Senior African Union staff attend Exec Ed training course on migration as part of GIZ project

In the first week of December, the Hertie School’s Executive Education team led a four-day training course to senior-level African Union Commission (AUC) staff based in Addis Ababa on methods for implementing new migration policies in the AUC bureaucracy. The leadership training took place online and featured opening remarks by the Deputy Chairperson of the AUC, H.E. Amb. Kwesi Quartey, and the German Ambassador to Ethiopia and the African Union, Stephan Auer.

The tailor-made course was part of a broader project of the German development agency GIZ, “Support to the African Union on Migration and Displacement”. Hertie School faculty held a variety of online seminars for senior public administrators on migration governance, focusing on cross-departmental cooperation and coordination and on the creation of effective and impactful policies with African Union member states.

As part of its Five-Year Migration Strategic Plan, the AUC’s Labour, Employment and Migration Division has been working to strengthen the coordination of the migration agenda among AUC departments, independent offices and agencies of the EU.

The programme has included a session on the political mechanisms behind policymaking, taught by Andrea Römmele, Professor of Communication in Politics and Civil Society; a session on institutional reform and another on the benefits and limits of institutional cooperation taught by Thurid Hustedt, Professor of Public Administration and Management; and one on migration risk management during the pandemic, taught by Hertie School Senior Fellow Rolf Alter. The participants also received training on writing effective policy papers and political communication and on peer review in policy design.

The training aimed to build participants’ expertise and skills and enhance efficiency for successful policy implementation and harmonisation at regional and national levels. It also offered an opportunity for participants to share best practices among international experts in the field.

Following this online series, an in-person study visit to Berlin is planned for 2021, once pandemic-related travel restrictions are lifted.