Botswana

Botswana became an IOM member state in 2014. Key stakeholders in the South Africa region are migrant communities, national governments, United Nations (UN) agencies, regional organizations and institutions, including the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs), the research communities and donor agencies.

In addition, the beneficiaries of IOM’s programmatic interventions in Southern Africa include regional bodies, central and local government stakeholders, community leaders and members, the diaspora, NGOs and CSOs, as well as refugees, irregular migrants, internally displaced persons, returnees and trafficked persons.

More information on IOM's activities in Botswana can be found on the website of IOM's Regional Office for Southern Africa.

Migration initiatives

For the year 2020, IOM in Botswana will scale up its support to the Government around migration coordination, migration data and migrants’ rights on protection, as well as counter-trafficking interventions. Specifically, the mission in Botswana will prioritize the following:

• Support the Government in establishing and operationalizing a national migration coordinating mechanism to strengthen migration governance and management. Assist the Government to strengthen its migration governance framework through the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration and carry out the recommendations of the 2019 Ministerial MIDSA.
• Improve assistance to vulnerable migrants and VoTs and ensure protection of migrants’ rights, including the adoption of ethical recruitment standards and practices and extensive capacity-building of national stakeholders.
• As part of strengthening migration data collection, analysis and use, IOM will support the Government in strengthening the migration component of the National Population and Housing Census scheduled for 2021. IOM aims to provide technical review and inputs into the census documents, as well as capacity-building training to governmental statistic personnel.
• Conduct a mapping of the diaspora and explore ways to harness their potential contribution to national development.
• Strengthen collaboration with the media in an effort to enhance public education around migration and dispel negative myths and perceptions about migrants and migration as a whole. In addition, IOM will conduct regular migration briefings to different stakeholders, including government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, as well as development partners.

Contact information

International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Government Enclave
Block 8, Gaborone
Botswana

Tel: +267 393 1236
Fax: +267 3914286