This virtual event took place on 25 May 2021 and celebrated the launch of a new multi-partner programme entitled: Addressing Drivers and Facilitating Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in the Contexts of Disasters and Climate Change in the IGAD Region.

In the African continent, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) region is considered one of the most vulnerable to climate variability and change and more than two thirds of the region are arid or semi-arid. The different forms of human mobility to, from, and within the IGAD region reflect the range of complex drivers and structural factors that can compel people to leave their places of origin.

In accordance with the Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) objectives, this Joint-Program seeks to minimize the adverse drivers and structural factors that compel people to leave their country of origin, while also facilitating safe, orderly and regular migration in the context of disasters, climate change and environmental degradation in the IGAD Region.

The Joint-Programme builds on ongoing work, programmes and action plans of the partners, and supports existing global policies and frameworks that address displacement related to the adverse impacts of climate change. The Joint-Programme has a strong multi-partnership and multi-stakeholder approach and will bring together various parts of Governments, UN and other entities, in line with the GCM core principles of whole-of-government and whole-of-society.

The project implementing partners are: IOM, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the IGAD, the IGAD Climate Prediction and Application Centre (ICPAC), and IGAD Member states.