The situation in the field of education in Africa:

• Ageing teaching staff and no replacement of retired or deceased
  persons while it is a condition imposed by the institutions of
  Bretton Woods regarding structural adjustments of developing
  countries; 
• Lack of teaching personnel and emigration due to lacking
  opportunities cause a growing gap between the demand and the supply
  of teachers in vital sectors for development, such as health,
  economy, social affairs ... 
• Lack of documentation or of personnel teaching with modern
  scientific skills; coupled with many not-qualified teachers or
  teachers with insufficient skills; 
•  Incapacity of the governments, in particular the Ministry
  of Education, to respond to the request or structured plan for
  training of teachers.

The lack of teachers has a direct influence on building national
skills in order to respond to the challenges of the socio-economic
development of the African countries. The lack of resources able to
develop and implement the development plans and plans aiming at
fight against poverty create the “vicious circle of
non-development" through missing policies and actions of good
governance, of good and balanced management as well as measurable
objectives, etc.



Why using transfer of skills and knowledge ?

• The transfer of skills is new solution aiming at reinforcing
  the capacities of African public and private institutions, through
  the mobilisation of Africans living abroad.
• Well managed, these transfers could create an added-value in
  searching for viable solutions in the sector of education: faster
  rhythm and increased number of teachers taking part in the
  education; but also in all sectors where human resources are
  missing: health, rural development, financial management, etc.

Example of the MIDA programme

• The overall objective of the MIDA Programme is "to use the
  experience, knowledge and, if possible, the financial means or
  other resources, of the African diasporas for the socio-economic
  development of their countries of origin".
• The Programme “Migration for the development of
  Africa” (MIDA) is a capacity building programme aiming at
  developing potential synergies between the profiles of the African
  migrants and the needs of African countries, by facilitating
  transfers of skills and other vital resources of the African
  diasporas to their countries of origin. It is based on the concept
  of mobility of the people and the resources and, in this way,
  offers options of reinvestment of the human capital, in particular
  in the form of sequential temporary returns, long duration or
  virtual.

Strategy applied:

• Types of transfers:
  • physical transfers: with short-term visits, longer stays and
    permanent returns;
  • virtual transfers: telecommunication/services at distance;
    
    
    
• Impact of these transfers: in order to maximize the impact, it
  is necessary to have a broader field of intervention than
  exclusively high education. That’s why the support to the
  private sector which allows the creation of local jobs would
  increase the positive impact on the development. The impact is also
  felt on the level of the reorganization of official structures and
  the national, provincial and local procedures, supporting amongst
  other things the autonomous and decentralized management, which is
  close to the citizens.
• On the level of the country of origin: the elaboration of lists
  containing the main needs in terms of human resources is an
  essential pre-condition within the framework of the transfer of
  skills. A regional management of the transfers is an additional
  asset because it allows the renewal of the teaching practices and
  building synergies among educational programmes implemented in the
  same region or country. The needs shall be analyzed in view of the
  long-term impact of an intervention. This analysis requires a
  multi-sector approach. The intervention of the diasporas within the
  higher education or the health sector requires a review of the
  organization of the sector, an evaluation of the financial means,
  an investment in the infrastructures, a policy for national
  mobility facilitating the circulation of doctors, etc. The Africans
  from abroad could intervene on various levels: educational,
  administrative, organizational or to support the finalization of
  national development plans
•  In the countries of origin and destination: The creation
  of databases to facilitate the provisions of human resources of the
  Africans from abroad is also a key element. These databases enable
  to put demand and supply in correlation. The reason for the success
  of the MIDA Programme is that actors and beneficiaries could easily
  access the mechanism and information quickly. The possibility to
  inscribe "online" is an essential tool within this framework. It
  allows a better appropriation of the mechanism by the national
  structures trained in managing the databases and the
  mechanism.

Consequences

• The volunteers from the African diasporas see in the temporary
  transfers an opportunity to contribute to the development of their
  country of origin without losing the advantages (residence permit)
  obtained in the host country.
• Advantages of the transfers of skills: to develop the capacity
  to “reproduce” officials by training in short and
  long-term; the impacts can be measured through the number of
  graduates and/or trained officials.

Results of the MIDA Great Lakes programme

• Within the framework of MIDA GL, it was observed that the
  programme created working practices and ideas that continue to
  exist till today. The relations between the African volunteers and
  the employers in the countries of origin continued through
  internet. 
•  MIDA GL: over a period of 20 months: more than 190
  qualified Africans took part in a total of 221 physical transfers
  (111 Congolese, 80 Burundians and 30 Rwandan). The level of
  education of the MIDA volunteers is very high (approximately 80% of
  the 46% of the transfers allowed the reinforcement of the academic
  sector in the three countries, whereas 21% were related to the
  health sector, 31% to rural development and 2% to management
  structures, either centralized or decentralized.

How to increase the impact of the transfers of knowledge?



The method of the e-learning

• The e-learning is a way to respond to the lack of university
  teachers noted in some disciplines because of the brain drain and
  the ageing teaching staff. It can cause also a renewal of the
  teaching practices and thus be a growth factor in the quality of
  higher education.

Some examples of partnerships for the e-learning in Africa

• MIDA GL: Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in
  collaboration with the MIDA Programme organized a course of
  anesthesiology at the University of Lubumbashi, DRCongo, including
  the provision of the necessary equipment (15 computers).
• MIDA GL II: IOM, in collaboration with the National University
  of Rwanda (UNR) and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
  organized a Round Table Discussion at Butare, Rwanda (31 January
  – 1 February 2006) on "Information and Communication
  Technologies in the field of Education (TICE) and the role of the
  diaspora”. Partners: Agency of Universities from French
  speaking countries, UNESCO, The Institute of The World Bank and the
  Interuniversity Council of the French Community in Belgium. The
  round table resulted in recommendations and an action plan, shared
  at national and regional levels to be implemented in 2006 and 2007
  with all relevant international partners.
• The African Virtual University: Initially created within the
  framework of a project of The World Bank, it became an independent
  intergovernmental organization, with its headquarters in Nairobi.
  The African Virtual University takes part in the reinforcement of
  the capacities through face-to-face teaching and e-learning in more
  than 57 training centers of 27 African countries.
• On 26 January 2006, the Minister for Higher Education and
  Universities of the DRC, the President of the African Virtual
  University and the Vice-chancellors of the Congolese universities
  handed over the first diploma achieved through studies via
  elearning. Thanks to a videoconference, a professor of the
  University of Limoges, France, took part in this ceremony. This
  year, more than 30 Congolese students follow a bachelor or a master
  studies via e-learning.

Challenges:



Technical challenges

• To have computer terminals in a sufficient number. A minimum of
  infrastructure is a precondition to envisage e-learning; 
•  Monopoly of the operators and the unilateral fixing of
  the costs in terms of network; 
•  Maintenance of the infrastructure.

Political challenges

• Necessity of the beneficiary countries to take this kind of
  transfers in their hands; this ownership is necessary in order to
  ensure the sustainability of the whole process;
• Necessity for the beneficiary countries to inscribe the
  transfers and their follow-up within their annual national
  budgets
• MIDA GL is a programme that intended the integration of its
  concept and of migration, in general, in the PRSP. The 3 countries,
  DRC, Rwanda and Burundi are inserting the model into their PRSP
  2 
• To create interuniversity agreements within the same country,
  to develop regional exchanges in the context of a South-South
  co-operation or with the international institutions: Agency of
  Universities from French speaking countries, African Virtual
  University, UNESCO, IOM etc
• To create a network of the diasporas living in the developed
  countries and the experts in the countries of origin in order to
  improve the sustainability of education programme and as a
  consequence retain talents, labour force, and prevent skills and
  knowledge to leave their countries 
• To create synergies between the various organizations working
  in the field of elearning and the diaspora in the developed
  countries
• Use the conclusions of the meeting of Tunis (World Summit on
  the Information Society 2005) to reinforce the capacities of the
  countries of origin.
• To measure the impact of this type of teaching within the
  policies of university education, PRSP etc... 
• Support of the academic and governmental authorities

OPENING STATEMENT

I'd like to begin by welcoming you all to this conference on
Migration and Development and thanking our co-hosts, the Government
of the Kingdom of Belgium.



The link between migration and development is not new. For IOM,
recognition of the close relationship between economic development
and migration was underlined in the organization’s founding
resolution of 1951.



What is new today is the velocity of change in global mobility.
Globalizing forces, including reduced barriers to the movement of
goods, capital and services worldwide inevitably have implications
for the movement of people.



Even more profoundly, perceptions on migration are changing. What
we see today is a shift away from a predominantly negative view of
migration and development, which emphasized eradicating the root
causes of migration, “brain drain”, labour force
depletion and rural exodus, to a growing recognition that migration
can be an important factor in growth, stability and prosperity.



You will hear much in the coming two days about migrants as agents
of development who can benefit both home and host countries through
their economic, social, political and cultural contributions. You
will hear about the enormous development potential of migration for
countries of origin, including for the least developed among them.
You will hear about the role of remittances in reducing poverty and
economic vulnerability, and in improving sustainable human
development.



These are welcome messages, especially given the broadened range of
voices echoing them. The private sector, the World Bank, other
international financial institutions, migrants associations,
governments and academics are today engaged as never before.



Our challenge over these two days is to identify what we as
partners can do to realize the potential of migration phenomena for
development. What new thinking, what joint activities, what means
to strengthen policy dialogue and programming can we pursue
together that will bring us closer to achieving our objective?



Integrated Policy Making



As the International Dialogue on Migration at the IOM Council last
autumn emphasized, there is a profound need to ensure that
migration is integrated into development planning agendas at
national and international levels. Much like environmental or human
rights, no development strategy should go forward today without
considering how migration trends will affect and be affected by it.
Migration is that fundamental to development, trade, foreign
policy.



Multilateral dialogues including IOM’s International Dialogue
on Migration, regional consultations and, of course, events such as
this are instrumental in bringing all the relevant actors together
and improving understanding of the complex relationship between
migration and development.



Most policies and strategic development frameworks, such as
national Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and the global
Millennium Development Goals, do not systematically integrate
migration considerations. IOM has been approached by a number of
governments for assistance in mainstreaming migration into their
PRSPs and is taking concrete steps to address this need.



At the multilateral level, a key feature of IOM's International
Dialogue on Migration is building bridges to related policy domains
and actors - migration and trade with the WTO and World Bank;
migration and health with the WHO; and migration and development
with national development agencies and inter-governmental partners.
We have a responsibility to bring our complementary expertise to
bear to address these issues, and we have identified an effective
means to do so.



How can we now turn this useful cooperation at the level of
dialogue into cooperation at the level of action?



Let me offer an example by way of illustration. In the case of
Mauritius, the World Bank is embarking on a trade assessment with a
view toward liberalization. As some unemployment is expected to
result, IOM is developing labour migration programmes for displaced
workers, for example through a possible care-giver programme for
Canada. This is an example of how agencies and governments can plan
to ease potential dislocations by working more effectively
together.



At the regional level we see positive developments too. For
example, the Ministerial Consultations on Overseas Employment in
Asia, organized by IOM since 2003, expanded last fall to include
participation of countries of destination such as the GCC States,
Malaysia, the Republic of Korea and Italy. A solid platform was
established for further cooperation between Asian countries of
origin and destination around the critical issue of overseas
employment.



The Ministerial Conference of the Least Developed Countries on
Migrants’ Remittances, recently concluded in Cotonou, Benin,
was another step in the right direction - a step towards deeper
engagement of the financial sector in harnessing migration for
development.



IOM's newly formed Business Advisory Board, comprised of the CEO's
of 14 major corporations worldwide, was formed to bring the
business voice into the migration policy debate. To ensure the
active engagement of these stakeholders in migration policy
dialogue and programming, the theme selected for this year’s
International Dialogue on Migration is “Partnerships in
Migration: Engaging Business and Civil Society”.



An IOM programme called “Sustainable Development for
Nariño’s Coffee Growing Families” aims at
reducing poverty among coffee growers and their families in the
southwestern Colombian province of Nariño and thereby
diminishing migration pressure. This programme is a partnership
among Starbucks, Empresas de Nariño, the Dutch government;
and the provincial government of Nariño.



Better Data



Better data is a prerequisite for better policy. We need the facts
on remittances, migrant networks, labour markets, the impact of
various policies on migration and poverty reduction and much more.
Sound data is the key to understanding the complex relationship
between migration and development and, thus, to effective policy
and programme development.



We also need to develop better indicators to measure the impact of
migration on development, if we are to chart the progress that
states are making towards the achievement of the MDGs and poverty
reduction.



To be able to say that a particular migration policy is
“development-friendly” implies some knowledge of
impacts and some criteria for assessing policy outcomes. To date,
there has been little systematic evaluation of the effects of
migration policies on development. We welcome the World Bank's
initiative to devote its considerable research expertise to this
task, and have offered to work side by side through our various
programmes and activities.



The World Bank's expertise in macro-economics is an ideal
complement to IOM's migration expertise. Migrants’ legal
status, temporary or permanent, and host country family
reunification policies can have an impact on the types of payment
systems migrants use, the amount of remittances and their use back
home. But we simply don't know enough to talk with certainty about
the nature and extent of the relationship between these factors.
Hence the need for more joint policy studies and - why not? - an
annual report on migration and development policies.



Individuals and small businesses today need mechanisms to be able
to contribute to development of home communities. Promising models
exist that encourage partnership for development at this level.
IOM’s recent survey “Engaging Diasporas as Agents for
Development” reveals that governments are actively devising
innovative programmes to reach out to migrants. However, much
remains to be done to understand how or if policies and programmes
from one setting can be effectively applied in different
environments.



Since 2001, IOM has been successfully implementing Migration for
Development in Africa (MIDA) programmes - a series of capacity
building projects whose objective is the mobilization and transfer
of knowledge, expertise, finance and other resources of the African
diaspora to meet the development needs of African countries.



Recognition of the role and power of migrants and migrants’
associations in our societies and the global economy is all the
more crucial as individuals and communities are becoming
increasingly trans-national, with movement between and allegiance
to multiple countries one of the key outcomes of globalisation.



A More Open Labour Market



While this conference rightly focuses on the development potential
of migration for countries of origin, the need for more immigration
to support demographic and labour needs and to maintain economic
growth and development in Europe is widely acknowledged.



We all know migration can help mitigate labour shortages, enrich
the human capital of host countries, and improve the flexibility
and productivity of their economies. What, can we do to facilitate
the gradual, selective and managed opening of labour markets in
destination countries?



Europe is entering an era of labour shortage. The population growth
in many European countries is already due entirely to immigration,
while Europe’s workforce is expected to decline by another 20
million by 2030. These forecasts contrast with projections of
growing populations in much of the developing world. As legal
opportunities for labour migration are still limited, there is a
growing supply-demand gap on the labour market, creating a
favourable environment for traffickers and smugglers.



Businesses want to recruit and move their personnel globally, yet
they often face complicated, time-consuming and administrative
structures. We need to focus our collective efforts on creating
means to better match labour supply with labour demand today and in
future. We need to ensure that smuggling rings do not do the
matching for us. This is one of the paramount challenges of our
day.



More open labour markets in destination countries combined with
measures to encourage permanent or temporary return home create a
kind of “brain circulation” that can benefit both host
and home countries as well as migrants themselves. Approaches of
this sort also reduce irregular migration pressures.



Let me give you some concrete examples to help guide our way.
Targeted, cooperative approaches for selection and training of
personal care and seasonal workers from Sri Lanka and Moldova to
Italy, facilitated by IOM, provide useful models. So do IOM
programmes for recruitment of Guatemalan seasonal agricultural
workers to Canada and Colombian workers to Spain. The Czech
Government's information campaign to actively select qualified
workers from Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kazakhstan and Moldova is
now expanding to other suppliers. Korea's new temporary labour
migration scheme is supported by an IOM assessment of the labour
migration management capacities of twelve Asian countries. Ask
these governments about these experiences. They are leading the
way.



A more comprehensive approach in human resource development is
needed to meet the needs of both countries of origin and receiving
countries. At the same time, Governments will need to adopt more
flexible approaches to migration policy that put emphasis on the
managed mobility of migrants.



Priority Areas for Action



First, wider and deeper inter-state cooperation, especially between
countries of origin and destination, is a key to a better
functioning international labour market.



In that regard, we need not fear that more remittances from a more
open international labour market will result in reduced official
development assistance. I believe the likely result to be quite the
contrary. Effective partnerships, bilateral or multilateral, can
enhance prospects for more efficient and better targeted aid.



On the other hand, efforts to develop new international legal
regimes or formal institutional structures to promote migration for
development are less likely to yield positive results than are
voluntary, cooperative efforts building on existing mechanisms and
institutions, based on shared recognition of the benefits to be
realized by voluntary participation.



Second, we need to promote policy dialogue and closer cooperation
between migration experts and development experts, who are still
looking for a common language. This means that migration has to be
better integrated into development policy planning and national
plans to reduce poverty. It also means that migration policies have
to be more “development-friendly” and include a
stronger development perspective.



Finally, we need to experiment. In order to develop new approaches,
we need first to take stock of what works and what doesn’t
work - this will require better data and analysis. But studies are
not enough. We need to invest in new pilot projects and programmes
to test out in very practical ways how migration can best
contribute to development.



I believe that the time has now come to marshal the good will of
the international community. The occasion of the High Level
Dialogue on International Migration and Development to be held in
the General Assembly in September can serve as a moment for taking
stock of where we stand on realizing the positive potential of
migration and as a catalyst for future action. IOM stands by your
side to work together to usher in a new era of migration for
development.

STATEMENT AT CLOSING SESSION

Your Majesty,



It is my honour, my pleasure, to address to you - the
representative of Belgium - a few words of thanks on behalf of all
of the participants of this conference. And in the presence of
three of your Ministers and of the European Commissioner, it is for
me a pleasure to acknowledge the leading role which Belgium plays
today in the world debate on migration and which indeed your
country, your government has played for a very long time. And I
think the conference that we are now concluding is an example, one
among many, of that leadership role.



This conference was very successful. It was a good idea, at the
right time and the selection of the participants was really first
rate. You have before you, Your Majesty, a cross-section of the
world’s best brains and biggest hearts on this very important
humanitarian issue. There are government representatives here,
there are civil society representatives, journalists, in rather
large number, and that is good, as we need to have the word out.
There are representatives of many international organisations like
my own. They are dedicated people who have as their dream and their
goal helping the world come together better through human
mobility.



I think it is fair to say that everyone in this room would agree
with me that we are standing on the doorstep, in the 21st century,
of another very great period of human mobility and migration. Such
as the world has seen in the past, but which is now fairly recent.
The 20th century was the period of crisis and conflict and
blockage, a period that saw many wonderful developments but also
very great tragedies. It was a period in which refugees, displaced
persons occupied too much of our attention.



But I think that as we look into the new century, we can see that -
with some luck, good policy, and good leadership - we will be
entering another era, one of general peace and of spreading
prosperity. And I think the migration development is going to be
very, very important, because I think the migration development
will be a factor which makes sure that no part of the world is left
out of the general increase in peace and prosperity. And that means
that those countries in the world that have so far been left behind
in the development process, in the economic process, will have an
opportunity through the movement of their people, through the
participation in a globalised economy by the talent, the skills and
hard work of their own people to make up for the lack of resources,
to make up for the late start, make up for some of the historical
disadvantages that they suffer from. They can help themselves catch
up with the rest of the world and participate in this era of
growing peace and prosperity. I do believe that it is governments,
like the Belgian government, that take an enlightened view of the
need to help developing countries to accomplish this. It is through
the policies of your government, of your ministers, that we will
see the way forward. And I’m reminded that my own
organisation was founded here in Brussels, about 55 years ago. The
signature of the document that set up IOM as the Provisional
Inter-Government Committee for Migration in Europe - that was what
we were then, right after the end of the Second World War - that
started here in Belgium. So Belgium has been very close to
important for IOM ever since then, and that continues. Some of the
speakers have talked about a programme, that we are very proud to
put on - in Africa, MIDA - Migration for Development in Africa. And
you will see on our way to the reception afterwards, some photos of
people that we have helped through the MIDA programme. MIDA was a
Belgian idea. MIDA started 5-6 years ago. It was Belgium that took
a chance on this. It was Belgium that had the idea, the concept
that through the circulation of trained and talented people from
the third world who benefited from university education and life in
Belgium, you could make specific helpful interventions, small but
very important in countries that needed the help and got so much of
this help. So it’s another example and I sincerely think that
this conference is going to do what Commissioner Frattini hoped it
would, be a very important contribution for the global debate. It
has been a kind of global debate, we focused on Europe and Africa,
appropriately so. We had very good interventions from Asia, from
Latin America and North America. So this was a kind of mini global
debate and I think a very successful one. I think people will look
back on this meeting as one of first and most important step in a
new era on migration and development. All of us can take some pride
in having been here and participate in this. And I think you, Your
Majesty, should feel a particular sense of pride that it was
Belgium that made this possible.

Thank you very much.

Today as always, the Mediterranean is the theatre of historic
encounters between peoples, cultures and systems, where Europe
meets Africa and East meets West. As we proceed into the
twenty-first century, another century of globalization, we see in
the Mediterranean a new encounter, both profound and dramatic, in
the form of people on the move.



The causes of the new migration are many -- economic, social,
political, developmental, commercial, personal, technological and
more. The outcomes of a migration decision are often positive but
too frequently disturbing and sometimes tragic. Collectively, our
societies have not put in place the tools and mechanisms needed to
deal effectively with the complexities of Mediterranean migration
flows and a sense of drift and helplessness too frequently
surrounds the public debate.



From Sub-Saharan Africa, Northern Africa and Southern Europe, we
have come together in this beautiful and symbolic place to see how
together we can build better approaches through common
understandings and common effort. The international legal
instruments and policy tools are already in place, as the
International Agenda for Migration Management shows. Today, we are
here to move beyond principle to action.



Let me offer a few simple thoughts and observations, along with
practical illustrations of the kinds of activity we can take.

• The prime motivation for migration is a better life. Desperate
  people are willing to sacrifice much to that goal, sometimes the
  human dignity that is a theme of our gathering, sometimes their
  lives.
• Dignity is the touchstone of IOM programmes with Morocco and
  Mauritania for the voluntary return of stranded migrants. It
  similarly guides our growing collaboration with Libya to reduce
  irregular migration and trafficking in human beings.
• Irregular flows are today seen as a problem not just by
  industrialized countries. Nations impacted by transit flows find
  themselves in an increasingly awkward position in terms of their
  own economic management and development.
• Working together, in countries of origin, transit and
  destination, we can do much to put the smugglers and traffickers
  out of business and discourage individual adventures. We all have a
  stake in assisting those states which need and desire the capacity
  to manage migration humanely and effectively. We are grateful to
  the EU for its commitment to investing in these efforts.
• Smuggling migrants in small boats is a particularly
  unscrupulous practice that must and can cease, provided we all work
  together. IOM and other partners have opened an office in Lampedusa
  to work with Italy on this scourge. Let us look forward to the day
  soon when no more desperate migrants risk their lives in the
  Mediterranean.
• In a more profound and broader context than our cooperation to
  reduce irregular migration, we need policies that aim at
  encouraging broad economic progress through migration and enable
  individuals to achieve their personal goals through safe and legal
  means. Well managed migration can enhance development and progress
  in ways that profit both origin and destination lands as well as
  individual migrants and their families.
• In richer countries, the service sectors at all levels of skill
  and income offer win-win opportunities for foreigners and local
  economies. We need to organize better the international labour
  market across the Mediterranean. Several Western European countries
  are moving strongly in this direction.
• The Italian policy of entry quotas for migrant workers is an
  important step in the right direction, and one which IOM supports
  directly in policy and practice. Temporary and cyclical patterns of
  migration for work need further study in the Mediterranean as well.
  We can and must do much more here.
• Providing access to labour markets is an effective antidote to
  underground arrivals and residence as well as an essential element
  in putting dignity back into the migration experience. Cooperative
  efforts between states hold the promise of ensuring that the needs
  of home and host country are both met, as in the case of the
  bilateral agreement between Italy and Sri Lanka facilitated by
  IOM.
• Overseas communities can be a source of knowledge, a pool of
  investment financing and an entry point into the global economy for
  their societies of origin. We need to encourage better diaspora
  management through good policies and workable incentive schemes. An
  IOM project funded by Italy mobilizes the contributions of the
  Moroccan diaspora in Italy through remittances and returns,
  including temporary and virtual.
• There is a strong role for the private sector in shaping
  economic migration flows, but coordination with public policy is
  rare. We need a better integrated public-private effort.
  IOM’s newly constituted Business Advisory Board and rapidly
  growing collaboration with the private sector in mobility
  programmes provide useful models for how to achieve this needed
  integration.
• Migration is clearly not a panacea to the demographic that
  Europe and the majority of other industrialized countries are
  facing, nor is it the sole solution to the growth and development
  challenges of developing countries, but coherent migration
  management can help address pressing challenges in both the
  developed and developing worlds.
• The Mediterranean is a major fault line in the intersection of
  two great civilizations, Muslim and Christian. As we learned in
  Rabat in December at the Conference on Migration and Religion,
  jointly organized by the Government of Morocco and IOM, migrants
  take their cultures with them and want respect and understanding
  for the practices they hold dear. This too is dignity.
• The foundations for broad intergovernmental cooperation exist
  already in the various regional consultation mechanisms on
  migration. In many regions, the good will and shared understandings
  engendered by these efforts have led to concrete, practical
  cooperation. In the Mediterranean 5+5 we now detect a strong desire
  to work together where only a few years ago confrontation was the
  rule.
• The Austrian Presidency of the European Union is placing
  special emphasis on international cooperation in the European
  neighbourhood. Migration is a key component and will feature
  prominently in the foreign relations of the EU from now on, as
  likewise in development planning at national and international
  levels.
• IOM has worked for several years with the African Union to
  incorporate migration tools in the development plans of the African
  states. We are making steady progress in this effort with our
  growing community of African friends. On their behalf we are
  engaging in a major effort at capacity-building for twenty-first
  century technologies, including the biometric revolution that needs
  to join the world together, not divide it.

I cannot close without saluting our Italian hosts for the strong
and progressive role they continue to play in migration management.
Italy has imaginative programmes for overseas recruitment, for
population stabilization, for capacity building and for measures
against smuggling and irregular flows.



In conclusion, let us welcome the Italian initiative to bring us
together in Pozzallo and thank our hosts for their superb
hospitality. Let us also determine to produce ideas that will help
us to cope more effectively and more productively with this
increasingly central phenomenon.



Migration with dignity is not a mere slogan. It is a constituent
element of the future in which we all shall live.