Mainstreaming Migration into Development Planning

This case study forms part of a series of case studies on good practices, lessons learnt and recommendations extracted from the projects supported by the UN Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI) to enhance migration management for local development. The experience of the JMDI shows that the most effective initiatives are anchored with local or regional authorities and carried out in a multi-stakeholder and participatory approach, including migrants and migrants’ associations or diaspora.

This case study forms part of a series of case studies on good practices, lessons learnt and recommendations extracted from the projects supported by the UN Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI) to enhance migration management for local development. The experience of the JMDI shows that the most effective initiatives are anchored with local or regional authorities and carried out in a multi-stakeholder and participatory approach, including migrants and migrants’ associations or diaspora.

In view of the developmental impact of migration, Bangladesh has declared migration as a major thrust sector in Bangladesh, and as such migration has found extensive place throughout the Sixth "Five Year Plan" of Bangladesh which operates from 2011-2015. Major actions have also been initiated on migration governance. These include activities in legislative, policy, and institutional areas.

The Swedish Prime Minister together with ILO, OECD as well as other heads of the State governments including the Bangladeshi Prime Minister launched the  "The Global Deal Initiative for Decent Work and Inclusive Growth" in New York for protection and promotion of migrant workers’ rights. This initiative aims at focusing on social dialogue and addressing the challenges of the emerging global labour market. One important goal is also creating more decent and inclusive jobs. 

The National Labour Migration Policy in Sri Lanka was adopted in 2009. It focusses on three main segments: Governance of migration, protection of the rights of migrants workers and migration and development. This national policy draws on the ILO multilateral framework and development through the border consultation of the key stakeholders. Implementation of the policy is monitored by the national labour migration advisory council consistent with the procedures of key stakeholders in the migration sector, and chaired by the Minister in charge.

The Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI) is a global inter-agency programme funded by the European Union and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. It focuses on the local dimension of migrants’ contribution to development and aims to maximize the potential of migration for local development. To achieve this, the JMDI provides technical and financial support to up-scale existing locally-led migration and development initiatives across 15 projects in eight target countries: Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Morocco, Nepal, Philippines, Senegal and Tunisia.

Switzerland supports Moldova in maximizing the positive impact of migration on the country`s socio-economic development. This is done by implementing a program with three interlinked components:

The Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI) aims to support migration and development actors actors to effectively harness the potential of migration for development. The programme is implemented by UNDP and five agencies - IOM, ILO, UNHCR, UNFPA and UN Women - contribute to the programme with their institutional knowledge, expertise and extensive networks to ensure its success.

The Mediterranean City-to-City Migration Project (MC2CM) implemented by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) in partnership with United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and UN Habitat, as well as UNHCR as an associate partner, aims to create a network of 10 European and Southern Mediterranean cities in order to facilitate exchange of experience among and to contribute to improved migration planning and governance in these cities.

The Tunisian National Strategy for Migration includes all the developments of the migration profile of Tunisians and refers to the human rights values entrenched in the second republic's constitution and in bilateral and multilateral aggreements related to migration. The strategy paper gives special attention to Tunisian living abroad, in order to protect their rights and to actively involve them to the political and economic transitions of the country.

The national strategy for migration has been decreed with the following main themes: