GFMD 2012

Mauritius is the Chair-in-Office of GFMD for 2012 and will host the Forum on November 21-22.  In preparation, GFMD 2012 put out a Concept Paper and Survey, which you can see here.  The NGO Committee on Migration issued recommendations in response, which you can see here.  The Final Concept Paper that resulted has been released and can be accessed here (it’s one of the many resources at www.gfmd.civilsociety.org).

For a special issue of the GFMD Newsletter (Wednesday 16 May 2012) click here.

[The following comes from the NGO Committee’s Information Note for Our Members:]

This year’s Global Forum on Migration and Development will be held in Mauritius, Africa — the Civil Society Days (CSD) from November 19 to 20, followed by the States’ GFMD Summit from November 21 to 22.  The CSD are being organized by a small GFMD Coordinating Office, led by John Bingham, at ICMC in Geneva.  The Office works together with an International Advisory Committee (IAC) of some 25 members, and with an International Consultation Circle of approximately 100 NGOs.  Our Committee is represented on both.

The overarching theme of the CSD Thematic Programme 2012 is: Operationalizing Protection and Human Development in International Migration.  It builds on the set of recommendations made by Civil Society (CS) in the GFMD 2011 in Geneva, and on the themes on the GFMD 2012 Government Agenda under the title Enhancing the Human Development of Migrants and Their Contributions to the Development of Communities and States.

Under the CS overarching theme, the focus will be on four working session objectives, namely (a) regulating recruitment and employment practices, (b) rights-based development solutions, (c) protecting vulnerable migrant workers, and (d) the future of Migration and Development governance.

Our Committee’s immediate task is to provide our GFMD 2012 delegates with information they can bring to the table of each of these working sessions.  “Information” here means mainly: the practices of our organizations that translate the recommendations of CS into actual, concrete, time-framed and monitored policies and practices.