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© IOM 2021
First Session of the International Dialogue on Migration 2021
Accelerating integrated action on sustainable development:
migration, the environment and climate change
25-27 May 2021, Zoom, 9:00-12:00 (EST)
A message from Dina Ionesco,
Head of the IOM Migration, Environment and Climate Change Division
Twenty years ago, IOM launched the International Dialogue on Migration (IDM), the first ever multilateral policy dialogue to bring together states and non-state actors to discuss migration governance and practice.
In 2001, the IDM celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Organization and looked back at IOM's work since 1951 to support both governments and migrants. The first IDM was organized in the context of the tragic events of 11 September 2001 in the United States, which profoundly influenced international migratory trends.
We are now twenty years later, celebrating IOM's 70th anniversary. Once again, the world faces another crisis and the devastating impacts of a global pandemic on internal and international mobility patterns. Over the past twenty years, migration in the context of climate change and environmental degradation has emerged as one of the most defining realities of our times. Once little visible, the climate and migration nexus is now in the spotlight. IOM has been constantly advocating for greater awareness and knowledge on this immense challenge, including through our biannual IDM.
Recognizing the need to advance research and policy, and promote a more human and effective management of migration in a changing climate, IOM and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) organized a two-day Expert Seminar on Migration and the Environment in Bangkok, Thailand, as part of the 2007 IDM.
Four years later, the IOM membership selected the topic "Climate Change, Environmental Degradation and Migration" as the focus of an IDM workshop in Geneva, Switzerland on 29 and 30 March 2011.
The 2011 workshop identified key areas where increased capacity was needed to manage the complex interactions between climate change, environmental degradation and human mobility. The workshop also highlighted the need to develop wide-ranging partnerships bringing together many different expertise. The 2011 event outlined three main recommendations that have since then guided IOM’s work: building knowledge and improving data collection; strengthening policy, institutional, administrative and legal frameworks, notably regional approaches; and reinforcing operational and technical capacities.
In 2015, IOM created a dedicated Migration, Environment and Climate Change (MECC) Division to institutionalize IOM's longstanding engagement in this thematic area since the early 1990s.
It is thus timely, in 2021, to take stock of the advances made ten years after the last IDM devoted to the climate and migration nexus. We need to look back and learn from past and current developments if we are to be better equipped to prepare for the future. Later this year, IOM will launch its new institutional strategy on migration, environment and climate change. This document will guide our action for the next decade.
The first 2021 session of the IDM will offer a space to discuss some of the key dimensions of the climate and migration nexus, such as developing synergies between the implementation of relevant international and regional frameworks, integrating migration and climate questions in COVID-19 recovery efforts, leveraging migrants’ contributions to climate action and identifying challenges faced by countries most vulnerable to climate impacts.
This session will examine how upcoming international forums, such as the 2021 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (UNFCCC COP26) in 2021, and the 2022 International Migration Review Forum (IMRF), can best integrate migration, environment and climate change issues in their work programmes, and enhance synergies and partnerships across policy areas.
IOM is more than ever committed to foster greater cooperation and enhance cross-sectoral partnerships to develop and implement collective actions that concretely address the increasingly complex and interconnected migration challenges of today.
For more information:
Download the event agenda and concept note
Read the press release
Visit the IOM International Dialogue on Migration Website and IOM Environmental Migration Portal.
Contact idmworkshop@iom.int
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