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.
On this occasion, a new activity has been proposed for the first time in the framework of Khartoum Process meetings: a two-and-a-half-hour scenario building exercise led by the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC). MMC experts guided participants along a process of strategic futures analysis for their respective regions. During this exercise, delegates deliberated upon and examined relatively certain and uncertain drivers and their possible impact on mixed migration stocks, flows, routes, and the conditions and experiences of people on the move. The workshop concluded by prompting participants to reflect on their key assumptions and factors for which they are the least prepared to respond to.
As affirmed by Ms. Ankie Broekers-Knol, Minister for Migration, in her closing remarks, migration is a dynamic, multifaceted, and complex process, which calls for a comprehensive approach covering all the issues that arise on migration routes, working closely with countries of origin, transit, and destination.
