Minister Sylla, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I’d like to begin my closing remarks by thanking all of you for your contributions over the past day and a half.

We’ve heard a great deal about the opportunities that migration presents to countries of origin, transit and destination, and about the challenges we face in the pursuit of safe, orderly, regular and responsible migration.

From the conversations we’ve had over the past two days, let me make three observations:

1 - People

First, we’ve heard about the critical need to ensure that migrants are at the center of national development policies.

As we grapple with the challenges of dealing with large-scale movements of refugees and migrants, we must ensure that migrants’ fundamental human rights are promoted and protected, regardless of legal status.

In that context, many speakers have made reference to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and its clarion call to leave no one behind.

This new agenda provides an overarching framework within which we should design, implement and monitor national migration policies.

The adoption of the 2030 Agenda, and the inclusion of migration in the SDGs, gives us the momentum to work together to develop effective, human-rights based migration policies, and to ensure that migrants are fully taken into account in national development plans and frameworks.

This will be particularly important over the coming year, as UN Member States deliberate on how to promote more effective, rights-based approaches to current migration challenges.

However, not only do we need to pay attention to the migration-related targets outlined in the SDGs, for instance on trafficking, labour migration, and lower-cost remittances, but we also need to find a way to account for issues that have not fully been captured by the agenda, such as displacement or crisis induced migration.

As I mentioned in my opening remarks, we have never has as many simultaneous, complex, protracted crises as we have today, with no immediate end in sight through a negotiation process.

Some speakers pointed to the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) as a critical juncture in that context – a means through which we can promote more holistic migration policies that take into account the needs of migrants in crisis situations, and to properly link efforts to promote safe, orderly and regular migration with humanitarian and development interventions.

We must also not forget the other important frameworks adopted in the last two years, which – taken together – provide an ideal frame for action. These include the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the SAMOA Pathway Document, the outcome of the SIDS Conference, the SDGs and the UNFCCC Paris agreement.

In short, we need holistic approaches, based on the 2030 Agenda and other major frameworks, and we need to put migrants first in our discussions, and in our policy responses.

2 - Process

This leads me to my second point on process. If we want to be able to track and report on progress made on good migration governance, we need better data, including disaggregated data, as well as a robust monitoring framework for migration.

We heard from a number of speakers that, although the demands for reliable data have increased in recent years, timely and quality disaggregated data on migration are often scarce. This makes it challenging for decision-makers to develop effective and informed migration policies.

IOM has tried to augment existing data sources by establishing a Global Migration Data Analytics Centre in Berlin. But we also heard about the tremendous work being done by a number of stakeholders to address this gap.

We heard from the Global Pulse initiative that new technologies may provide us with crucial information on migration in coming years.

Our colleague from Gallup discussed how to measure improvements in migrants’ well-being, while the Economist Intelligence Unit provided insights into the measurement of ‘well managed’ migration policies.

IOM and our partners in the UN system are also working hard to enhance the level of data and knowledge on migration. UN-DESA and IOM for example, are collaborating on a global indicator to track progress against key policy domains thought to constitute good migration policy.

We also heard from a number of partners – ILO, UNODC, the World Bank – as well as governments and other stakeholders, on the important work they are doing in these areas.

The conclusion of discussions on global indicators for the 2030 Agenda will be an important step in this process, and we look forward to the deliberations of the Statistical Commission next week.

3 - Partnerships

Finally, we heard a great deal about the need for partnerships to promote better and more effective migration policies. This is a common refrain in the migration community, recognizing that migration is a cross-border phenomenon that necessarily requires partnership.

However, we need to put our words into action and to finally meet our commitments around partnership – as we have also highlighted in the 2030 Agenda.

This is why IOM is supporting 16 Regional Consultative Processes (RCPs) across the world – the latest initiated by the League of Arab States. This is also why we have the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD).

As discussed by a number of panelists – most notably the Special Adviser on the Summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants, Ms. Karen AbuZayd, the upcoming high-level meeting on September 19 is a key opportunity for governments to enhance existing partnerships, and to build new ones.

Time and again speakers have said that no single country can address migration when acting alone. As we look towards September 19, we should therefore have in mind a tangible framework that can lead us to effective responsibility sharing for large-scale movements, and firm partnerships to promote well-managed migration.

We must also recognize the role of local authorities here, particularly given that at the end of the day, migrant integration happens at the local level. Local leaders are at the forefront of migration management and therefore, inclusive national policies need to be linked with local level implementation.

IOM had the chance to learn from local leaders and their priorities at our Conference on Migrants and Cities, held last year. Yesterday we had the chance once again to hear about the key role of local authorities in migration governance from the Honorable Denis Coderre, the Mayor of Montreal.

By way of conclusion, I would just like to note that we will be continuing this discussion in Geneva this coming October, where we will discuss good practices, progress that has been made and what we have learned a year after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda.

We will produce a report at the conclusion of these two IDMs, to inform governments’ deliberations on the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda. This report will be edited by Kathleen Newland of the Migration Policy Institute and Jill Helke, Director of IOM’s Department of International Cooperation and Partnerships. We intend to have the publication ready in time for the upcoming GFMD hosted by the Government of Bangladesh. As is the practice with IDM meetings, a summary of conclusions of this workshop will be shared with you in the coming days.

I hope that you will all join us again in Geneva in October, and wish you all a safe journey home in the meantime.