ADDIS ABABA, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) on Saturday urged East African countries to instill sound legal frameworks and policies so as to tackle impacts of forced displacement on the region's overall development.
The call was made by IGAD's Director of Health and Social Development Division, Fathia Alwan, who noted that the impacts of migration and forced displacement require sound legislation in a bid to protect vulnerable people as well as the region's development.
"Migration and forced displacement require sound legal frameworks and policies for the protection and empowerment of vulnerable populations and for enhancing the developmental impacts of those who are affected," an IGAD statement quoted Alwan as saying on Saturday.
"Sound legal frameworks and polices, in turn, need reliable data and scientific research in scaling up responses to existing needs, and we must make our response even more relevant," the director said.
IGAD also stressed that "forced displacement presents a major development challenge in the East and Horn of Africa Region, accounting for some of the world's most protracted displacement cases with limited prospects for return or self-reliance."
IGAD, back in 2017, adopted the Nairobi Declaration as the regional application of the CRRF, seeking a multi-sectoral approach in dealing with displacement with a focus on the development impacts of displacement on host communities and governments across the region.
