Date: 14 October 2010

 

Venue: Conference Room E (NLB), United Nations Headquarters, New York

 

 

In September 2006, the General Assembly convened a first High Level Dialogue (HLD) on International Migration and Development, during which 127 Member States of the UN expressed agreement on the need for a holistic and coherent approach to international migration, in order to enhance its positive impacts on development. At the time, governments committed themselves to a state-led, voluntary, intergovernmental, non-binding and informal consultative process by way of the establishment of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), which first convened under Belgium’s auspices in 2007, the Philippines in 2008 and in Greece in 2009. Now in its fourth year, the GFMD will take place in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico from 8 to 11 November 2010. The topic of the GFMD IV will be: "Partnerships for Migration and Human Development: Shared Prosperity - Shared Responsibility”.

 

The GFMD provides a space for governments to discuss the links between migration and development in an informal and cooperative way and enables policy-makers and experts to debate and exchange ideas, best practices and experiences that support governments in designing effective and coherent migration and development policies. The Forum also involves civil society representatives, who also hold meetings and share their deliberations and outcomes with the governments.

 

In preparation for the GFMD IV, this briefing will inform the New York audience on its modalities and the status of preparations (including its objectives and expected outcomes). It will also inform the audience about the Civil Society Days to be held before the official GFMD meeting starts. It is designed for the delegates of Permanent Missions at UN Headquarters. UN staff and interested representatives of civil society and the private sector are also welcome to attend.