The Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility & FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg's Workshop - African Intermediary Cities and Migration

10.11.22:  Samuel Hall's Lisa Pfister & Pauline Cherunya, PhD. shared key insights from the ongoing Equal Partnerships & our work with local governments at the The Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility & FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg's workshop on African Intermediary Cities and Migration. Building on our past research, local governments are better placed to respond urgently to needs of IDPs, ensuring protection & access to services. This involves multi-stakeholder engagements with local communities. Oftentimes, urban displaced are not recognised when there are encampment policies. We highlighted this through our work using participatory forums to come up with development-based solutions to displacement together with local actors that can work in their cities. Our past projects suggest that a shared mandate on migration was essential. Multiple government officials are eager to take charge of the local integration of refugees and partner with international and national donors and NGOs. The workshop reiterated the need for multi-stakeholder partnerships. Some of our key takeaways include the importance of the research about urban spaces in secondary cities, having a shared mandate to migration, potential collaboration with local actors, a need for ethical partnerships amongst local government and civil societies and a call for cross-collaboration among funding agencies.