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Update No. 12

The 2^nd Global Forum on Migration and Development website is now available at www.gfmd2008.org. This website is made available through the collaborative effort of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Ayala Foundation.

The website is prepared in English. The versions translated to French and Spanish are done automatically using an open source component called JTrans Pro (Joomla Translation) that uses the online translation services of Google and Yahoo Babelfish.

The website provides helpful information on the 1^st GFMD 2007 and the GFMD Philippines 2008. When you open the website, the portal home appears. The portal home consists of the following links:

• GFMD Philippines 2008 Government MeetingGFMD Belgium 2007 Government MeetingGFMD Philippines 2008
• GFMD Brussels 2007 CSO Day

Under the GFMD Philippines 2008 (CSO site) , below are some of the links available:

• Experts - This link provides information of coordinators and experts who will assist the foundation in preparing background papers and in engaging in research on a range of policy topics which will be discussed during official GFMD. Meanwhile, the coordinators will guide the discussion and to remain in contact with each panel as research papers are prepared.
• Public forum - This is an online discussion forum where interested individuals may engage in the discourse. To do this, one needs to register and obtain a username and a password.
• Information resources - This link provides end reports of the GFMD 2007
• Delegation Information - This gives information about the application process for all interested CSOs. Currently, the application form is not yet available. Application form will be posted by the end of May.
• Calendar of related activities - Should you want to know the current happenings around GFMD 2008 and other related activities leading to GFMD, you may check this link.

Meanwhile, the government meeting provides the following important information:

• Forum Info - This link discusses the objectives of GFMD, the GFMD 2007 and GFMD 2008.
• Document Library - The documents available are the official Philippine GFMD documents, other related documents and RTD themes documents.
• Manila GFMD Program - The Provisional Agenda will be made available after the Second Meeting of the Friends of the Forum (FOF) which is scheduled in May 26, 2008.
• Roundtable Themes - This provides write up of the 3 RTDs, the separate session which discusses the future of the GFMD and the conclusion and recommendation.
• Delegation Info - Information under this link is not yet available. Basically, this links provides information on logistical arrangements for the delegation i.e. registration, accommodation, transport and visa.

For more information, you may contact the following:

Philippine GFMD Task Force

3rd floor DFA Building

Department of Foreign Affairs

2330 Roxas Boulevard

Pasay City 1300 Philippines

Tel: +632 834-4449

Fax: +632 834-4000

Email: info@gfmd2008.org

GFMD Civil Society Days Secretariat

Ayala Foundation, Inc.

10th floor BPI Building

6768 Ayala Ave. cor. Paseo de Roxas

Makati City 1206 Philippines

Tel: +632 752-1061

Email: csdays@gfmd2008.org

Update No. 11

As part of the preparatory activities for the GFMD an International Conference on Gender, Migration and Development with the theme: Seizing Opportunities, Upholding Women Workers' Rights will be held in Manila on September 25-26, 2008.

 

The conference is being convened by the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) in partnership with United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), International Labor Organization (ILO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Lola Grande for Women and Children, Inc (LGFWCI),  and Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) and in cooperation with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Women and Gender Institute of Miriam College (WAGI-MC).  The conference is part of the preparatory activities for the GFMD and the results of the conference will be submitted to the GFMD on October 2008.

 

The conference is geared towards mainstreaming the discussions of human rights in general and women's rights in particular in the discourse of migration and development.  The conference would like to explore discussion of mutual issues and concerns and establish cooperation among countries to adhere on international obligations.

 

Participants to the conference will include government officials, UN agencies, civil society organizations  (women and  migrant advocacy groups, NGOs, faith based organization) trade unions, academe, private sector and international organizations.

 

The objectives of the conference include:

1. To clarify and dialogue on a gender perspective and rights-based perspective and approach to the issue of gender and migration;
2. To facilitate exchange of insights/best practices in promoting, protecting and upholding rights of migrant women and children;
3. To explore and define partnerships and linkages among  different sectors of government, civil  society organizations, academe and the private sector in upholding and protecting  rights of migrant women and children.

Conference program

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Update No. 10

 

1. enjoin the broad participation of community-based groups working on migration and development issues;
2. solicit inputs/action points to enrich and/or critique the gfmd themes
3. consolidate our ranks as like-minded groups and our unities towards the crafting of a national migrants agenda;
4. a short list of 10 nominees each for the island delegation to the official CSO GFMD –to be agreed upon by the consultation participants
5. specifically for CMA and MFA: to maximise the opportunity of the GFMD to urge local CSOs to reach out, link up and network with CSO representatives from across the globe; and where possible, to support and participate in events that international regional organizations may organize as parallel events during the GFMD.

• Workshop discussions to revolve around the 7 roundtables of GFMD, and an additional roundtable for other Philippine-specific issues. Each workshop group should generate a list of resolutions or recommendations.
• Plenary session to consolidate results
• Selection of nominees for national delegation.

D. Participants to the island consultation

1. A total of 30 Philippine civil society delegates will be selected.
2. The civil society sector, as defined by the subcommittee, will consist of NGOs involved in programs and services for migrants, institutions involved in related advocacy, migrants’ associations and/or trade unions, academic institutions involved in migration and development, the private sector (i.e., those involved in recruitment and remittances), etc. The Philippine delegates will be limited to civil society groups based in the Philippines.
3. The steps will be as follows:

1. Finalize the list of NGOs and groups to be invited to the island consultations.
2. Send out invitations to the prospective participants. Each NGO/institution can send only one official representative, plus one alternate.
3. The invitation to the island consultation is accompanied by a form that will serve as a participant’s expression of interest to be nominated as a Philippine delegate to the global forum. Anyone who is interested to be nominated as a delegate to the global forum must fill up this form. The form will consist of 3 parts:

• Personal data and information on the applicant, including information on the track record and existing program services and on the expertise of his/her organization.
• Endorsement by the applicant’s organization.
• Expression-of-interest section which lists down the duties and responsibilities of the chosen delegates –(a) to attend the national consultation workshop, (b) to articulate the views and recommendations of the Philippine delegation, (c) to attend follow-through meetings and sessions, etc. The applicant should sign below the expression-of-interest paragraph on the application form.

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Update No. 9

 

The SAPA Working Group on Migration and Labour/Asian Consultation for the GFMD 2008 held its meeting on 4 February 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand. The meeting was devoted to the Global Forum on Migration and Development.

 

As part of the preparations for the upcoming CSO parallel event to the GFMD, MFA/MRI also held a strategy meeting among its members and partners in the Philippines on 15 February 2008.A Philippine working group was set-up for the CSO parallel event with roles and tasks indicated.

 

The next meeting of the Philippine working group will be held on 26 March 2008 at the UNI-APRO Philippine office in Quezon City.

 

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Update No. 8

MFA will organize an Asian Consultation for the Global Forum on Migration and Development on 04 February 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand. The venue of the consultation meeting is at:

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

Background information on the 2008 GFMD can now be found at the MFA website:

• Background information on the 2008
• Deliberations annd recommendations of the 2007 Asian Consultation
• Report of 2007 GFMD Civil Society Day
• Summary report of the first GFMD

Draft program for the Asian Consultation 2008

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Update No. 7

As host to the 2^nd Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), the Philippine government has finalized the dates of the 2^nd GFMD, according to the Philippine Organizing Committee. The 2^nd GFMD will comprise of two parts:

• 27-28 October 2008 – Civil Society Organizations (CSO) Forum, organized by the Ayala Foundation

• 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 2^nd GFMD

The 2^nd 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

• How can protection of the rights of migrants enhance their contributions to development?

• What are the key elements of effective cooperation between countries on migrant protection?          

1.2 Empowering migrants and diaspora to contribute to development

• What are the most effective policies and practices for empowering migrants and diaspora to contribute to development?

• 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

• What makes a temporary labour migration program beneficial for development?

• How can developing countries strengthen their capacities to negotiate partnerships and be viable partners on mutually beneficial labour and skills exchange?

2.2 Managing irregular migration as a negative factor for development

• What are the cause-effect links between irregular migration and lower achievement of development goals (in both directions)?

• What are the capacity building needs of developing countries to manage irregular migration?      

Roundtable 3: Policy and institutional coherence and partnerships

3.1   Strengthening data and research tools to foster policy and institutional coherence

• What are the critical gaps in data on the migration-development interlinkages?

• How can research and analysis be linked most productively with policy-making? 
• What are the key indicators of the development-relevance of migration policies; and the key indicators of migration impacts of development policies?

3.2  Regional consultative processes (RCPs) at the interface of migration and development

• How are RCPs effecting change regarding migration and development policies at the national level? And within the agendas of larger regional economic processes?

• What are the good practices in integrating development considerations into RCP agendas? 
• How can RCPs work more closely with the GFMD in mutually reinforcing ways?A separate session will also be held at the end of the GFMD to discuss the future of the GFMD.

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 1^st GFMD in Brussels in July 2007, the CSO forum for the 2^nd 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:

• Day 1: parallel workshops and roundtable discussions

• Day 2 (am): plenary sessions focused on cross-cutting issues

• 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 2^nd 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 2^nd 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 2^nd 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 2^nd 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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