Experts from across West Africa gathered in Nigeria from 28–30 October 2025 for the 2nd Annual Regional Meeting of ECOWAS Labour Migration Experts and the 5th Regional Thematic Technical Working Group on Collection and Management of Migration Data. 

Organized by the ILO’s FMM West Africa II Programme, in collaboration with the ECOWAS Commission and ICMPD Pan-Africa, the three-day workshop focused on enhancing the region’s capacity to analyse and manage labour migration statistics. It aimed to improve Member States’ ability to process, calculate and interpret key migration indicators - including filling data gaps - and to refine the roadmap for establishing the ECOWAS Labour Market and Migration Information System (LMMIS).

A strong emphasis was placed on ensuring that national and regional data systems align with international statistical standards, including the 19th, 20th and 21st International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) Resolutions. This alignment is essential for designing evidence-based policies to strengthen labour mobility systems in West Africa.

Throughout the meeting, participants reviewed the progress and technical support provided by the ILO, notably:

• Development of the ECOWAS Labour Migration Strategy and Action Plan;
• Preparation of new ECOWAS guidelines to improve coordination, consistency and quality of labour migration statistics;
• Support for national data collection tools aligned with these guidelines;
• Completion of the statistical analysis process for national migration data for 2021, 2023 and 2024, feeding into the 3rd edition of the ECOWAS migration statistics report.

Participants agreed on major priorities and milestones to advance regional migration information systems:

• Strengthening Member States’ technical capacities in the production, management and analysis of labour migration data;
• Harmonizing methodologies for data collection and analysis across the region;
• Launching the development of a unified national data collection tool for ECOWAS migration statistics;
• Validating the implementation roadmap for the ECOWAS LMMIS.

ECOWAS and its partners reaffirmed their commitment to fostering reliable and comparable labour migration statistics as a foundation for policy development. The ILO highlighted the importance of collaboration, noting that innovations and shared efforts are laying the groundwork for the sustainable implementation of the ECOWAS Labour Migration Strategy (2025–2030).

This work is made possible through financial support from the Delegation of the European Union to Nigeria and ECOWAS, in partnership with the ECOWAS Commission and under the FMM West Africa Project, implemented by IOM, ICMPD and ILO.