LAUNCHING IOM'S COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & POLICING (CEP) TOOLKIT

Mombasa, Kenya • July 2023

From July 4th to 6th, IOM Immigration and Border Governance (IBG) Division, with support from IOM Burkina Faso, IOM Kenya, IOM Niger, and respective IOM Regional Offices, launched its internal Community Engagement & Policing (CEP) Toolkit at an IOM CEP workshop in Mombasa.

CEP represents a key area of focus for IOM, to enhance the safety and security of migrant communities, and shift towards a people-centric, proactive, and preventative approach to policing, focused on promoting human rights and rule of law. CEP initiatives serve as a critical migration management and border governance tool to (re)build trust, cooperation, foster communication and proactive relationships between migrant, host communities and government authorities, including law enforcement.

The CEP workshop in Kenya successfully brought together 50 IOM staff from 26 IOM Country Offices, 4 IOM Regional Offices, and IOM Headquarters to exchange best practices and lessons learned of relevance to this area of work, benefiting from the expertise of multiple teams on enhancing public safety and security among migrant communities, host communities, and national authorities.

As a result of the workshop, IOM Country Offices have enhanced capacities to better manage risks associated with CEP engagements. Moreover, they now possess a consistent framework for designing, implementing, and monitoring CEP programming.

The CEP Toolkit, developed by the IBG Division in consultation with various IOM Country and Regional Offices, as well as other IOM entities, establishes an institutional definition and framework for IOM-led CEP initiatives, and outlines methodologies and practices for engaging with law enforcement, relevant government authorities, and local communities to further strengthen IOM’ engagement in CEP programming.

This Toolkit and the recent familiarization event are critical milestones as IOM is rapidly increasing border governance, integrated border management, and CEP initiatives globally, in response to IOM Member States and migrant communities' needs, as well as donor priorities - such as the United States, the European Union, and Germany, among others.

The Toolkit is one of the many valuable tools developed by the IBG Division to support a comprehensive and community-centered migration management and border governance approach.

Current and future efforts in this area of work are critical: CEP is core to well-administered border governance processes contributing to  peace, security, and regional integration. It enables sustainable development by accounting for the ways in which good border governance infuences development outcomes for migrants as well as border communities, and contributes to cooperative border management programming (as defined by the African Union) when paired with other interventions, spacing from border management technical trainings to information systems.

📚 You can read more about our CEP approach and areas of interventions at Community Engagement & Policing (CEP) | International Organization for Migration (iom.int)