UNDP Pledge - Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration

As an active member of the United Nations Network on Migration at global, regional and national levels, and in collaboration with other entities participating in the UN System Pledge, national and local authorities, the private sector, civil society and other relevant stakeholders, UNDP commits to:

1. Integrating the guiding principles and objectives of the GCM in its own programming, and working to strengthen the positive interaction between migration and sustainable development.

2. Supporting Member States in mainstreaming migration into national and local development planning and ensuring policy coherence across sectors.

3. Advocating for more regular migration pathways as the best way to prevent migrant deaths, reduce the negative repercussions of irregular migration, and enhance migrants’ contribution to sustainable development.

4. Developing tools to monitor progress and the impact of rights-based, inclusive and gender-responsive interventions aimed to mitigate the adverse drivers that compel people to leave their countries of origin.

5. Enabling migrants and diasporas to invest, transfer knowledge and support community-led development in their countries of origin, and harnessing the development impact of remittances by promoting financial inclusion and entrepreneurship.

6. Helping Member States in their efforts to foster immigrants and returnees’ socio-economic (re)integration, while fighting against all forms of discrimination and promoting gender equality and social cohesion.

7. Strengthening mechanisms to address the effects of climate change and environmental degradation on migration, and investing in nature-based solutions to increasingly make migrants and communities the agents of mitigation and adaptation.

LAST UPDATED: NOV /11/ 23

1. Integrating the guiding principles and objectives of the GCM in its own programming and working to strengthen the positive interaction between migration and sustainable development:

• UNDP as co-lead agency of the UN Network on Migration workstream 6 on “Supporting Member States and the UN to implement the GCM” has actively participated in the roll out of a regional Training of Trainers programme that helped to integrate Facilitation Teams to prepare and deliver country workshops that promote the integration of migration, considering the guiding principles and objective of the GCM, into Common Country Analyses and Cooperation Frameworks. To this day, 20 workshops have been implemented with the participation of UNDP Global and Regional Advisors in the following countries: Morocco, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Thailand, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Lebanon, Libya, Algeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya. Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Cambodia, Mexico, El Salvador, Brazil and Barbados. Further UNMN workshops are planned to take place in November in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
• Together with IOM as part of joint programme on “Making Migration Work for Sustainable Development”(Phase 3), UNDP has supported national and local governments integrate migration into key policy areas in 11 countries (Bangladesh, Ecuador, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Morocco, Nepal, the Philippines, Senegal, Serbia and Tunisia). It has aimed to harness the development benefits and reduce negative effects of migration for host and home communities, migrants and their family members. Building on the achievements of the previous two phases of the Joint Global Programme on Mainstreaming Migration into Development Strategies, which have been jointly implemented by IOM and UNDP since 2011, and on the Joint Migration and Development Initiative, the Programme’s third phase further solidified results and achievements and helped translate policy-oriented and process-driven actions into concrete results on the ground. As part of the programme, migration-specific policies were developed, while other policies mainstreamed migration. Combining policy and practice, 2.2k beneficiaries were supported to enhance livelihoods and income, over 900 policy makers were trained, 20 coordination mechanisms were supported, more than 600 diaspora and private sector partners were engaged.

Private sector engagement has been one component within the Programme´s concrete initiatives that aims to enhance partnerships with the private sector and to jointly identify opportunities for cooperation, thereby enabling the private sector to contribute to the roll-out of concrete initiatives at the community level. Furthermore, synergies were sought with the Programme’s diaspora engagement component. During the third phase, 187 private sector partners and 124 diaspora members were trained and 16 diaspora guidance tools were developed. The experiences with private sector engagement are summarized in this report. The programme produced a series of other knowledge products and case studies which can be found here.

• The UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa (RBA) and the Resilience Hub have identified two flagships for the Regional Programme that are relevant for the Migration for Development discussion: Free movement and Free trade in the EAC and Climate Migration and Gender. The former has been also integrated into an MOU between the East African Community and UNDP.
• UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States (RBAS) has recently crafted its regional strategy on Human Mobility for development in the Arab States through a consultative sense-making methodology. This strategy is dedicated to addressing the complexities of human mobility from a developmental perspective, while drawing upon significant global frameworks, such as The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), and the Secretary-General's recently launched Action Agenda on Internal Displacement.
• Similarly, UNDP Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean (RBLAC) designed its own Human Mobility Strategy based on the principles and objectives of the GCM.

2. Supporting Member States in mainstreaming migration into national and local development planning and ensuring policy coherence across sectors.

• Within the UNNM Workstream 6 on “Supporting Member States and the UN to implement the GCM”, UNDP is collaborating with IOM and OHCHR in promoting the application of the Six-Steps Guidance for governments and all relevant stakeholders on implementing the Global Compact for Migration. Currently, three pilot countries (Kenya, El Salvador and Ghana) have been using this guidance. RBA has supported three trainings with the local UN Networks for Migration delivered for the UN Country Teams in Kenya, Mauritania and Rwanda. For the Rwanda example, the training has helped the UN team including some strategic inputs in the consultations led by the Government of Rwanda with development partners which will be integrated in the next Rwanda Transformation Strategy. This is the roadmap that Rwanda adopts to implement Vision 2050 – the Government National Development framework.
• UNDP Kosovo is now implementing the Active Labour Market Programmes project which has contributed in provision of technical assistance for developing legal framework and policies for reintegration of repatriated persons and direct implementation of active labour market measures for sustainable employment integration of repatriated persons.
• In Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia, UNDP supported the development and implementation of local level reintegration strategies that promote innovative and sustainable solutions to reintegration of returnees. This was done in the framework of a UNDP a sub-regional project in Western Balkans “Strengthen national and local systems to support the effective socio-economic integration of returnees in the Western Balkans” (implementing partner: UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub). Efforts covered assessments of the policy and institutional gaps and support to national institutions in the development and implementation of national action plans.
• In North Macedonia, UNDP is supporting the Government and leading the work on the development of the National Development Strategy 2022-2042, with 6 thematic priorities. UNDP is now looking to integrate human mobility across each of these priorities.
• As a part of the UN Migration Regional Network initiatives, UNDP RBAS has conducted five training courses for the UN Country Teams (UNCTs) of Kuwait, Lebanon, Algeria, Libya, and Egypt. While these training courses do not directly build the capacities of Member States, their purpose is to strengthen the overall implementation and mainstreaming of migration into the UNCT's essential strategic document, the UN Cooperation Framework (UNCF), which is also endorsed by Member States.
• UNDP Honduras and UNDP Ecuador delivered trainings to national and local authorities mainstreaming migration into national and local development planning. Also, UNDP LAC Regional Hub designed the Planning Guide: Migrant Women and Livelihoods.

3. Advocating for more regular migration pathways as the best way to prevent migrant deaths, reduce the negative repercussions of irregular migration, and enhance migrants’ contribution to sustainable development

• Alessandra Casazza, UNDP Resilience Hub Manager, at the launch of the Knomad Research on Youth, Development and Migration, jointly with OECD and World Bank, March 2023.
• Alessandra Casazza,  UNDP Resilience Hub Manager, at the panel on accelerating the attainment of GCM Objective 19 – Global Forum on Remittances, Investment and Development, June 2023 (watch here, hour: from 2.28 onwards).

4. Developing tools to monitor progress and the impact of rights-based, inclusive and gender-responsive interventions aimed to mitigate the adverse drivers that compel people to leave their countries of origin.

• UNDP has allocated 45,000 USD for research on Gender, Climate and Mobility in Africa. This work will run until January 2024. The successful bidder is Samuel Hall. Here is a news article published by the UNDP Resilience Hub Manager and the Founder of Samuel Hall. The magazine sells 46,000 copies per month and has an estimated reach of 500,000 readers.

5. Enabling migrants and diasporas to invest, transfer knowledge and support community-led development in their countries of origin and harnessing the development impact of remittances by promoting financial inclusion and entrepreneurship.

• Message from Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator, endorsing the International Day of Family Remittances in the margins of the Global Forums on Remittances, Investment and Development (GFRID).
• Organization and participation of UNDP in a GCM Talk on Remittances, Diaspora and the SDGs as co-lead of the UNNM Workstream 14 on “Maximizing the economic contribution of remittances and diaspora to sustainable development”.
• Intervention of Alessandra Casazza, UNDP Manager Resilience Hub of Africa, in the panel “Global Compact objective 19: Create conditions for migrants and diasporas to fully contribute to sustainable development in all countries” during the Global Forums on Remittances, Investment and Development (GFRID), sharing UNDP experiences and projects related to this topic.
• Study published by UNDP Lebanon on the increasing role and importance of remittances in Lebanon.
• Article published by UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub on the six major trends for remittances.
• Panel discussion in Mexico organized by UNDP, the British Embassy and Tec de Monterrey on the impact of remittances in Mexico focusing on the use of technology. 
• Project “Strengthen social cohesion through inclusive participation and empowered citizens” which aim to enhance the participation of diaspora in the sustainable development of their communities of origin.
• Research study on Kosovo Diaspora and its Role Amidst Multiple Crisis.
• Report on the participation of Ahunna Eziakonwa, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa (RBA), in the UNDP Hekima series as part of the African Influencers for Development Initiative (#AI4DEV), where the conversation was about strengthening ties between Africa and the diaspora for socio-economic prosperity.
• Launch of the “project diaspora” implemented by UNDP, the African Development Bank and the government of Central African Republic which aims to support the socio-economic inclusion through the diaspora economic engagement and knowledge transfer.
• Launch of a Joint IOM-UNDP Initiative for Promoting Regional Integration Trough Diaspora Capital to be implemented in Lesotho, Malawi and Mauritius.
• UNDP is member of the Technical Advisory Board for the Development of a Diaspora Training Toolkit within the IOM-UNDP Global Programme on Making Migration Work for Sustainable Development. In this sense, UNDP has promoted the “Joint the Dots” Campaign/Survey aiming to reach diaspora organizations around the world to identify their needs in terms of training.
• Project “Kyrgyzstan Integrated National Financing Framework”.
• Project “Leveraging the positive impact of migration on Moldova’s  development through improved policy evidence and better  engaged diaspora”.
• As part of the M4SD programme, UNDP Serbia published the private sector mapping which also contains several findings on diaspora engagement.
• UNDP Moldova interventions are exemplified by the Swiss-UNDP projects "Strengthening social cohesion through inclusive participation and empowered citizens" and "Resilient and inclusive markets in Moldova", which build on past meaningful initiatives in the area of migration and development to empower diaspora in the process of further advancing the successful local economic development, while also increasing the competitiveness of the local economy, retention of human capital and facilitating local socio-economic resilience and recovery.
• UNDP Kyrgyzstan finalized (not yet published) an assessment of migrants engagement in local development. The goal was to map the current practices of engagement with Kyrgyzstani migrants in local development, the types of projects they implement, the resources and fundraising modalities they rely on, their motivations, the role of local authorities,  as well best practices, lessons learned, and challenges faced in this process; as well as map existing crowdfunding platforms, as well as analyse accompanying normative frameworks to establish enabling environment for leveraging remittances for local development.
• UNDP Kyrgyzstan is also now undertaking an assessment of the potential of personal remittances of the Kyrgyz diaspora to contribute to the creation of more resilient local communities and developing recommendations for the use of this potential.

6. Helping Member States in their efforts to foster immigrants and returnees’ socio-economic (re)integration, while fighting against all forms of discrimination and promoting gender equality and social cohesion.

• The implementation of a pilot phase of “Estrategia Intégrate” in Nuevo Leon, Mexico improved the local capacities of local authorities, migrant shelters, and the private sector to foster the socio-economic (re)integration of immigrants and returnees.
• Article on increasing role for business in shaping the human mobility agenda.
• UNDP is leading the UNMN workstream on socio-economic integration together with ILO.
• Project Colombia: “Apoyo al Gobierno Colombiano para la inclusión socioeconómica de migrantes y refugiados”/ “Integración socioeconómica de migrantes y refugiados de Venezuela” and “Reactive Colombia”
• Project Ecuador: “INTEGRA”, “Integración socio económica de población en movilidad humana, con enfoque en jóvenes y mujeres”, “Fortalecimiento de capacidades de Gobiernos Locales para la inclusión socio económica de población migrante en Ecuador”.
• Project Peru: “ENISE. Estrategia Nacional de Integración Socioeconòmica de población migrante, refugiada y de acogida”.
• In Moldova, UNDP collaborates with the State Chancellery, the Diaspora Relations Bureau, and the National Employment Agency to consolidate reintegration policies, promote return opportunities, and enhance public services for returnees and their families. These interventions are exemplified by the Swiss-UNDP projects "Strengthening social cohesion through inclusive participation and empowered citizens" and "Resilient and inclusive markets in Moldova", which build on past meaningful initiatives in the area of migration and development to empower diaspora and returning migrants in the process of further advancing the successful local economic development, while also increasing the competitiveness of the local economy, retention of human capital and facilitating local socio-economic resilience and recovery.
• From 2023 to 2027 the Government of Moldova will receive further strategic assistance to carry out the newly adopted National Program for the facilitation of return and (re)integration of Moldovan migrants, which was developed with the support of the UNDP.
• Through collaboration with governments, civil society, and international partners, UNDP implements a range of initiatives region-wide, exemplified by successful projects and impactful outcomes. In Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia UNDP implements a joint project to “Strengthen national and local systems to support the effective socio-economic integration of returnees in the Western Balkans”. Funded by the European Commission and in partnership with the World Bank, the projects aims to enhance the ability of Western Balkan authorities at central and local level to implement comprehensive models for reintegration of returnees, with focus on vulnerable Roma returnees. It addresses the broader social inclusion agenda promoting the socio-economic well-being and tackling the root causes and negative drivers of migration of Roma and vulnerable populations.
• In Kyrgyzstan UNDP works on community resilience through implementing the project of “Socio-economic recovery from negative consequences of COVID-19 in Osh, Jalal-Abad and Batken provinces of the Kyrgyz Republic”. Funded by the Russian Trust Fund for Development (TFD), the project aims at fostering social cohesion in Ferghana Valley through sustainable economic recovery for upskilled jobs, decent employment, and healthcare system improvement. Vulnerable population groups are the main direct beneficiaries, among whom are newly unemployed women, returning migrants, and youth. In cooperation with national government and local authorities UNDP engages in technical assistance, capacity development, data collection and analysis as well as direct support and service delivery.
• In Uzbekistan UNDP jointly with the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR) implements the project“Adapting population skills to the post-pandemic economy in Ferghana Valley”. The proposed project targets youth of Fergana Valley and returning migrants by building entrepreneurship and future skills among students and returned migrants. The development objective of the project is reskilling and upskilling the workforce to deliver new business models in the post-pandemic era.

7. Strengthening mechanisms to address the effects of climate change and environmental degradation on migration and investing in nature-based solutions to increasingly make migrants and communities the agents of mitigation and adaptation.

• UNDP undertook a regional ECIS mapping on the nexus of migration, displacement, conflict and environment and climate change in the ECIS region, to be finalized by end 2023.
• In 2022-2023, UNDP Kazakhstan finalized the joint UNDP-IOM report Internal Climate Migration Projections for the Republic of Kazakhstan (not yet published) initiated in 2021, as part of joint UNDP-IOM seed funding initiative. This report provides detailed climate migration projections results for the Republic of Kazakhstan, presenting information on plausible scenarios of climate-induced migration. The aims are to understand the influence of current drivers, factors, and trends; and to reflect on future drivers of climate-induced migration.
• UNDP publication “New Threats to Human Security in the Anthropocene. Demanding Greater Solidarity. Special Report 2022.”
• Relevant projects: Community Resilience Initiative, Djibouti; Sustainable and Resilient Communities through Women Empowerment, Moldova; Integrated Development Approaches to Migration and Displacement among the Urban Poor in Asia-Pacific (Vietnam, Pakistan, Philippines, BRH).