is Underskilled- WEF – Kenyan Wallstreet
