Local and Regional Governments to helm key roles at the Thirteenth Global Forum on Migration and Development Summit

The Thirteenth GFMD Summit is the culmination of a year-long process that has incorporated six Regional Consultations, three Friends of the Forum meetings, two Migration Labs, and involved over a thousand participants from government, business, civil society, local and regional governments, youth and international organisations. Encompassing a range of activities focused on diverse issues relating to migration and development, addresses and dialogues between senior political and institutional leaders from around the world, for the first time, the entirety of the Summit will be open to all GFMD stakeholders. Ministers and Vice Ministers from all regions of the world, and a broad range of policy-makers and practitioners in migration and development fields will gather in a set of informal discussions around the six priority topics set by the current chairmanship.

From the outset, a central focus of the GFMD 2020 Chairmanship has been continuing the global dialogue on migration with regards to projected changes in technology, culture, wealth distribution and demographic shifts in the coming decades and how Member States can anticipate the scale and impact of these changes, and how the GFMD can foster effective partnerships to deal with them. With the COVID-19 pandemic having an unparalleled impact on global mobility, the GFMD 2020 Summit represents an opportunity to reflect on the challenges that lie ahead and the plans that are necessary to put recovery into action.

The UAE Chairmanship is focused on the central theme: “The Future of Human Mobility: Innovative Partnerships for Sustainable Development.”

Local and regional government (LRG) gathered around the Mayors Mechanism , alongside Civil Society and Businesses will engage with national co-chairs during the Roundtable discussions. The GFMD Mayors Mechanism Networking Session on ‘Enabling local solutions for inclusive COVID-19 response and recovery’, on January 22, will promote a dialogue between national government representatives and city leaders on their priorities for joint action, barriers to success and solutions for greater collaboration and partnerships towards an achievement of the global migration goals while building back better locally and inclusively amidst the pandemic.

LRGs will also participate in the final ‘GCM/ IMRF Reporting’ Session, where GFMD members will exchange views on the implementation, review and follow up of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) and its links to the GFMD.

For more details, please refer to the Provisional Programme  for 18-26 January 2021 and Logistics Note with practical information for participating delegations.

Registered delegates will be able to access the virtual sessions at https://gfmduae.org by providing the digital credentials received via email.