Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth

The UAE and India have developed the UAE-India Harmonized Framework for Skills Recognition and Certification designed to address the mismatch between workers’ skills and requirements of employers aims to improve skills mix in the UAE labour market and enhance the rate of mobility for certified workers, improving job security and reducing vulnerabilities. Employers in the UAE are incentivized to participate in the programme through reduced work permit fees.

Canada’s Economic Mobility Pathways Project (EMPP) empowers regional partners and stakeholders, including local governments and the private sector, to help immigration address regional and local labour, economic and demographic challenges and create complementary pathways for the protection of refugees and durable solutions through labour mobility, family reunification, and education.

International initiatives such as the Call to Action: “Remittances in Crisis: How to Keep Them Flowing”, launched by Switzerland and the United Kingdom in May 2020, have also contributed to leveraging remittances and other migration-related financial flows to assist local COVID-19 response and recovery interventions.

The overall objective of the project is to promote the extension of social protection for migrants in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in accordance with international social security standards, by promoting research, informing social dialogue and supporting reform efforts.

The project operates along three main axes:

In the context of return migration, Mexico also started to certify labour competencies, such as knowledge, abilities and skills, of Mexican returnees to facilitate their socio-economic reintegration.

Spain offers universal access to basic health services. Beyond the most favourable scheme enjoyed by EU nationals covered by EU common legislation, all migrants staying in Spain, irrespective of legal status, have access to the basic national health system. This measure has proved its utility during the pandemic.

As individuals and organizations in localities across the globe mobilize to support those displaced by war, conflict, and climate disasters, meeting immediate needs of migrants and refugees is critical. At the same time, building the infrastructure needed to support and engage migrants and broader communities in the long term is essential to ensure strong life outcomes beyond the initial welcoming period.

The pilot phase of MSDG was implemented from  August 2017 to December 2018, during which a Gambian Diaspora Strategy (GDS) was developed and incorporated in the Gambia National Development Plan (NDP 2018-21).

The Development Response to Displacement Impact Project (DRDIP) is a World Bank funded project through Investment Project Financing-IDA Loan to the Government of Uganda of about 50 Million dollars and is implemented by the office of the Prime Minister. 

The Project provides development and direct income support to vulnerable nationals and refugees within refugee hosting districts in Uganda and aims to improve access to basic social services, expand economic opportunities and enhance environmental management in refugee hosting districts.

In February 2021, the Colombian government launched the Temporary Protection Status (Estatuto Temporal de Protección para Migrantes Venezolanos, or ETPV), a legal mechanism which facilitates the transition of migrants from an emergency migratory regime to a regularization status, granting access to formal employment, education, healthcare, and financial services for almost two million Venezuelan migrants and refugees.