Brussels – The International Organization for Migration (IOM), with support from the European Union (EU), today launched a package of resources for mainstreaming migration into international cooperation and development. The package will provide the development community with key insights and tools on how to include migration and migrants in sustainable development efforts.

IOM is urging greater awareness of migration’s far-reaching impacts on sustainable development, which are intertwined with education, trade, security, environment and climate change, and urban development, among other development areas. The COVID-19 pandemic has made this more evident.

“COVID-19 has halted or reversed years, even decades, of development progress,” said Ugochi Daniels, IOM’s Deputy Director General for Operations. “It has exposed and intensified inequalities but has also shown the significant role and contributions that migrants bring: being at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic, channeling remittances and providing skills, experiences, and innovative perspectives to strengthen communities and economies.

“Migration is a powerful driver of sustainable development for migrants and societies in countries of origin, transit, destination and return,” Daniels said. “Regional and international cooperation is key to maximize the benefits of migration and reduce risks, exploitation and vulnerabilities.” 

The reasons people move, how they migrate, and where they go, has a major bearing on development and vice versa. IOM and the EU have been working together to ensure that migration aspects are integrated into programming and implementation of development assistance, to maximize the positive impact of migration on partner countries.

“The toolkits developed by IOM are a groundbreaking tool that should serve as a reference for the international development community,” said Martin Seychell, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships. “Strengthening the connection between migration and development is crucial to ensure that our interventions are coherent and uphold our commitments such as the European Consensus for Development and the 2030 Agenda.”

Progress on the Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) in the ‘Decade of Action’ depends on building partnerships and connections across the development spectrum to ensure that assistance is more coherent, effective, and impactful. Through this initiative, IOM, the EU, and specialized UN agencies partnered to develop these tools for designing, monitoring, or evaluating interventions. 

The web-based resources package – piloted in Ecuador, Madagascar and Nepal – contains guidance, training material, and practical tools in an interactive format, providing technical knowledge and practical guidance on how to integrate migration considerations into interventions or projects across 11 sectors: education, employment, environment and climate change, governance, health, private sector development and trade, rural development, security, and urban development. 

The development of these resources was made possible with the support from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships under the Mainstreaming Migration into International Cooperation and Development (MMICD) project, which was launched in 2017.

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For more information, please contact: Ryan Schroeder, Media and Communications Officer, in Brussels, Tel: +32 492 25 02 34, Email: rschroeder@iom.int