Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Delegates,

The topic of this 41st session of the Commission on Population
and Development (CPD) offers an opportunity to take collective
stock and review the progress made in achieving the goals and
objectives on population and development set in the outcomes of
major United Nations summits and conferences, especially as laid
out in Chapter IX, Population Distribution, Urbanization and
Internal Migration of the Programme of Action of the International
Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). The International
Organization for Migration (IOM) welcomes the opportunity to make a
brief intervention under this agenda item, noting the rapidly
growing acknowledgment of the importance of migration in any
discussion of population and development as the relevance of the
UNGA High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development
of 2006 and its on-going follow up has amply demonstrated.

Since the Cairo Conference, the social and demographic trends
already in motion 14 years ago have further accelerated, and as
predicted, in 2008 and for the first time in history, half of the
world population is estimated to live in urban areas, with internal
rural-urban migration accounting for a varying but important
proportion of this urban growth. Thus, the identification of this
year's topics could have not been more appropriate and we
congratulate the Secretariat for the insightful and stimulating
reports prepared for this meeting.

An analysis of the Cairo Programme of Action (PoA) related to
internal migration points up both progress and elements of
discontinuity. Concerning internal population movements stemming
from environmental degradation, complex emergencies, natural
disasters and conflict, the objective of the PoA was to offer
adequate protection and assistance to persons displaced within
their own countries, particularly women, children and the elderly,
and to find solutions to the root causes of their displacement,
with a view to preventing it in the future, and to facilitate their
return or resettlement. Since 1994, and while in certain situations
the national and international responses have unfortunately
remained painfully inadequate, the international normative
framework has been considerably improved by such steps as the
publication of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement in
1998. These constitute a comprehensive attempt to deal with every
aspect and phase of internal displacement and – significantly
-- in 2005, the UN World Summit recognized the "Guiding Principles"
as an important international framework for the protection of
internally displaced persons.

In parallel to this process, modalities to address operational
challenges have also evolved significantly, with the proposition of
a "cluster approach" as a way of strengthening the effectiveness of
humanitarian response to internal displacement through building
partnerships between national and international actors; an approach
in which IOM is deeply involved and committed.

Beyond the response to these crises however, and while
international focus on the social consequences of climate change
and environmental degradation has increased over the past few
years, the impact of gradual environmental degradation on human
mobility is still largely under-researched and continues to require
far more attention from policy-makers and other stakeholders. As
early as 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
had noted that "the greatest single impact of climate change could
be on human migration – with millions of people displaced by
shoreline erosion, coastal flooding and agricultural
disruption".

Climate processes may induce both large internal and
international migration flows.  Though occurring over a long
period of time, land degradation, desertification, deforestation
and rising sea levels, to name just a few, may become irreversible
and inhabitants at risk may be pushed to migrate, adding further
stress on urban infrastructures and creating additional
vulnerabilities.  Mass environmental migration can also fuel
new or reignite existing conflicts, creating tensions and
competition between the host and displaced communities for already
scarce resources.  In order to advance this debate, IOM,
jointly with UN organizations such as the United Nations
University's Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS)
and UNEP is launching a multi-disciplinary program "Towards a
Global agenda for research on migration and the environment" to
define the research agenda on environmental migration.  In
addition, as part of the Migration and Development Policy Seminar
series, IOM along with UNITAR, UNFPA and the MacArthur Foundation
will hold a seminar on "climate change, environmental degradation
and migration" on May 9th, at United Nations headquarters which is
open to all Permanent Missions.

Mr. Chairman,

In recent years internal migration has also been recognized to
be as important as international migration in terms of its impact
on both social and economic development.  Though the term
migration has become synonymous with international migration, in
many countries, internal migration actually has far more impact
both in terms of the numbers of people involved and the resulting
flow of remittances: China for example, has well over 125 million
internal rural-to-urban migrants, a majority of whom are circular
rural-urban migrants who retain strong links with their rural
family. Due to phenomena such as the above, the negative perception
about internal migration has increasingly been altered over the
past decade and the contribution of rural migrants to rural income
growth, rural poverty reduction as well as urban social and
economic development is becoming more widely recognized. Further,
internal and international migration share many similarities and
challenges, such as those that have been termed social and
financial remittances. Some of these may have significant impact on
development, while others may be neutral or even detrimental in
their effects. In conclusion, Mr. Chairman IOM continues to provide
technical cooperation to ensure that the expertise gained in the
governance of international migration can be applied when
applicable to internal flows and to ensure that such flows are
recognized as an important factor in development and taken into
account in the design of national development and poverty reduction
strategies.

Thank you for your attention.