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Update No. 8
Subject: GFMD UPDATES NO. 8: Program for the Asian Consultation
Dear Friends,
Greetings from Manila. I hope you are well.
Thank you for those who sent in their registration to the Asian Consultation for the 2008 GFMD. The venue for the Asian Consultation is Windsor Hotel:
Windsor Suite Hotel
8-10 Sukhumvit Soi 20 Sukhumvit Road Bangkok 10110 Thailand
Tel : (66) 0-2262-1234 / Fax: (66) 0-2262-1212 / www.windsorsuiteshotel.com
I would also like to inform the working group members that we have uploaded the updates on the 2008 GFMD in the MFA website. Background information on the 2008 GFMD can now be found at the MFA website:
Background information on the 2008:
http://www.mfasia.org/mfaStatements/F126-UpdatesOnGFMD.html
Deliberatuons annd recommendations of the 2007 Asian Consultation:
http://www.mfasia.org/mfaResources/Asian%20Consultation%20on%20the%20GFMD%20Deliberations%20and%20Recommendations.pdf
For information on the first GFMD held in Brussels Belgium on 9-11 July 2007 you can also visit the official website of the GFMD at the following links:
Report of 2007 GFMD Civil Society day:
http://www.gfmd-civil-society.org/index.html?current=20&page=20&page2=20&lang=en
Summary report of the first GFMD:
http://www.gfmd-fmmd.org/en/system/files/Rapport+GFMD_EN+_3_.pdf
I am sending as attachment the draft program for the Asian Consultation 2008. We would appreciate it very much if you can go through the background of the 2008 GFMD prior to the Asian Consultation on 4 February 2008, Monday. Please don't hesitate to e-mail us if you have further questions or clarifications with regard to Monday's consultation.
Courage, Peace, Power in a life full of meaning.
William Gois
Regional Coordinator
Migrant Forum in Asia
59 B Malumanay St.
Teachers Village, Diliman
Quezon City, Philippines 1104
Tel no: 632-4333508
Fax: 632-4331292
E-mail: mfa@pacific.net.hk
Web: www.mfasia.org
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Update No. 7
As host to the 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), the Philippine government has finalized the dates of the 2nd GFMD, according to the Philippine Organizing Committee. The 2nd GFMD will comprise of two parts:
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27-28 October 2008 – Civil Society Organizations (CSO) Forum, organized by the Ayala Foundation
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29-30 October 2008 - Intergovernmental Forum, organized by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)
The above dates were fixed to accommodate the participation of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
Themes of the 2nd GFMD
The 2nd GFMD will carry the theme “Protecting and Empowering Migrants for Development” and will have three roundtables as follows:
Roundtable 1: Migration Development and Human Rights
1.1 Protecting the rights of migrant workers - a shared responsibility
1.2 Empowering migrants and diaspora to contribute to development
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What are the most effective policies and practices for empowering migrants and diaspora to contribute to development?
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How can the development impact of these policies and practices be best assessed, scaled-up and shared across different countries and regions?
Roundtable 2: Secure, legal migration can achieve stronger development impacts
2.1 Fostering more opportunities for legal migration
2.2 Managing irregular migration as a negative factor for development
Roundtable 3: Policy and institutional coherence and partnerships
3.1 Strengthening data and research tools to foster policy and institutional coherence
3.2 Regional consultative processes (RCPs) at the interface of migration and development
An online discussion for the themes will be set-up by late February or early March.
Civil Society Forum Format
Unlike the Civil Society Day for the 1st GFMD in Brussels in July 2007, the CSO forum for the 2nd GFMD will be a 2 day conference to give more time for stakeholders to delineate, discuss and digest issues of national and international importance. The schedule will be as follows:
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Day 1: parallel workshops and roundtable discussions
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Day 2 (am): plenary sessions focused on cross-cutting issues
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Day 2 (pm): Friends of the Forum will be invited to sit down with Civil Society participants for discussion and deliberation of the outputs of the preceding day and a half.
The Civil Society Forum will be held back-to-back with the Inter-Government Forum to encourage face-to-face engagement and improve mutual understanding of viewpoints and perspectives.
International Steering Committee for the CSO Forum
An international steering committee is yet to be set-up for the CSO Forum of the 2nd GFMD. The target date for the setting up the committee is the end of January.
Local Organizing Committee for the CSO Forum
The Ayala Foundation has created the Philippine Organizing Committee, composed of business leaders, NGOs, and church leaders to provide over-all management and oversight of the Civil Society Forum, including preparatory and post-conference activities.
Experts Group
The Experts Group, a panel of international experts, will act as consultants to the Inter-Government Forum and Civil Society Forum. Main responsibility of the Experts Group is to help ensure that agenda items will be supported by discussion papers based on solid research that serve as inputs to the conference sessions.
The first meeting of the Experts Group will be on 12-13 February 2008 in the Philippines.
Asian Consultation Process
As part of MFA’s continuous engagement in the GFMD processes, MFA will be convening an Asian Consultation Process on 4 February 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand. The Asian Consultation Process will be held during the SAPA Working Group on Migration and Labour meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.
For more inquiries regarding participation to the SAPA WG on Migration and Labour meeting / Asian Consultation on the 2nd GFMD, please contact the MFA Secretariat at mfa@pacific.net.hk.
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Update No. 6
Further to previous announcements regarding the upcoming SAPA Working Group on Migration and Labour meeting / Asian Consultation on the 2nd GFMD, the deadline for registration to the meeting has been extended to 21 January 2008.
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Update No. 5
As convener of the Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy (SAPA) Working Group on Migration and Labour, MFA will be convening an Asian consultation on the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) on 4 February 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand. SAPA is a loose network of civil society organizations – non-government organizations (NGOs), people’s organizations and trade unions – engaged in action, advocacy and lobby at the inter-governmental processes and organizations.
The Asian consultation follows on from the successful regional consultations held by MFA in August 2006 and June 2007, in preparation for the UN High Level Dialogue on Migration and Development in New York (September 2006), and the 1st GFMD in Brussels (July 2007) respectively.
In lieu of the upcoming GFMD which will be held in October 2008 in Manila, Philippines, MFA is devoting the SAPA Working Group on Migration and Labour to be a venue for civil society groups working on migration, labour and development to discuss issues around migration and development.
The meeting will be held back to back with the SAPA General Forum which will be held on 2-3 February 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand.
To register, please accomplish the registration form and send to the MFA Secretariat on or before 15 January 2008.
For more inquiries regarding participation to the SAPA WG on Migration and Labour meeting / Asian Consultation on the 2nd GFMD, please contact the MFA Secretariat at mfa@pacific.net.hk.
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Update No. 4
On 22 October 2007, MFA together with its Philippine based members held an initial consultation on the second Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) that will take place in Manila in October 2008. Participants were manila-based migrants rights CSOs, NGOs, trade unions, members of the private sector and a few colleagues from overseas --Hong Kong, Geneva; and the Philippine government. The initial consultation aimed to provide CSOs, NGOs, trade unions and other stakeholders with updates on the process to the second GFMD in Manila Philippine on 2008.
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Executive Summary
Second Global Forum on Migration and Development (2nd GFMD)
Initial Consultation among Manila-based NGOS
Next year, the Philippines will host the second Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD). MFA welcomes the GFMD initiative because it is a high level multilateral forum where governments can agree to commit themselves to addressing the multidimensional issues and concerns of international migration. As an intergovernmental forum outside the UN however, there is a need for greater intervention by civil society groups to ensure that the human rights and people-centered perspectives on migration and development remain at the centre of the governments’ discussion.
To better prepare the CSOs (Civil Society Organizations) for the next GFMD engagement, MFA together with its Philippine-based members convened a whole day initial consultation with Manila-based CSOs and trade unions on October 22 at Max's Restaurant, QMC, Quezon City. Invited as resource persons were Atty. Star Roman, DFA OUMWA Special Assistant to Undersecretary Esteban Conejos, Jr., Ms. Vicky Garhitorena, Ms Chinie Canavel of Lola Grande Foundation, Atty Cecilia Jimenez, of Geneva Forum for Philippine Concerns, William Gois of MFA and Ellene Sana from CMA.
The GFMD Preparations:
Atty. Roman shared that the proposed date for the GFMD is on the third week of October 2008 as agreed upon by the Steering Committee. Proposed venue is PICC.
In terms of thrusts, according to Atty. Roman, the second GFMD will continue to focus on but will also include the human face of migration. This is to show that migration and development could co-exist and that for the developmental aspect of of migration, the human rights of migrants must be respected. This must be achieved on the basis of friendship and sharing of rational evidences and explore such gaps and how to address these gaps.
The “Official CSO Session”: The Philippine government and the Belgian King Baudouin Foundation (KBF), host to the first GFMD CSO Session, requested the Ayala Foundation (AF) to make the preparations for the official CSO session of the GFMD.
Ms. Garchitorena, President of Ayala Foundation, shared their initial plans for the CSO forum. It will be a two-day session, the first day being devoted to concurrent panel discussions. The outputs from the panel discussions will be discussed on day 2. In the afternoon, AF hopes to provide a venue for dialogues with representatives of governments. The members of the Friends of the Forum will be invited to listen to the recommendations before they go into their own government forum during the GFMD proper. This is to avoid what happened in Brussels when there was practically to time for the governments to listen to what the CSOs have to say.
There was also a suggestion to hold the CSO day ahead of the GFMD but AF is inclined to do it back to back to facilitate networking between and among CSOs and the governments. AF also hopes that there will be a space for CSOs to observe during the government forum. Ms. Garchitorena also mentioned that before 2008, there will be two (2) experts meetings as suggested by the KBF. A list of experts have already been identified as well.
As regards selection of CSO participants, AF has been in close consultation with KBF and others who have been involved in the first GFMD as well as with the HLD in 2006. KBF has also turned over its documents and recommendations for the next GFMD. AF hopes to bring in together some 200 participants to the CSO session, giving due consideration to global regional representation. AF also thinks that there should also be adequate representation from the private sector -- banks, colleges, universities, hospitals, recruiters including Filipino recruiters abroad –in order to arrive at win-win solutions.
AF invites CSOs to suggest topics for the concurrent panel discussion. To date, the following are some of the issues that nay possibly be looked at during the CSO Day: rights and responsibilities of migrants, ethical issues of global recruitment, role of migrant associations in both sending and resending, the co-development programs, reintegration issues, best practices in knowledge transfer/brain gain, e.g., on-line teaching, online modules for public schools.
International Conference on Gender, Migration and Development: Chinie Canivel from Lola Grande Foundation shared that before the GFMD, Lola Grande will organize an International Conference On Gender, Migration and Development: Seizing Opportunities, Upholding Women's Rights on 4-5 September 2008 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Manila, Philippines. The focus of the conference will be on the:
1. Availability and presentation of sex unsegregated data
2. Differences in the experiences of men, women and children concerning vulnerabilities/ violations, productive contribution and capacities
3. Gender-responsive policy formulation/ implementation to protect women workers rights.
The main convenor of the conference is the National Commission on the Rights of Filipino Women (NCRFW) while the conference management and resource mobilization will be done by LGF. The conference is also being co-convened by UNIFEM, ILO, UNICEF and MFA/MRI. Lola Grande hopes to bring together some 250 particiants from the following sectors: Senior government officials from UN-member states directly involved in policy making, particularly on women, migration and development matters; civil society (from UN member states) women and migrant advocacy groups; NGOs; religious groups; trade federations; trade unions; academe; private sector and international and regional organizations.
CSO Parallel Process: MFA together with its international partner MRI also organized a parallel process. During the HLD we had a parallel event in NY where the UN Special Rap and Mary Robinson were present. This is not part of the UN official process. This is CSOs way of saying we have our own process focusing on migration, development and human rights. One of the strategies by having a parallel event that would cater to CSOs and this had more participation from CSOs. For the preparation for this event, there was a Regional Consultation for this. MFA and MRI will continue on this despite of having a perfect civil society participation on which they wish to have on the Philippine hosting of GFMD.
In Brussels, MFA and MRI also had a parallel event which was broader as it included CSOs who were not part of the formal process. In NY it was MRI who was the lead, in Brussels it was the MRI, ICMC, ITUC, December 18. They are part of the groups of strategizing a parallel event for the 2008 GFMD irrespective of the government process. MFA and MRI will continue this process even if there is the possibility of having a perfect CSO process in the Philippines.
NGO Updates from Geneva: Human rights lawyer, Atty. Cecilia Jimenez from Geneva, provided the forum with additional updates from Geneva during meetings related to GFMD.
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