Panama

The Western Hemisphere Regional Migration Program (WHP) is a U.S. government-supported program that has operated since 2011.  The State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration provides funding as a contribution to IOM to implement the program.

The Regional Conference on Migration (RCM or Puebla Process) is a multilateral regional forum on international migration which involves countries that, from different perspectives, share a common problem, based on experiences relating situations of origin, transit and destination for migration. 

RCM member countries includes Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Dominican Republic. 

The goal of the project is to improve the human security of Ngöbe and Buglé migrant populations.

The Migration Information and Statistics System for Mesoamerica (SIEMMES by its Spanish acronym) is a system of migration information designed to capture and monitor the magnitude and characteristics of migratory movements from, to and between the Central American countries and Mexico, by coordinating and compatibilizing the data generated by different agencies in all those countries. 

Set up in 2001, it includes Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama.

The programme objective is to strengthen the capacity of policy makers and social partners to adopt and implement gender-sensitive labour migration policies, legislation and administration. This will be done by promoting:

i) the adoption and implementation of policies, legislation and administration for better regulation of labour migration flows;

ii) strategies to enhance social security coverage of migrant worker and their families, and;

iii) the improvement of skills’ matching between sending and receiving countries and reducing de-skilling.