Ghana

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) have begun construction of a Migration Consultation Centre (MCC) in Sunyani. The construction is part of a larger information campaign to promote safe and legal migration under IOM’s Ghana Integrated Migration Management Approach (GIMMA) project, funded by the European Union (EU). The MCC aims to facilitate and empower migrants to travel in a legal, voluntary, orderly and protected way.

For the first time since independence in 1957, the Government of Ghana has formulated a National Migration Policy (NMP) to help manage its internal and international migration flows in the context of national development as well as sub-regional, regional and global interests. The Government of Ghana formally approved it in April 2015, policy which was developed with support from IOM Ghana and the IOM Development Fund (IDF).

In 2012, Ghana adopted the Act 848 which amends the Immigration Act, 2000 (Act 573) to provide for the offence of migrant smuggling. This act defines what migrant smuggling is and the penalties incurring for people engaged in migrant smuggling.

The MIDA Ghana Health Project (2002-2012) enabled Ghanaian health professionals living in Europe to undertake temporary assignments to contribute to the development of human resources in the health sector in Ghana. The project was funded by the Netherlands and implemented by IOM in close cooperation with the Ministry of Health of Ghana and Ghanaian diaspora professionals.

The role of the Ghanaian Diaspora in national development has, in recent years, won unprecedented recognition from the government at the highest levels. The Government values the ideas, skills and contributions of Ghanaians abroad, just as those living in Ghana, much more than any other natural resource and therefore, considers the entire Ghanaian populace as its basic first priority. Government has therefore, taken steps to leverage Diaspora knowledge, experience, skills and financial resources to complement those at home for accelerated national development.

IOM's MIDA program, launched in 2001 and operating in eleven African countries, supports the short or longer term (or virtual) return of expatriate skills to key sectors. In each country, a multi-sectoral MIDA Steering Committee is set up, with the aim of greater coherence within the governments. The networks of participants strengthen interactions between origin and destination countries, which may stimulate further returns and development projects involving diaspora and/or the productive use of remittances.

Established on 6th March 2007 by Vodafone's Kenyan associate, Safaricom, M-Pesa (M for mobile, pesa is Swahili for money) is Africa's leading mobile money service, which operates in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania.

The Migration Dialogue for West Africa or MIDWA was designed as a platform to encourage the Member States of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to discuss, in a regional context, such common migration issues and concerns for which immediate solutions may not be forthcoming at a national level. Its objective is to promote and ensure high quality cooperation among ECOWAS Member States, third countries and other international consultative forums on Free Movement and migration by:

The Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional group of fifteen countries, founded in 1975. Its mission is to promote economic integration in "all fields of economic activity, particularly industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial questions, social and cultural matters .....".

ECOWAS has introduced the ECOWAS Passport and APEC has put in place an APEC-visa for certain categories of people to facilitate their movement in these groupings' member States. 

Ghanacoop is a social cooperative promoting the competences of Ghanaian migrants residing in the Province of Modena, Italy. The cooperative was created through IOM's Migration for Development in Africa (MIDA) programme, which supports migrant diasporas wishing to invest in their country through skills transfer and new enterprises,

The Ghanaian diaspora have partnered with local government and local business to set up agrarian cooperatives back home, which in turn trade their produce with the community in Italy.