Africa and GCC States Advance Practical Labour-Mobility

Dar es Salaam, October 6, 2026 : Senior officials and experts from more than 33 GCC, African, and Arab countries convened Monday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, for the Second Doha Dialogue on Labour Mobility between Africa and the GCC+. The two-day gathering, running October 5-6, is focused on translating shared commitments into practical, measurable cooperation across the labour-mobility cycle.

Co-chaired by Tanzania, Qatar, and the African Union, the meeting brought together national delegations, the African Union Commission, and leading international and regional organizations, including the Executive Bureau of the GCC Council of Ministers of Labour and Council of Ministers of Social Affairs, the International Labour Organization, the Arab Labour Organization, and the International Organization for Migration, alongside senior officials, specialists, and civil society representatives.

Opening the proceedings, HE Sheikha Najwa bint Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Undersecretary of Qatar's Ministry of Labour, welcomed delegates and thanked Tanzania for hosting the dialogue, crediting the African Union Commission and partner organizations for their role in its preparation. She said Tanzania's hosting of the second edition gave practical expression to the partnership between countries of origin and destination, demonstrating that the initiative was a collective undertaking rather than a one-sided exchange.

She noted that the Doha Declaration on Labour Mobility, adopted in May 2024, had established an important foundation for cooperation, stressing that the initiative's value should be measured not by the number of meetings held but by tangible, measurable, and enduring results. She identified three interconnected priorities spanning the labour-mobility cycle: skills and labour-market pathways; fair recruitment, decent work, and access to justice; and social protection.

Sheikha Najwa outlined measures through which Qatar has translated these priorities into action, including workforce planning, development of the National Occupational Classification, regulation of recruitment agencies, greater contract transparency before workers arrive, and the operation of Qatar Visa Centres in countries of origin. She also pointed to the Wage Protection System, complaints and dispute-resolution mechanisms, and bilateral agreements as institutional channels for addressing shared concerns, describing these as adaptable experience rather than a universal model.

She called on delegates to move beyond established principles toward deliverable areas of collective action with clear measures of success, urging them to translate consensus into tangible outcomes.

Zuhura Yunus, Deputy Permanent Secretary at Tanzania's Prime Minister's Office for Labour, Employment and Relations, said the meeting offered an important opportunity to examine key challenges and develop practical recommendations for ministerial consideration. She said labour mobility requires a coherent whole-of-government response and called for closer collaboration among labour administrations on inspection, wage protection, and occupational safety and health, along with stronger data systems and cross-border information exchange.

She also proposed a rigorous monitoring and accountability framework, supported by an implementation matrix specifying agreed actions, responsible authorities, timelines, and performance indicators, with progress reviewed regularly through bilateral, regional, and Doha Dialogue mechanisms.

HE Mohammed Hassan Al Obaidli, Director-General of the Executive Bureau of the GCC Council of Ministers of Labour and Council of Ministers of Social Affairs, commended Qatar's role in establishing the dialogue and welcomed Tanzania's hosting of the second edition. He reaffirmed the Executive Bureau's full support for the dialogue as a strategic vehicle for building institutional and operational partnership between GCC and African countries, highlighting progress made by GCC states in education, vocational training, digitalization, wage protection, labour inspection, and occupational safety standards, including measures to mitigate heat-stress risks.

Participants focused discussions on three areas: workers' skills and labour-market pathways; decent work, wage protection, and access to justice; and social protection and health coverage. Delegates examined the exchange of sector-specific demand intelligence, skills partnerships in sectors such as construction, hospitality, care, domestic work, and transport, and pre-departure orientation covering contracts, rights, and avenues of redress.

The meeting also reviewed Qatar's national policy framework, including the workforce pillar of the Third National Development Strategy 2024-2030, a non-discriminatory minimum wage covering domestic workers, labour dispute-settlement committees mandated to adjudicate complaints within three weeks, and a fund safeguarding workers' entitlements if an establishment closes.

The program also included parallel regional consultations, during which delegates examined the draft declaration ahead of its submission to ministerial deliberations.

Established under an agreement between Qatar and the African Union, the Doha Dialogue is a voluntary, non-binding, state-led consultative platform that enables African and GCC countries to exchange expertise and strengthen regional cooperation on labour mobility from Africa.

Source: QNA