Steering Committee

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.

Reflecting on the German Chairmanship, the Khartoum Process made strides in addressing migration issues within the framework of the Joint Valletta Action Plan. Activities organised during this tenure tackled various challenges related to migration comprehensively, including climate-induced mobility, sustainable solutions for internally displaced persons, the benefits of applying “whole-of-government” approaches in the context of return and reintegration, and combating trafficking in persons. The Process also provided a platform for discussions on the situation in Sudan and its implications for migration and displacement in the region.

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 16^th 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 9^th 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 8^th 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 5^th of March 2020, Khartoum Process partners’ representatives met in The Hague, The Netherlands, for the 7^th 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.

In the framework of the Khartoum Process, Senior Officials' Meetings are the main fora for policy dialogue, offering a unique opportunity for Members to exchange views on the progress made individually and jointly and the way forward in achieving the aims of the Process. 

The most recent Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) took place in Asmara on 7^th March 2019 and marked the beginning of the Eritrean Chairmanship of the Khartoum Process. The chairmanship of the Process is ensured on an alternating basis from among African and European participating States. With Italy as the outgoing Chair, Eritrea took up this role for the year of 2019.

The Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) of the Khartoum Process took place in Nairobi, Kenya, on 8^th May 2018, following a Steering Committee meeting, and was chaired by the 2018 Italian Chair of the Process.  The meeting was dedicated to the Khartoum Process state of play, an update on the related projects, and the implementation of Thematic Meetings’ Conclusions through a possible stock-taking exercise in the coming months. The roadmap to the 2018 Joint Valletta Action Plan (JVAP) SOM, which is scheduled to take place in mid-November 2018 in Addis Ababa, as well as the contribution of the Khartoum Process to this important meeting, were deliberated upon. The questions of governance, namely the future chairmanship of the Process in 2019 and the expansion of the Steering Committee, were addressed.

On 7th December 2017, Members of the Khartoum Process met in Rome, for the last Senior Officials' meeting of the year which solidified Ethiopia’s handover of its Chairmanship of the Process to Italy.

Italy made reference to the Rome Declaration, adopted at the Ministerial Conference in Rome in 2014, whereby the members of the Process agreed to assist participating states in tackling human trafficking and smuggling between the Horn of Africa and Europe. Three years later, those present again in Rome agreed on the need for an assessment of achievements to date, with a view to explore further paths of cooperation through a range of dedicated thematic meeting and trainings put forward as a rich programme for the year.

The new Chair also stressed the importance of regarding migration as a transnational phenomenon which as a result cannot be addressed by one state alone and therefore requires a high degree of coordination between the EU and AU as well as between European and African partner countries; both continents should work together towards common goals.

 As well as a review of the Projects and initiatives under the Programme, the meeting more broadly looked to the preparation of the Joint Valletta Action Plan (JVAP) Senior Officials Meeting foreseen for the 2^nd quarter of 2018. This meeting will, amongst other topic discussions, look concretely at the means of implementation of projects under the JVAP priority actions as its framework for follow up and review.

Ethiopia hosted the Senior Officials Meeting of the Khartoum Process in Addis Ababa on 6 April 2017 which was dedicated to a discussion of the implementation of the Khartoum Process work plan for the year 2017. The Meeting was opened by a welcoming address of the Chair of the Khartoum Process, the European Commission and the African Union Commission, who all underlined the importance of the focus on the implementation.

As an introduction to the meeting and context, the Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat (RMMS) updated the participants on the migratory trends and flows from and within the region, with a specific focus on generic and new trends as well as responses to these, their impact and the resulting policy challenges.

Given the short time span between the two SOMs (December 2016 – April 2017), the main update concerned the 2017 Joint Valletta Action Plan Senior Officials Meeting. Special attention was dedicated to the presentation of the long term monitoring and reporting tool elaborated by ICMPD to ensure a throughout circulation of the information on the methods of populating the database by the members, with the active assistance of the focal points.

Thereafter, discussions moved to the timeline of activities and meetings for the year 2017 namely thematic meetings, trainings with the aim of operationalising key thematic meeting topics from 2016 as well as the possibility of another informal working group and finally a Senior Officials Meeting leading up to the handover of the Ethiopian Chairmanship of the Process at the end of this year into 2018.

On projects and activities, the EU Trust Fund was presented with an update on funding figures and Member States also updated the attendees on national initiatives and the state of play. More information on national initiatives being implemented will available on the website soon.

Finally, upon an introduction by the Chair to the topic and followed by a presentation by IOM, Members of the Process agreed that contributions of the Khartoum Process to the UN Global Compact on Migrants (GCM) will be a key objective for this year leading up to the (GCM) meeting in Mexico in 2018.

On the 15th and 16th December 2016, the Khartoum Process membership convened for Steering Committee and Senior Officials Meetings respectively in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The first meeting chaired by the new Chair of the Process, Ethiopia, this Senior Officials Meeting agreed upon next steps for the progression of the Process and its related operational activities. The meeting took place in a spirit of partnership and cooperation and was opened by a welcoming address of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Dr. Workneh Gebayehu, who underlined the importance of hosting this SOM for Ethiopia as a country which recognises the importance of paying attention to questions concerning the root causes of migration and comprehensive migration policy.

Members of the Khartoum Process and invited delegates discussed the state of play of the Khartoum Process, reiterating that the progress in the development of the Process is both structurally visible and measurable. The Process has thus provided a framework for the development of closer relationships between governments, facilitating the introduction of legislation and other measures by the partners. Also discussed were suggestions for the 2017 Work Plan of activities for the Process and the Joint Valletta Action Plan Report ahead of the Valletta SOM to be held in Malta in February 2017 where it will be presented.

Finally, Italy proposed its candidature as the next chair of the Process as of 2018, following Ethiopia. This offer was formerly accepted and approved by the members of the Khartoum Process Steering Committee on the 15th December 2016.

At the meeting in London on 23 November 2015, the Steering Committee discussed a set of recommendations on:

• the scope of the Khartoum Process
• the establishment of a level of dialogue at the working level group
• the mapping of the Khartoum objectives, including under the Valletta Declaration and Action Plan
• funding options
• the 'Better Migration Management' in support of the Khartoum Process
• its timetable and composition
• the terms of reference of the Secretariat

Also below, the action plan from the first KP Steering Committee held in Sharm El Sheikh in 2014.