Dear Friends,

Greetings from the MFA Secretariat!

As most of you may already know, Ecuador is the Chair of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) this 2019 and will be held in Quito, Ecuador on the fourth week of November 2019. The first GFMD Preparatory Meeting were held on 20-21 February 2019 which include the 1st Meeting of the GFMD Steering Group (20 February 2019), and the 1st Meeting of the GFMD Friends of the Forum (21 February 2019). All the succeeding documents mentioned can be found on this link: https://gfmd.org/docs/ecuador-2019

The 1st GFMD 2019 Roundtable Team Consultations was also held on 21 February 2019 and part of the discussion was on how the GFMD can be more aligned with the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM). Migrant Forum in Asia participated in the different roundtables and critically contributed on the Roundtable 2.2 Communicating effectively with migrants under Theme 2: Migration narratives and communication: What role, responsibility and resources do governments have?, questioning why the Roundtable 2.2 was titled as it is. Communicating effectively is a two-way stream wherein stakeholders should not only focus on communicating with migrants but listening to them as well. It is also more on how we listen to what we say as a way to reflect on how we ourselves frame our thinking and understanding on making the migration discourse and migration policy developments inclusive of migrants.

The first GFMD 2019 Thematic Workshop will be held on 21 -22 March 2019 in Geneva, looking at “GCM Implementation at the National Level”. We hope there will be some thinking and efforts done to realize the recommendations made and planned actions drawn from the previous consultations. It is crucial how we continue and strengthen the demand of accountability within civil society as well as with different stakeholders at the sub-national, national, and sub-regional levels.

The GFMD 2019 Thematic Workshop will be held tentatively on the 2nd week of May 2019 in Colombia. March – May 2019 are allotted for the Preparation of GFMD 2019 Roundtable Background Papers. The 2nd Preparatory Meetings of the GFMD 2019 Chairmanship will then be held in Geneva on 27 – 28 May which include the GFMD Troika (May 27, the GFMD Steering Group (May 28), and the Friends of the Forum (May 28). The Second Government-led Roundtable (RT) Team Consultations will be held on 29 May. More details on the provisional calendar of activities can be found in the website link provided above.

Other documents on the GFMD 2019 Chairmanship, GFMD and its contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, GCM and the UN Migration Network, GFMD mechanisms such as civil society process, business mechanism, and mayors mechanism can also be found on the website link provided.

We will be sending more updates and more information on this in the coming weeks.

Sincerely,

MFA Secretariat

For more information please contact William Gois of the MFA Secretariat at: mfa@mfasia.org