In brief
Abidjan officials announced an 18‑to‑24‑month pilot project named KITLANY, backed by the international platform Stay in Africa and an estimated 3.5 million‑U.S.$ fund, to support 300 beneficiaries—including 200 returning migrants and 100 local youth. The effort seeks to create 150 direct jobs, benefit 1,200 people indirectly, and secure more than half of its budget through donor roundtables. The initiative’s exact reach and long‑term outcomes remain unverified.
On Thursday, Abidjan’s minister delegate in charge of African Integration and Ivorians Abroad, Adama Dosso, announced the kickoff of Côte d'Ivoire’s 18‑ to 24‑month pilot project to promote the socio‑economic reintegration of returning migrants, after a press conference at the second National Conference on Migrants Reintegration.
The KITLANY (K“IDiay”??) project, led by the international platform Stay in Africa, is estimated to cost 2 billion CFA francs—about 3.5 million U.S. dollars—according to the government’s own figures. It aims to support 300 people in total, including 200 returning migrants and 100 young people drawn from the communities most affected by migration flows.
Support is to be provided in three core areas: psychosocial assistance, vocational training, and the creation of employment opportunities for the beneficiaries. The program’s design follows guidance from an international body, and the platform Stay in Africa will administer the on‑the‑ground activities.
Dosso said the project should produce 150 direct jobs and indirectly benefit 1,200 people, citing the potential multiplier effects of training and enterprise development across the affected regions. He added that the two donor roundtables scheduled during the two‑day conference should secure more than 50 percent of the required funding.
While returning home sometimes marks the end of a difficult journey, it should also open up new prospects for personal recovery, economic integration and contribution to sustainable development,
—Adama Dosso, in a statement at the conference.
During the same conference, the government released statistics showing that 4,125 returning migrants had received state support by the end of September this year, compared to 2,313 for the entire 2025 year. The data points to an accelerating scale of repatriation, which the pilot project seeks to build upon.
The two donor roundtables, which are set to form part of a broader fiscal strategy, will involve international partners and donors to secure a substantial portion of the €3.5 million project budget. The outcome of these meetings, and the long‑term sustainability of the project, are currently pending in the public domain.
No specific timeline has been issued yet for the hand‑off of the training or employment assistance from the state agencies involved. Likewise, there are no published metrics or accountability mechanisms that would indicate early victory or setbacks.
Local NGOs and civil‑society groups have not yet published comments on the project, leaving open questions about stakeholder buy‑in and community engagement.
The initiative’s name, KITLANY, translates to “return” in some local dialects, symbolising the intent to help migrants re‑enter their communities with dignity, though the name’s choice was not elaborated by the authorities beyond being the project’s branding slogan.
Short‑term projections on economic impact, such as the creation of 150 direct jobs, rely on assumptions tied to the logistic testing stages of the pilot, and the extent to which those jobs can be sustained after the initial 18‑ to 24‑month window is not elaborated in the announcement.
Another uncertainty revolves around the proportion of the project’s 300 beneficiaries that will be selected for the psychosocial support program versus vocational training, as no detailed allocation strategy has been released.
Finally, while the government pitched the pilot as a “step toward sustainable development,” the concrete metrics for measuring long‑term success—including employment retention rates, income growth, and social integration indices—have yet to be disclosed.
All that is certain is that the Côte d'Ivoire government, through the KITLANY project, intends to curb the socioeconomic challenges that returning migrants face; what the project actually achieves will remain undetermined until the program’s outcomes become publicly available later this year.
