In May 2023, in a historic moment for UWC, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the AU Commission (AUC) and the University of the Western Cape was signed by Prof Vivienne Lawack, DVC- Academic at UWC and Her Excellency, Ambassador Minata Samaté Cessouma, Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development of the African Union, on behalf of the AUC.
The MoU marks a step in UWC’s work to collaborate with African partners and assist the African Union (AU) in the implementation of its Africa Union Agenda 2063. The MoU was signed at the AU Commissioner’s Office at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa.
This MoU enables the Migration and Mobilities Interdisciplinary Collective in Africa (MMICA) to be the AU Commission partner on migration studies in the following ways:
- UWC’s new Master’s in Migration Studies, which will start in January 2024, makes UWC one of only 4 universities on the African Continent which offers this Master’s programme.
- UWC has agreed to do continuous education, starting with the accreditation of the AU Handbook on Migration Governance. This training would be available to the AU Member States and regional centres.
- Part of the MoU involves scholarships for Master’s and PhD students, as well as research collaboration with the 3 AU African Centres of Excellence in migration in Mali, Rabat; in Morocco; and in Kartoum, Sudan.
The technical team assisted in a lengthy negotiation process – including Prof Mulugeta Dinbabo, the lead coordinator of the new Master’s in Migration Studies programme, and Mr Peter Mudungu from the AUC, with the full support of Mr Sabelo Mbokazi, Head of Division: Labour, Employment and Migration.
Since the objective of the MoU is to build the capability of scholars and practitioners in Migration and Mobilities, it was agreed that this MoU would be the start of the relationship between the AU Commission and UWC, and it can be expanded to intersecting areas after the first three years of its implementation.
