THE SECOND MEETING OF THE GLOBAL FORUM ON MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT
27-30 October 2008,   Manila, Philippines

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The Manila GFMD revolves around the central theme, “Protecting and Empowering Migrants for Development.” It will build on the themes of the Brussels GFMD roundtables, but with a special focus on protecting and empowering migrants for development.  It will foreground two further priorities identified in the initial Brussels survey, namely human rights and the promotion of regular migration.  While human rights had been treated as a cross-cutting issue in Brussels, along with gender and root causes, it will be mainstreamed as a roundtable theme in Manila.  This is in line with a key finding of the High Level Dialogue that the benefits of international migration, not only for migrants themselves but also for origin and host societies, are contingent on the protection of migrants’ rights.

For the Manila GFMD, some 7 sessional teams are being set up among developing and developed countries to foster frank and concrete exchange and cooperation in the preparatory process, and to ensure government ownership of the process. This will be important for achieving the outcomes of the Forum. The supporting Roundtable themes are: a) Migration, Development and Human Rights; b) Secure, legal migration can achieve stronger development impacts; and c) Policy and institutional coherence and partnerships.    

The Manila GFMD will thus preserve the two unique characteristics of the GFMD, namely its global inclusiveness and the teams-based approach to government engagement in the roundtable discussions. Governments will prepare all roundtable sessions in partnership with each other and with relevant expert organizations. Under the coordination of the GFMD Taskforce, each roundtable session is expected to result in proposals for concrete actions, of which stock could be taken at subsequent GFMDs. Close engagement of the widest range of governments will ensure broader policy change globally.

In close coordination with the Taskforce, governments and in some cases experts/expert organizations involved in the preparation of a session are required to produce a background paper to serve as a basis for the debate. Background papers should therefore include national experiences and contextualize the discussion in the current debate on the issues at stake. Partners are encouraged to go beyond their national experience and give a broader perspective on the issues, in particular by covering both developing and developed country, and origin and destination countries’ experiences. Special emphasis is given to innovative practices and proposals for concrete outcomes (such as models, partnerships, examples of best practices, identification of knowledge gaps, etc.). All governments are invited to share their best programs in this regard.

The Taskforce and the teams will hold multiple meetings and conference calls to complete the background papers and plan the roundtables. The teams will identify a chair/moderator, speaker, discussant and rapporteur for their session.  Some of the teams are likely to continue working together in future GFMD meetings. Resultant policy shifts are expected to occur in both countries of origin and destination, and in both developing and developed countries, to ensure greater mutual reinforcement of migration and development policies and actions in the future. 

PROJECTED OUTCOMES OF THE PHILIPPINE GFMD
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The second GFMD meeting in Manila will take the findings and recommendations of the Brussels meeting one step further towards establishing longer term policy shifts in both developing and developed countries and between them.  These shifts include the recognition that migration policy can no longer be made in isolation of other major public policies, in particular development policies; and that linked-up migration and development policy-making is a shared responsibility, with mutual benefits that can be planned and measured jointly. The development gains of migration and its spin-offs can apply to both origin and destination countries across the developed-developing spectrum.

Some practical models and adaptable formulae of best practices are already emerging, for example how to include migration in national development strategies, or how to better circulate and share skills rather than to drain them from poor countries; and these will be tested in some countries, and reported on at future GFMDs. Evaluation mechanisms form part of the policy and institutional coherence discussion of one of the roundtables at the GFMD in Manila (RT3).            

In line with objectives already defined by the GCIM, the GFMD process itself is helping to build international consensus around the need to link up migration and development priorities.  It is opening up a space for migration and development policymakers to reach their respective objectives more effectively by jointly acknowledging and addressing the benefits and risks of migration for poor people and developing countries. Sharing responsibilities between developed and developing countries can make migration work better for development and vice versa; and can lead to migration by choice rather than by necessity. 

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