AfDB and IOM Sign Landmark Pact to Harness Migration for Africa’s Development

The agreement formalizes a strategic partnership to leverage migration as a force for peace, resilience, and inclusive growth across Africa.

The Sixth Africa Resilience Forum (ARF) concluded in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, with a major milestone for Africa’s development agenda — the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The agreement formalizes a strategic partnership to leverage migration as a force for peace, resilience, and inclusive growth across Africa. The partnership builds on both institutions’ shared vision of addressing fragility, reducing vulnerability, and creating opportunities for migrants, displaced persons, and host communities.

Migration as a Driver of Development

Under the MoU, the AfDB and IOM will collaborate in three key strategic areas:

1. Migration governance for inclusive development, prosperity, and peace;

2. African diaspora engagement for development; and

3. Responses to internal displacement, including resilience-building and reintegration of affected populations.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Nnenna Nwabufo, AfDB Group Vice President for Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery, said the partnership reflects a paradigm shift in how migration is viewed in Africa — not as a challenge to be managed, but as a powerful enabler of transformation.

“When managed well, migration is not a problem to be contained, but a very powerful driver of inclusive development and resilience,” Nwabufo said.

She emphasized that the collaboration aligns with the vision of AfDB President Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina and President Sidi Ould Tah, who leads the Bank’s work on fragility and resilience, both of whom advocate for “investing in people and prevention” as the cornerstone of Africa’s long-term stability.

IOM and AfDB Join Forces for Impact

Mohammed Abdiker, IOM’s Chief of Staff, hailed the agreement as a groundbreaking step in the global migration and development landscape.

“This partnership brings together the Bank’s financial and technical leadership with IOM’s expertise and field presence to create solutions that place women, youth, and vulnerable groups at the center of Africa’s transformation,” Abdiker said.

He noted that the collaboration will aim to operationalize data-driven approaches to migration management, support policy harmonization among African countries, and mobilize investments for sustainable livelihoods in migration-prone and displacement-affected areas.

The AfDB and IOM will also explore ways to engage the African diaspora, which contributes an estimated $100 billion in remittances annually, as a vital driver of investment, innovation, and knowledge exchange.

Africa Resilience Forum: A Platform for Action

Held every two years, the Africa Resilience Forum has become one of the continent’s most important convenings on fragility, conflict prevention, and resilience financing.

The 2025 edition, themed “Prioritising Prevention: Financing Peace in a Changing Development Cooperation Landscape,” brought together over 500 participants, including government representatives, multilateral development banks, United Nations agencies, civil society organizations, and private sector partners.

Key international organizations represented included the UNHCR, UNDP, World Food Programme (WFP), Interpeace, the OECD, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Throughout the forum, delegates engaged in high-level discussions on emerging threats to peace and stability, as well as opportunities to foster resilience through innovation, youth empowerment, and sustainable finance.

Sessions covered a wide range of topics including:

• Food security and climate adaptation in fragile contexts;

• Youth entrepreneurship and job creation in post-crisis settings;

• Private sector investment in fragile and conflict-affected states;

• The intersection of climate change and peacebuilding; and

• The role of artificial intelligence in early warning and conflict prevention.

From Crisis Response to Conflict Prevention

In her closing remarks, Vice President Nwabufo underscored a major takeaway from the forum: Africa must move from reactive crisis management to proactive prevention.

“We must move from managing crises to anticipating and mitigating risks before they escalate,” she said. “We have the tools, the partnerships, and the vision. What is needed now is collective resolve to deliver impact where it is needed most. We are not merely reacting to conflict — we are investing in peace.”

Her comments echoed the AfDB’s broader Resilience Agenda for Africa (2026–2030), which emphasizes building long-term stability through governance reforms, climate adaptation, private sector development, and inclusive growth.

“Peace Is Investable”

In his closing address, Yero Baldeh, AfDB Director of the Transition States Coordination Office, thanked delegates for their strong engagement and commitment to action.

“This forum has reaffirmed our shared commitment to resilience and reminded us that prevention is possible, peace is investable, and Africa is ready,” Baldeh said.

He emphasized that Africa’s future depends on strategic cooperation between governments, humanitarian actors, and investors. “We must move beyond short-term aid and build systems that enable communities to withstand shocks — economic, environmental, and social,” he added.

Forging New Partnerships for Africa’s Future

The signing of the AfDB–IOM MoU capped a week of partnership-building sessions that saw institutions across the humanitarian, development, and private sectors pledge to strengthen coordination and financing for conflict prevention, migration management, and resilience building.

Friday, 3 October 2025, was designated as a “Partnership Day” at the AfDB headquarters in Abidjan, offering a dedicated platform for bilateral and multilateral meetings aimed at turning commitments into concrete projects.

The AfDB–IOM partnership is expected to mobilize technical expertise, financial resources, and policy coordination to support African countries in addressing the multidimensional challenges of migration, displacement, and fragility.

Both institutions agreed to jointly develop pilot initiatives in priority areas such as climate-induced migration, labour mobility, diaspora entrepreneurship, and community reintegration for internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Building Resilience Through Cooperation

Migration is increasingly recognized as a cross-cutting issue that influences all aspects of Africa’s development — from labour markets and remittances to urbanization, education, and climate resilience.

The AfDB and IOM’s partnership reflects a growing consensus that migration, when governed inclusively, can be an engine for prosperity and peace. It also reinforces the IOM’s ongoing support for the Global Compact for Migration and the African Union’s Agenda 2063, which calls for an integrated, peaceful, and prosperous continent.

As the forum concluded, participants agreed that resilience-building must remain central to Africa’s development agenda. The event reaffirmed that through anticipatory action, strategic partnerships, and sustained investment in people, the continent can transform fragility into opportunity.