The Gambia

The Gambia - ‘Strengthening Communication on Migration in The Gambia’ (2020-2021)

As a part of IOM’s ongoing technical support to The Gambia in strengthening migration governance, this project aims at contributing to building capacities of the government, media and civil society stakeholders, and strengthening their knowledge on basic migration concepts and terminologies to enhance understanding on migration management priorities, and to communicate these effectively, accurately and sensitively to the Gambian population.

The project consists of two main components for:

1. A 15-month strategic communication training plan for government officials will target a cohort of 25 communication officers from various ministries and government agencies and will contain substantial modules on migration and technical modules on communication techniques. In addition, a technical workshop for representatives of Gambian diplomatic missions and diaspora associations in the EU will be organized to strengthen their capacity to communicate effectively about migration to the Gambian diaspora and the Gambian population. These activities aim to enhance the government’s leadership role in migration management, strengthening officials’ capacities to communicate with their citizens and proactively address migration-related discourse and debate in the public domain. The training plan will also be supplemented and guided by a migration communications strategy elaborated by the training cohort, which will serve as a framework for the Government of The Gambia to determine their priorities in communicating about migration, as well as empower its staff to carry out their public information roles effectively beyond the training.
2. A series of training for media (on migration reporting), including bloggers, online influencers and community media personnel, and civil society (on migration advocacy), including academics, student activist and youth leaders, to improve their knowledge and skills in communicating on migration. Building on previously conducted media training under the EU-IOM Joint Initiative that only targeted the Banjul area, these complementary activities aim at further strengthening the media coverage of migration in The Gambia, ensuring its accuracy and depth, and to build within civil society a more balanced approach towards and appreciation of migration which will heavily inform their advocacy work.  Gambian journalists will be further empowered with knowledge on migration management in the context of The Gambia, migration law, migration and human rights, and other thematic areas beyond irregular migration.

The key implementing partners in this project include the Ministry of Information and Communication Infrastructure (MOICI), Office of the Vice-President (OVP), Gambia Press Union (GPU), Migration Reporters Association of the Gambia (MiRAG), as well as one international and one local consultancy firm conducting the needs assessment, design and implementation of the strategic communication training plan.