The Khartoum Process facilitates collaboration and information exchange among countries along the migration route between the Horn of Africa and Europe. Our activities include at the political level, Steering Committee Meetings and Senior Officials' Meeting and at the technical level, Thematic Meetings, Thematic Workshops and Trainings.
In Cairo, Egypt, from 17 – 18 April 2024, the Khartoum Process partners convened for their 10th Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM), following a Steering Committee (SC) meeting on 16 April. The event drew 76 participants representing 26 African and European countries, along with 12 partner organisations. Key figures such as Assistant Minister Ehab Badawy of Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, outgoing chair Mr. Manfred Schüler of Germany's Federal Foreign Office, and representatives from the African Union Commission, European Union and ICMPD were present.
An extraordinary Steering Committee (SC) Meeting took place on 7 September 2023 in Vienna, Austria to provide an update on the state of play of the Process but also, to discuss further the modalities of the Steering Committee composition and its enlargement. The Committee reiterated their decision to enlarge the Steering Committee from 10 to 12 members, with a sixth member joining from each continent on a permanent basis. To operationalise this decision, the Khartoum Process Secretariat will launch a call for interest. Furthermore, it was agreed that the Rules odd Procedure will be update to include an additional clause that will allow Steering Committee members to select a Chair from outside the SC. The draft text along with the applications for candidature will be proposed and discussed during the 16th Steering Committee Meeting in Cairo. This Meeting was followed by a Roundtable on the Implications of the Crisis in Sudan on Migration Flows in the Region, which provided a platform for Khartoum Process member states and organisations to share their perspectives on the situation in Sudan with a particular focus on its impact on migration realities in the region. The discussion contributed to a better understanding of the complex mixed migration flows.
On 16 March 2023, Khartoum Process partners met for the 9th Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM), which was preceded by a Steering Committee (SC) Meeting on the afternoon of 15 March and a reception dinner organised by the host of the two events, the German Federal Foreign Office, at the Berlin Red City Hall. The reception featured welcoming remarks by Ms Sibylle Katharina Sorg, Director General for European Affairs, German Federal Foreign Office, Ms Ana-Maria Trǎsnea, State Secretary for International Relations of the Federal State of Berlin, and Honourable Mary Ayen Majok, Deputy Speaker of the Council of States, as representative of the outgoing Chair of the Process, South Sudan.
The Senior Officials’ Meeting featured the Chairmanship handover from South Sudan to Germany, who presented their priorities for the year ahead. Among other priority areas, the German chairmanship will focus on human mobility in the context of climate change and the protection of internally displaced people. As a cross-cutting theme and in line with Germany’s Feminist Foreign Policy Guidelines, gender-specific issues will receive special attention.
An extraordinary Steering Committee Meeting took place on 10 October 2022 in Vienna, Austria, to further discuss the Steering Committee composition and enlargement due to Sudan’s continued inability and current suspension from the African Union. To fill temporarily the vacant seat in the Steering Committee and restore the geographical balance, a temporary replacement for Sudan will be sought from among the African Khartoum Process members through a call for interest.
On the further expansion of the Steering Committee membership, it was agreed that 1 member/continent should be added as an acceptable way forward. Further discussions on the modalities however need to be further elaborated by the voluntary working group (composed by Egypt and The Netherlands) until the next Steering Committee Meeting. Furthermore, there was a general consensus on the possibility of adding an emergency clause to the existing Rules of Procedure that would allow Steering Committee Members to also propose and select a Chair for the Process from outside the Steering Committee in case of an emergency situation.
On 22 – 23 March 2022, Khartoum Process partners met for the 8th Khartoum Process Senior Officials’ Meeting, which was preceded by a Steering Committee Meeting on the morning of 22 March. The Senior Officials’ Meeting featured the Chairmanship handover from The Netherlands to South Sudan and marked the commencement of the South Sudanese Chairmanship. Delegates discussed the recent developments within the Khartoum Process and within partner organisations, deliberated upon the Work Plan for 2022/23 and explored new governance strategies for the Steering Committee.
Reflecting on the social and political developments since the last Senior Officials’ Meeting in March 2020, delegates acknowledged the value of the Khartoum Process as a dialogue platform in times of crisis, reactively adapting its agenda and allowing their participating countries to explore COVID-19 implications on mobility and migration, jointly exploring responses to these novel migration dynamics. In this context, delegates stressed the need to further ensure dynamism and flexibility, in particular in the governance of the Process.
On 29 September 2021, Khartoum Process Steering Committee members convened in person for the first time since March 2020, when they met on the occasion of the Steering Committee Meeting in The Hague, The Netherlands.
Due to the global health crisis, which affected both migration dynamics and the modus operandi of the Khartoum Process, this Steering Committee Meeting provided a most welcome opportunity for Steering Committee representatives to reconvene and jointly deliberate on how the Process can move forward in a way that addresses the needs of the members and accounts for the new realities.
During this half-day Steering Committee Meeting, held in Brussels, Belgium, the following agenda items were presented and discussed, with a series of key action points agreed upon: updates on the 2021 workplan and proposals for 2022, governance related issues, such as the Chairmanship of the Process, as well as the broader issue of the resumption of the Khartoum Process activities and the need to “reset” the Process in a way that reflects the current realities and several ongoing limitations linked to travel possibilities. Joint Valletta Action Plan (JVAP) update and next steps in this process were also discussed.
A Steering Committee (SC) Meeting of the Khartoum Process took place virtually, on 2 December 2020, hosted and chaired by the 2020 Chair of the Khartoum Process, The Netherlands. SC members represented (in alphabetical order): African Union Commission, Egypt, Ethiopia, European Union (DG DEVCO, EEAS, DG HOME), France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Sudan, and Sweden.
The aim of the meeting was for SC members to exchange on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the work of the Khartoum Process and jointly explore constructive ways of fulfilling the mandate of the Process in the coming months. Despite the unusual current circumstances, the work of the Khartoum Process remains valuable and supports partners in tackling the mobility-associated challenges of the new context and beyond.
The Chair opened the meeting by referring to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the work of the Khartoum Process, namely the travel restrictions which made it impossible for in-person meetings, as platforms for dialogue, experience sharing, and networking in the framework of the Khartoum Process, to take place.
Against this backdrop, new ways of communicating and exchanging have been explored between March 2020 and the date of the Steering Committee, aimed at keeping channels of communication open and helping partners respond to emerging issues.
Agenda items included proposals for the 2021 workplan, the Joint Valletta Action Plan update and the JVAP database, an update on the 2020 activities to date and proposals of new formats of activities.
On the 5th of March 2020, Khartoum Process partners’ representatives met in The Hague, The Netherlands, for the 7th Senior Officials’ Meeting of the Process. Delegates had the opportunity to take stock of the work carried out during the Eritrean Chairmanship, discuss governance matters, and agree on a way forward for the finalisation of the Joint Valetta Action Plan update, initiated in April 2019.
This meeting also marked the Chairmanship handover from Eritrea to The Netherlands. As a result, the work plan for the Chairmanship of The Netherlands was also broadly defined on this occasion.
Participants confirmed the value and relevance of the Khartoum Process as a forum to discuss issues of common interest for the countries along the migration route in the Horn of Africa and Europe in order to identify concrete areas of cooperation.
