Capacity-building Activities on Migration, Environment and Climate Change

IOM has launched a series of capacity-building trainings targeting mid to senior level policymakers and practitioners active in environmental and/or migration areas. The trainings seek to provide participants with a basic understanding of migration, environment and climate change concepts and terminology as well as concrete tools that can support national and regional policymaking processes.

This initiative is in line with the overall IOM’s goal to support the integration of human mobility issues within climate change and environmental policies, and, vice versa, the inclusion of climate and environmental concerns within migration processes.

The objectives of the training courses are to:

a. Build the capacity of policymakers and practitioners, in order to factor migration into environmental and development policies, as well as climate change adaptation strategies, and to take environmental change into account in comprehensive migration management policies at the national level;

b. Facilitate policy exchange in migration, environment and climate change among policymakers and practitioners.

 

Human Mobility in the Context of Disasters and Climate Change
Pacific Regional Capacity Building Workshop

13-14 February 2018
Suva, Fiji

 

Training workshop

 

A two-day regional capacity building workshop for policymakers was organised by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the state-led Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) on 13-14 February 2018 in Suva, Fiji, hosted by the Government of Fiji.

The workshop offered regional policymakers an environment to build their capacities and to engage in promoting policy coherence in the area of migration, dispalcement, disasters and climate change. Particular emphasis was put on:

       

i) the challenges and opportunities associated with human mobility in the context of disasters and climate change;
ii) possible solutions, including examples of existing good practices, to address these challenges and harness the opportunities;
iii) ways forward towards greater coherence among regional and national policies dealing with climate change, sustainable development, disaster risks and mobility management, which are still little connected.
The event was attended by over 20 policymakers working on migration and climate change from eight countries in the region - the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Experts from other UN agencies and partner institutions, including GIZ, IFRC, ILO, OHCHR, UNESCAP, UNISDR, UNU-EHS and the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney also took part. 

The workshop built on IOM’s capacity building programme on Migration, Environment and Climate Change and was in line with IOM’s Pacific Strategy 2017-2020, with the strategic priorities of the state-led Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD), and with the UN Pacific Strategy 2018-2022.
Read the press release.

Download the agenda and the concept note.

 

Disaster Displacement, Migration and Climate Change 
Capacity Building Workshop for RCM Member Countries

8-9 August 2017
San José, Costa Rica

 

Training

 

The Government of Costa Rica hosted a regional capacity building workshop on "Disaster Displacement, Migration and Climate Change" for Member Countries of the Regional Conference on Migration for North and Central America (RCM), co-organized by the Platform on Disaster Displacement, theTechnical Secretariat of the RCM, and the International Organization for Migration.

The workshop brought together 40 participants from 11 countries in the region, representing key national governmental entities responsible for migration management, disaster and emergency response, foreign affairs and consular services.

Over the course of two days, participants exchanged experiences on key human mobility and environmental trends in the region, and shared their practices and experience in responding to disasters and environmental change and in managing migration and displacement associated with these environmental factors. IOM’s Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Training Manual guided the overall approach and provided key content of this workshop.

The workshop sought in particular to encourage a discussion around practical ways to implement the “RCM Guide to Effective Practices for RCM Member Countries: Protection for Persons Moving Across Borders in the Context of Disasters”. The Guide, developed following the work of the Nansen Initiative in the region, is a key tool to assist regional decision-makers and practitioners in designing and strengthening policies and measures to respond to cross-border disaster-displacement. Using examples of practices outlined in the Guide, the workshop participants looked into a variety of cross-border disaster-displacement scenarios and formulated recommendations for measures to be implemented at national and regional level to address the needs of people seeking temporary protection abroad following a disaster, those unable to return to their country of origin hit by a disaster, and those caught in a disaster abroad. The MICIC Initiative Guidelines to Protect Migrants in Countries Experiencing Conflict or Natural Disaster were also presented as a key tool to guide governments in designing solutions to address the latter scenario.

The workshop was part of broader efforts of IOM’s capacity building programme on migration, environment and climate change and the implementation of the PDD 2016-2019 Workplan to build national and regional capacities to respond to displacement and migration challenges in the context of climate change and disasters.