The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa presented, Wednesday in Rabat, its project on migration statistics in Morocco. Conducted in partnership with the National Observatory of Migration (Ministry of the Interior), this project aims to strengthen the skills of the departments concerned by the collection of statistical data in the field of migration, through their support in terms of data collection. demographic data, the development of sampling and questionnaires and the processing of data according to a scientific protocol in order to obtain accurate and reliable statistics. The project ultimately aims to set up a centralized national digital platform bringing together all statistics on migration in Morocco.
Set up a centralized national digital platform bringing together all statistics on migration in Morocco. This is the long-term objective of the project launched by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Morocco. A country of emigration, transit and reception of migrants, the Kingdom is certainly considered an African champion in this area, but the management of the migratory flow could be optimized. The Kingdom indeed has little conclusive statistical data on the profile of migrants, their skills and their qualifications. However, the development of any relevant migration policy requires conclusive and reliable data.
To achieve precisely this objective, the Economic Commission for Africa launched a project in July 2020 to assess migration statistics in Morocco with the aim of identifying gaps and developing recommendations to improve the collection system. , processing and dissemination of data. Conducted in partnership with the National Migration Observatory under the Ministry of the Interior, this project targeted five government departments mainly concerned with the collection of data on migrants, namely the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the High Commission for Plan, the Ministry of Higher Education, the Ministry of Health and the Department of Employment. The study of data from these departments revealed that the statistics published are often disparate and do not allow the Kingdom to have a global vision of the situation of migrants in Morocco. “The study showed that each of the departments studied produced statistical data according to their skills.
It is therefore difficult to group them together to have an overview of the situation of migrants in Morocco”, explains Ali Saddik, head of service at the Ministry of the Interior and member of the National Observatory of Migration in a statement. granted to the “Matin” on the sidelines of a conference organized on Wednesday in Rabat to present the results of the report on the migration statistics project in Morocco. The three-year project (2020-2023) focuses on strengthening the skills of the departments responsible for collecting and processing information or distributing it within their department. “The support of the skills of these departments concerns five areas, namely better collection of migratory demographic data, the development of the sampling plan, the questionnaire guide and the improvement of applications processing statistics. The long-term goal is to enable these institutions to master migration data collection techniques by applying the scientific protocol to avoid errors and produce accurate statistics,” says Naïma El Madani, project manager and consultant at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
According to this official, the Commission will continue its support and accompaniment of the various departments concerned while setting up a centralized digital platform which will bring together all the statistical data on migration. This platform will be placed under the supervision of the National Migration Observatory under the Ministry of the Interior. In addition, a national guide on migration statistics will soon be published by the Economic Commission for Africa. This document will propose migration statistics that meet the needs expressed by Morocco.