The 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD)

The second Global Forum on Migration and Development was held in Manila from October 27th to the 30th. The Forum’s main objective was to facilitate a global debate on the necessity of promoting policies and programs that uphold the protection of the human rights of migrants and on the importance of combining migratory movements and development.
The Global forum was organized in two subsequent sessions of two days each.  The GFMD Civil Society Days were held on October 27and 28. During the closing session, the Civil Society’s delegates offered the conclusions of their meetings to the governments’ representatives who held their conference on the following days, October 29 and 30. Bringing together in the same event the Civil Society’s delegates, with the addition of experts and of migrants’ associations, and the governments representatives’, the Forum provided a very valuable opportunity. The Forum’s structure allowed for the conclusions of the Civil Society’s meeting to have a voice and an input in the governments representatives’ meeting. 
In the two day conference of the Civil Society representatives, the more than 270 delegates from about sixty countries, met in three roundtables of six sessions each.  The roundtable themes were: a) Migration, Development and Human Rights; b) Secure and legal migration can achieve stronger development impacts; c) Policy and institutional coherence and partnerships. The main resolutions and conclusions presented to the governments’ representatives can be found in the Forum webpage: www.gfmd2008.org.
About 600 delegates were involved in the governments’ meetings convened to talk about the Civil Society’s conclusions and recommendations. Governments were petitioned to reaffirm their commitment to establish legal and social environments where migration trends occur under the protection of the migrants’ human rights.
SIMN was involved in the preparation and the realization of the Global forum. Fr. Fabio Baggio, the Director of the Scalabrini Migration Center (SMC) of Manila and Fr. Edwin Corros, Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Commission on Migrant and Itinerant Peoples of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, were members of the organizing committee. Fr. Mario Santillo, Director of the Center for Migration Studies in Latin-American (CEMLA) of Buenos Aires and Fr. Maurizio Pettená, National Pastoral Planning Assistant of the Commission of Australian Catholic Migrants and Refugees Office (ACMRO) and Fr. Leonir Chiarello, Director of the Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN)  Office of Representation with the United Nations and International Organizations were appointed by the organizing committee as moderators and chair for the sessions on Latin-America situation, the systematization of data and the research in the field of migration and development.

For further information see the GFMD official page: www.gfmd2008.org