International Dialogue on Migration 2022 – Overlapping global crises: the impacts of food insecurity and climate change on migration and displacement

Food security, water security, environmental security and livelihood security are all affected by climate change and can influence mobility patterns. In 2022, we have witnessed the combined impacts of climate change and food insecurity, and the proliferation of acute situations across the world, leading to disruption in food supply chain and rising prices of grain, fertilizer and energy. This has resulted in compounded risks for communities already under severe stress, especially in low-income countries, and lead to protracted displacement and increased humanitarian needs. These situations call for longer-term development, adaptation and disaster risk reduction policies to avert and minimize displacement, strengthen the resilience of migrants and communities and promote sustainable societies and livelihoods. 

The second session of the IDM 2022 will be timely, in the lead up to the 27th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), taking place in Egypt, and building on the successful outcomes of the first International Migration Review Forum. Under the title "Overlapping global crises: the impacts of food insecurity and climate change on migration and displacement", the second session of the IDM aims at strengthening action to address the complex interlinkages between climate change, food security and human mobility. 

The report of the Second Session of the IDM 2022 is available here. 

View the recording of the panel discussions.  

For any queries on the IDM, please contact idmworkshop@iom.int. 

Agenda

Day 1

10:00 - 11:00 am Opening session: Global food security crisis due to conflicts, weather extremes, economic shock and impact on migration (Recording)

Opening Remarks

• Mr. António Vitorino, Director General IOM (Opening remarks)
• Video message from Mr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO) (Recording)

Speakers:

• Mr. Qu Dongyu, Director General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
• Mr. Janez Lenarčič, European Commissioner for Crisis Management, European Commission 
• Mr. Abdirahman Abdishakur, Special Presidential Envoy for Drought Response, Somalia

Interactive Dialogue

11:00 – 13:00 pm Panel 1: What do we know? - Climate change, food insecurity and human mobility and the role of oceans, water and land (Recording)

Climate change is already having a negative impact on food security and livelihoods, increasing the vulnerability of rural populations and affecting mobility patterns worldwide. Oceans, water and land have a key role in ensuring people’s livelihoods and strengthening their adaptative capacities in the context of climate change. Nevertheless, our oceans are becoming more acidic, water sources are depleting, and the lands are degrading, and desertification is on the rise. This panel will set out the available data and evidence on the current situation, and future projections, drawing out the linkages between climate and environmental change, and how it is affecting migration and displacement patterns. This analysis will include an assessment of the role of oceans, water and land in addressing the climate change, food security and human mobility nexus and identification of progress and further needs about displacement driven by desertification, land degradation and food insecurity.

Moderator:Mr. António Vitorino, Director General, IOM

Speakers:

• Mr. João Gomes Cravinho, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Government of Portugal
• Ms. Andrea Meza Murillo, Deputy Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
• Ms. Loretta Hieber-Girardet, Chief of Risk Knowledge, Monitoring and Capacity-Development Branch, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) 

Interactive Dialogue - Interventions from the floor submitted to the Secretariat:

• Delegation of Japan

Interactive Dialogue

13:00-15:00 pm Lunch Break

13:30 - 14:30 pm UN WOMEN Side-Event: How a gender-responsive approach can better equip us to respond to climate change, food insecurity and migration? (Recording) (No translation available)

Climate change, food insecurity and migration are some of the biggest challenges of our time. The impacts of climate change on food security and migration including displacement are complex, and intertwine with political, economic, demographic, environmental and social factors. With the widening gender food insecurity gap (32 per cent of women are moderately or severely food insecure compared to 28 per cent of men in 2021), and the increasing impact of climate change and natural disasters, women and girls continue to be at the highest risk of hunger and human rights violations, including gender-based violence-UN Women-Chairing.

Opening remarks: 

15:00 - 16:30 pm Panel 2: Understanding the role of women and youth in mitigating the impacts of climate change-driven food insecurity on migration and displacement (Recording)

Overcoming multiple challenges, affecting households’ welfare, resulting from an interplay of climate change and economic hardship, is not possible without engaging women who play a central role in land management and food provision and considering vulnerabilities of youth and children. As acknowledged in recent UNCCD process’ resolutions, household welfare may be promoted through support to women and youth in securing decent land- based jobs and entrepreneurship. This panel will look into the role that gender- and age-sensitive agricultural and trade policies continue playing in addressing climate change-driven food insecurity as well as into some initiatives aiming at tackling risks associated with migration and displacement.

Moderator: Ms. Ugochi Daniels, Deputy Director General for Operations, IOM 

Speakers:

• Ms. Rachel Snow, Chief, Population and Development Branch, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
• Mr. Abdihakim Ainte, Senior Advisor to the Federal Government of Somalia's Special Envoy for Drought Response
• Ms. Adriana Quinones, Director a.i. Geneva Liaison Office, UN Women

Interactive Dialogue - Interventions from the floor submitted to the Secretariat:

• Delegation of Somalia

16:30-18:00 pm Panel 3: Strengthening the resilience of the most vulnerable to economic adversity: upskilling, financing jobs and the green economy (Recording)

While migration is often used by households as an adaptation strategy to cope with environmental shocks, when it is unregulated, it may put migrants and their families at additional risks. It is therefore essential that migrants and their households become more resilient through gaining necessary skills, education and securing access to financing and knowledge, enabling them to make better strategic decisions. This panel will review recent cases in labour mobility as well as crisis-driven displacement to see how migrants and their households could be best supported to build necessary resilience.

Moderator: Ms. Amy E. Pope, Deputy Director General for Management and Reform, IOM

Speakers:

• Eduardo Jose A. de Vega, Undersecretary (Deputy Minister) For Migrant Workers’ Affairs, Philippines 
• Michelle Leighton, Branch Chief of the Labour Migration Branch, (ILO)
• Vladimir Gjorgjiev, Chief of Mission, IOM Azerbaijan

Interactive Dialogue - Interventions from the floor submitted to the Secretariat:

• Delegation of China
• Delegation of Eurasian Economic Commission
• Delegation of Philippines

Day 2

10:00-11:30 am Panel 1: Building resilient and adaptive migration pathways to contribute to food security and promote regular migration in the context of climate change (Recording)

Opening safe and accessible migration routes for climate-affected migrants is an increasingly important tool for tackling humanitarian as well as developmental crises due to climate change and food insecurity. It is worth taking stock of actions undertaken on the local, national and regional levels to avert risks facing migrants in transit and to build the capacities of communities to respond to the needs of vulnerable groups.

Moderator: Ms. Cécile Riallant, a.i. Director of Department of Peace and Development Coordination (DPDC), IOM

Speakers:

• Mr. Andrés Perez Esquivel, International Affairs Director of Migrations Directorate, Argentina
• Prof. Walter Kaelin, Envoy of the Chair, Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD), to present the PDD-IOM Baseline mapping results (Remarks)
• Mr. Andrew Harper, Special Advisor on Climate Action, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Interactive Dialogue - Interventions from the floor submitted to the Secretariat:

• Delegation of Qatar

11:30 - 13:00 pm Panel 2: Migrant’s voice – testimony of climate migrants (Recording)

People who are displaced, and their hosts must be the center of effective, inclusive, participatory, rights-based climate action. Displaced people and migrants play a central role in defining and implementing measures to address the nexus of climate change, human mobility and food insecurity. They represent a diversity of experiences and perspectives that are needed to inform effective and inclusive policy and action that leaves no one behind and develop resilience where it is most needed. Yet the wealth of their knowledge and capacities are rarely recognized and they should be given more opportunities to be directly involved in policy decisions and be represented and heard in global fora. This session provides a platform for displaced people and migrants to share their experiences and views on what the policymakers and practitioners need to deliver and to inspire action.

Moderator: Mr. Manuel Marques Pereira, Head of the Migration, Environment, Climate Change and Risk Reduction (MECR) Division, IOM

Speakers: 

• Mr. Jerome Oberreit, Executive Director, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC)
• Ms. Rashid Begum from Barisal district, one of the most climate vulnerable coastal districts in Bangladesh. Supported by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) 
• Mr. Shehab Choudhury, co-founder of the Bangladeshi Diaspora for Climate Action (BDCA). Diaspora Representative – supported by the IOM MECR projects in IOM London and IOM Washington 
• Ms. Rose Kobusinge, Youth Messages on Migration and Climate Change from the Kampala Conference 

Interactive Dialogue

13:00-15:00 pm Lunch Break

15:00-16:30 pm Panel 3: Food Insecurity and Systemic Risk: What Can We Learn from the COVID-19 Health Crisis to Address the Multiple Impacts of Climate Change for Populations on the Move (Recording)

This panel covered the related disruptions in the food system and the impact in human health, primarily through pathways of food safety and nutrition, and the effect on mental health between at-risk populations to guide resource allocation and context-specific policy making, to address how to make food system climate smart and the response to COVID-19 pandemic smart (focus on universal health preparedness reviews).

Moderator: Ms. Monica Goracci, Director, Department of Programme Support & Migration Management, IOM

Speakers: 

• Ms. Omnia El Omrani, COP27 President Envoy on Youth
• Dr. Luz De Regil, Head of the Unit on Multisectoral Action in Food Systems, World Health Organization (WHO) 
• Ms. Verena Knaus, Global Lead, Migration and Displacement, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
• Sri Hari Govind, Youth Advisor to Children, Cities and Climate Action Lab, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Steering Committee member at Healthcare Information for All (HIFA) (Remarks)

Interactive Dialogue

16:30-17:30 pm Debate: The road to COP27: greater recognition of the reality of human mobility in climate change negotiations, including the consequences of food insecurity (Recording)

Moderator: Amb. Caroline Dumas, Director General's Special Envoy for Migration and Climate ActionMr. Sameh Shoukry – Egyptian President -Designate of COP27

Speakers: 

• Video Message from Sameh Shoukry – Egyptian President -Designate of COP27 (Recording)
• Ms. Rabab Fatima, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, Co-facilitator of the first IMRF Progress Declaration (OHRLLS)
• Hon. Beatrice Anywar Atim, Minister of State for Environment, Uganda
• Mr. Luigi Soreca, Ambassador, Special Envoy for External Aspects of Migration, European Union 
• Ms. Pefi Kingi, Pacific Regional Focal Point for Migration, South Pacific Islander Organization (SPIO) (Remarks)
• Ms. Koko Warner, Manager of Adaptation Division, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (Remarks)

Interactive Dialogue

17:30-18:00 pm Closing Remarks (Recording)

• Mr. Eugenio Ambrosi, Chief of Staff, IOM 
• Ms. Francisca Mendez, Ambassador, Permanent Representative, Mexico (Remarks)