The Twelfth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF12) 2024 IOM Side Event (7 November 2024)

Building Inclusive Migration Pathways to Drive Sustainable Urbanization

Migration and urbanization go hand in hand. Migration is increasingly an urban phenomenon: already, one in five international migrants are living in just 20 cities, and around one in every two internally displaced persons (IDP) live in urban areas. At the same time, the increase in migratory flows around the world is a leading force behind urban growth.

The complex interaction of these two megatrends brings both opportunities and challenges for migrants, communities, governments, and local authorities alike. While there is abundant evidence of the positive impacts of migration to advance targets across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in urban contexts – these benefits are not guaranteed.  

Poorly managed urban migration can lead to gaps in the provision of basic needs and in the denial of migrants’ rights including adequate housing, education, health care, or decent work; and heighten tensions within communities.

On the other hand, well-designed and resourced urban integration of migrants and inclusion systems facilitate greater economic and social outcomes for the entire city. Well managed migration – that rests on strong partnerships and multi-stakeholder collaboration – is part of the solution to drive sustainable urbanization.

Cities play a pivotal role in facilitating regular migration pathways by orchestrating a comprehensive ecosystem of actors, policies, and services that support migrants' integration, economic inclusion, and overall well-being.

Building forward-looking and inclusive migration pathways that work well for urban contexts requires proactive measures and actions such as enabling multi-level coordination frameworks, building integration capacities, preparing host communities, ensuring buy-in from all stakeholders through inclusive programming and policy design, and empowering migrants to contribute positively to their new environments. 

OBJECTIVES

This side event will take stock of emerging practices and innovative policies driven by local governments and urban changemakers that facilitate effective regular migration pathways, accelerating replicable and scalable solutions for migrants' inclusion and integration in cities leveraging the positive impact of migration for sustainable urbanization.

To do so, the side event will bring the views of a broad range of stakeholders, including agencies (IOM and UNDP), United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the Mayors Migration Council (MMC), representatives of Member States, local authorities and cities, urban practitioners, the private sector, and changemakers from civil society.

FORMAT OF THE EVENT

This event is organized within the framework of the twelfth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF12) and is open to all registered participants of the Conference, including Member States.

It will be held in a hybrid format at the site of the WUF Conference: the Egypt International Exhibition Center, El-Moshir Tantawy Axis, Al Hay Al Asher, Nasr City, Cairo Governorate, Room A and online. Simultaneous interpretation and translation into the six official UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) will be provided during this event.

Register to the event here
 _{*To be able to join the event (both remotely and in person), you must register through the WUF dedicated GEMS platform}

AGENDA

The Twelfth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF12) 2024
IOM Side Event
7 November 2024 

Time

Program

09:00 - 09:15

High-level opening segment

09:15 - 09:55

Panel discussion
Moderated Davos-style panel

09:55 - 10:25

Q&A and Plenary discussion

10:25 - 10:30

Closing remarks