MIGRAWARE Team Urges Nigerian Government to Boost Research in Climate-Driven Migration

 

The MIGRAWARE Research Team has called on Nigeria’s Federal Government to invest in capacity-building efforts to better understand the drivers behind migration, particularly rural-urban migration influenced by climate change. This appeal was issued in a communiqué signed by Professor Appollonia Okhimamhe, Team Lead of MIGRAWARE Research and Director of the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) Doctoral Research Program on Climate Change and Human Habitat.

At a hybrid validation workshop held at the Stratton Hotel in Abuja, the communiqué expressed concern over Nigeria's outdated census data and limited access to spatial and migration information, which it said hampers effective migration research. To address these gaps, the communiqué advocated for collaboration between government and stakeholders to establish a data-driven migration policy framework.

The workshop aimed to present and confirm research findings from WASCAL and the Geography Department at the Federal University of Technology, Minna. This research included partnerships with various institutions, including Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, the German Aerospace Centre, PiSolutions, and universities in Ghana and Burkina Faso.

The communiqué emphasized the importance of using the outcomes from the WASCAL-led MIGRAWARE project to guide national migration policies, particularly in alignment with the Kampala Declaration on migration. It added, “Authorities were urged to validate and apply research data on migration for effective policy planning and implementation.”