This edition of the Global Forum on Migration and Development and the preliminary Civil Society Days go under the theme “Integrating migration policies in development strategies for the benefit of all”.

The Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) is a state-led, voluntary, informal, and non-binding dialogue that focuses on how migration can help achieve development goals.

Created following a proposal by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in September 2006, it takes place every year and brings together senior policy makers from around the world to exchange experiences, identify best practices, and foster interstate cooperation in leveraging migration for the benefit of development. 

The Civil Society Days (CSD) are organised by the Greece-based Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, with the support of an international advisory committee, of which Ms Martina Liebsch, from Caritas Internationalis general secretariat is a member.

Participants will draw on their experiences in the field of migration and development to formulate proposals that will be presented to government representatives during the GFMD.

Three thematic roundtables will take place on

1- How to make the migration-development nexus work for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals;

2- Migrant integration, reintegration and circulation for development;

3- Policy and Institutional Coherence Partnerships.

In the run up to the conference, an On-Line Dialogue platform has been set up on the CSD’s  website in order to facilitate the widest possible exchange of views between civil society partners all over the world. The inputs from this online dialogue will be used as background material for consideration during the two-day CSD conference.