Government Programme 2012

All official information about the Government GFMD can be found at: www.gfmd.org

With the GFMD entering its sixth year, the Chair for 2012 is the government of Mauritius. In March, following two months of consultation with governments and non-state actors (i.e., civil society and international organizations), including two formal brainstorming exercises in Mauritius, the Mauritian Chair put forward its final concept paper for the government programme of the GFMD 2012. Under the overarching theme “Enhancing the Human Development of Migrants and their Contribution to the Development of Communities and States”, the government concept paper proposes three roundtables:

• Roundtable 1: Circulating Labour for Inclusive Development
  • Session 1.1: Beyond-the-Border Skills and Jobs for Human Development
  • Session 1.2: Supporting Migrants and Diaspora as Agents of Socioeconomic Change
• Roundtable 2: Factoring Migration into Development Planning
  • Session 2.1: Supporting National Development through Migration Mainstreaming Processes,
  • Extended Migration Profiles and Poverty Reduction Strategies
  • Session 2.2: Addressing South-South Migration and Development Policies
• Roundtable 3: Managing Migration and Migrant Protection for Human Development
  Outcomes
  • Session 3.1: Improving Public Perceptions of Migrants and Migration
• Session 3.2: Migrant Protection as Integral to Migration Management
• Session 3.3: Protecting Migrant Domestic Workers: Enhancing their Human Development Potential

The Mauritian Chair stresses outcomes as a priority of the GFMD 2012. While the two government-led “ad-hoc working groups”, created in 2009 (the Working Group on Protecting and Empowering Migrants for Development and the Working Group on Policy Coherence, Data and Research) provide some follow-up on recommendations from the past Global Forums, the Chair maintains that more measures need to be taken to ensure outcomes that will actually affect and improve the situations of migrants, their communities and countries.

The Chair also strongly encourages strengthened interaction between governments and civil society in achieving these outcomes. One avenue would be for civil society to draft proposals for the GFMD Platform for Partnerships to foster cooperation and support. The concept paper also recognizes the importance of expanding the “Common Space” further, as a place of genuine dialogue and a source of joint commitments between the different actors. (also see Dialogue with Governments)

Download the Government GFMD 2012 Concept and Work Plan here

For more information visit: www.gfmd.org