Turin — The International Training Centre of the ILO (ITC-ILO) and IOM, the UN Migration Agency, jointly developed two training courses entitled Mainstreaming Migration into Policy Development and Governing Migration at Local Level. For the first time since their inception, the courses were held simultaneously last week (29/10 – 02/11) at the ITC-ILO Campus in Turin, Italy.

The former course aims to enhance understanding of the links between migration and sectoral policies, and to strengthen the capacity of relevant actors to enhance policy coherence through multi-stakeholder mechanisms; the latter aims to reinforce the capacities of local stakeholders to mainstream migration into local policies in order to better harness the development potential of migration and provide adequate services and protection for migrants.

Running these two distinct yet thematically linked courses concurrently represented a one-of-a-kind learning and knowledge sharing opportunity for participants from different levels of government.

The training courses emphasized the need to adopt a whole-of-government approach to ensure policy coherence across sectors and levels of governance. They highlighted the important role of local and regional authorities as first responders to migration.

The courses also reinforced the need for enhanced coordination to ensure that local, national, sectoral, and overall migration and development policies help in the achievement of shared objectives and goals. Such an approach is crucial if the Sustainable Development Goals are to ensure that no one is left behind.

The week-long event was attended by 66 participants, representing local and national authorities from around the world. Going forward the two courses will be run in tandem on a yearly basis.

For more information, please contact:
Joanne Irvine at IOM HQ, Tel: +41 22 717 9878, Email: jirvine@iom.int
Miriam Boudraa at ITC-ILO, Email: m.boudraa@itcilo.org