On 25 October 2016, a Closing Workshop of the Prague Process Objective 2 - Knowledge Base on migration took place in Prague, Czech Republic. A 1-day Workshop gathered representatives of 16 participating states, EUROMED Migration IV, UNHCR, and ICMPD in its capacity of the Prague Process Secretariat. The meeting was dedicated to the discussion of the current state of the Prague Process Knowledge base on migration as well as its future in a new format, namely the Training and Analytical Centre (TAC) composed of a Migration Observatory and a Training Academy.
In the view of the fact that the extensive experience of the Prague Process Objective 2 on the migration data collection, processing, and dissemination should be further utilised in order to engender a mutual understanding of the migration situation in partner states, including information on existing migratory flows, priorities, problems, and interests, the participating states were invited to provide their feedback on the Discussion paper. The latter raised some important questions regarding the future development in the framework of the TAC and its key components.
The morning session was opened with the welcome notes by the Czech Republic as the host state, the Republic of Poland as the Leading state of the Prague Process, and the Slovak EU Presidency. The session proceeded with a presentation of the overall structure of the Knowledge base as well as the database content, namely the EMP, MPLs, infographics, and the mini i-Map on migration available on the Prague Process website. The session then proceeded with the presentations on the experience of individual countries in the process of preparation of Migration Profiles, namely (in the order of appearance) Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Armenia, Republic of Moldova, Kyrgyz Republic, and Ukraine.
The afternoon session was dedicated to the experience of work on migration profiles (Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan) of the Budapest Process, representing another policy dialog to which ICMPD serves as a Secretariat, an overview of the proposed Training and Analytical Centre, including the Migration Observatory, and the results of the Ministerial Conference, as well as the Euro-Mediterranean area (EUROMED Migration IV) pertaining to the restructuring of the i-Map platform as an online interactive shared platform hosting the Prague Process, the Budapest Process, the Rabat Process, and the former Mediterranean Transit Migration.
The workshop concluded with a tour-de-table, during which the participants shared their visions on the TAC proposal.
All participants have confirmed their interest in having access to knowledge about migration in the participating states and regionally. In the framework of the Prague Process, the knowledge on migration is available in the form of individual migration profiles. An on-line Knowledge base and the i-Map as a tool for data sharing and dissemination represent useful platforms for the information exchange, intergovernmental dialog, and policy decisions. Maintaining these platforms up-to-date and operational is essential for the informed migration management. Given the differences between the countries, the data in the Knowledge base is also a source of inspiration to better govern the migration processes. The participants have unilaterally supported the idea that the access to up-to-date data on migration is essential for the grounded policy making. The key questions pertain to the next steps in the development of the already existing achievements in a new framework, namely the Training and Analytical Centre.
