Amidst growing concerns about climate change’s influence on rural-urban migration, the MIGRAWARE Research Team has called on the Federal Government to invest in capacity-building initiatives to study migration drivers and methodologies for effective.

This was contained in communiqué signed by Professor Appollonia Okhimamhe, the Team Lead of MIGRAWARE Research and Director, West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use’s Doctoral Research Programme on Climate Change and Human Habitat (WASCAL DRP on CCHH) at the end of a one-day hybrid validation workshop held at Stratton Hotel, Asokoro, Abuja.

The communiqué lamented the absence of recent census data and limited access to migration and spatial information which it stated has significantly hindered research in the country.

Against this backdrop, it advocate the need for a collaboration between government and relevant stakeholders on a data driven migration policy for the country.

According to the communique: “The partnership between them will be key to ensuring research findings provide a strong foundation for institutional frameworks,”

The workshop’s objective was to showcase and validate research outcomes from the WASCAL DRP on CCHH and the Department of Geography at Federal University of Technology, Minna .

The research also involved collaboration with Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany), the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), Coknow (Germany), PiSolutions (Germany), the University of Wurzburg (Germany), the University of Cape Coast (Ghana), the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (Ghana), Hen Mpoano (Ghana), and the University of Nazi Boni (Burkina Faso).

It further underlined the importance of leveraging the outcomes of the WASCAL CCHH-led MIGRAWARE project to shape national migration policies, especially in line with the domestication of the Kampala Declaration.

“Authorities were urged to validate and apply research data on migration for effective policy planning and implementation,” the communique added.