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:

• the challenges and opportunities associated with human mobility in the context of disasters and climate change;
• possible solutions, including examples of existing good practices, to address these challenges and harness the opportunities;
• 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.