GCM Champion Country El Salvador Launches GCM National Implementation Plan

San Salvador, July 2, 2024 - The Government of El Salvador today unveiled its National Implementation Plan for the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), the first of its kind in the region.

“As the government of El Salvador, we reaffirm our will to improve migration governance in an integral manner, highlighting the relevance of having actions in all parts of the migration cycle.”, said the Vice Minister of Diaspora and Human Mobility, Cindy Mariella Portal.

“We are very proud to be the first country in the hemisphere to have such a tool. We place ourselves at the disposal of our sister nations to share that experience." She added.

The GCM National Implementation Plan is the result of an extensive collaborative process among different actors from the government, civil society, the private sector, and international partners concerning migration governance in the country.

The UN Network on Migration provided workshops, consultations, mapping, and a needs assessment that identified challenges, priorities, and concrete actions to accelerate the implementation of the GCM in El Salvador, a source, transit and destination country for migrants. 

El Salvador faces a complex migratory landscape, shaped by structural factors. While the Salvadoran diaspora contributes significantly to the country’s economy through remittances and investment, challenges such as managing irregular migration and climate-drive migration, while safeguarding migrant rights, and facilitating the reintegration of returning migrants remain crucial, requiring a strategic and coordinated approach.

The Plan encompasses actions in five strategic areas: migrant rights, migration governance, labor migration, migration and development, and return and reintegration.

“We will continue to support national strategies to protect the rights of migrants and to join efforts with all stakeholders to multiply the positive results for the benefit of the country”, said Raúl Salazar, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in El Salvador.

A product of the newly established National Coordination Mechanism on Human Mobility, it includes a monitoring, evaluation, and reporting framework as a built-in accountability mechanism and as a tool to assess the translation of the government’s long-term goals and commitments into action.

Implementation will be monitored by the Coordination Mechanism on Human Mobility’s entities, and progress will be reported at the UN International Migration Review Forums.

The development of the National Implementation Plan was made possible with the assistance from the Building Migration Partnerships programme funded by the European Union (EU).