Panama City – The UN Migration Agency, IOM, held this week (9-10/10) a preparatory workshop with the goal of adopting lines of action to mainstream migration into the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in Central and North America. 

The workshop, the second of its kind, was co-organized by IOM and the Regional Conference on Migration (RCM), with the support of UN partners including UNDP, UNHCR, UNFPA, ILO and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Foreign affairs officers, migration agencies and officers responsible for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda from North and Central America and the Caribbean participated in the event.

“The 2030 Agenda offers us a unique opportunity to work together for equality and human rights,” said Marcelo Pisani, Regional Director of IOM for Central and North America and the Caribbean. “Some of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) are critical to addressing migration in a comprehensive manner. Therefore, providing support to countries efforts to align their migration governance with the SDGs is a priority for IOM.”

During the workshop, the participants also learned about the preliminary results of a diagnosis of the Adoption of the 2030 Agenda and Migration in the countries of the region, which provides valuable insight to understand the complex dynamic between migration and development. The study is in the process of being validated and will be available later.

Also, IOM presented the Migration and the 2030 Agenda: A Guide for Practitioners to participating countries. 

“There is a need better understand how migration and migrants can shape the achievement of development and vice versa,” said Joanne Irvine, an officer for the IOM-UNDP Global Joint Programme on Mainstreaming Migration into National Development Strategies. “Migration is a powerful driver of development both for migrants and for their communities of origin, transit, and destination.”

The event took place in the context of the project Supporting Countries in the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals Linked to Migration Governance, implemented by IOM Panama and financed by IOM Development Fund (IDF). The project aims to strengthen governments' capacities to advance the fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda related to migration governance.

The Lines of Action will be presented at the Vice-Ministerial Meeting of the RCM that will take place between November 12-15 in Panama, to be used as guidelines for member States of the Conference.

Since its creation in 1996, the Regional Conference on Migration has worked for the convergence of efforts to protect the human rights of migrants by strengthening the linkages between migration and development.

For more information, please contact Jorge Gallo at IOM Regional Office for Central and North America, and the Caribbean, Phone: +506 2212-5352, Email: jgallo@iom.int