Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Cairo Hosts 2nd International Forum on Migration Statistics


Sun 19 Jan 2020 | 05:22 PM
Nawal Sayed

The second International Forum on Migration Statistics (IFMS) kicked off on Sunday in Cairo in coordination with the International Organization for Migration, IOM, the UN Migration Agency, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA).

The three-day event features six plenary sessions and more than fifty parallel sessions.

The Forum embraced more than 700 delegates from perse backgrounds. It offers a unique space for dialogue, information-sharing and networking for a broad range of actors.

The Forum is hosted by the Egyptian Government, which currently chairs the African Union (AU), under the auspices of the African Union.

Delegates from more than 90 countries representing national and regional authorities, NGOs, international agencies and the private sector, gathered in Cairo with the aim of building and strengthening migration data capacities around the world.

“We as experts, practitioners and decision-makers have a collective responsibility to ensure that reliable facts and robust evidence are not only produced but also used appropriately and intelligently to steer policy and programmes and to combat an often pervasive misinformation about migration,” said IOM DG Antonio Vitorino.

“I have put migration data at the centre of my vision for IOM, and have committed to strengthening the Organization’s engagement in this area over the next years” he added.

On his part, Sameh Shoukry, Egyptian Foreign Minister, said that "Owning and relying on data in policy making is a key guarantee of proper international cooperation in the management and governance of human transport, and to enhance the contribution of migrants to development on a basis that respects their rights, respects legal frameworks and meets the needs of the international labour market.

Shoukry added that the forum supporting the efforts of the international community to address the causes of migration such as conflict, economic and social crises and environmental decline.”

General Khairat Barakat, Head of the Central Authority for Public Mobilization and Statistics, noted: "This conference comes at an important and significant time, and the migration data constitutes a key segment of human resources, manpower information and cross-border groups."

"It also established controls for coordination between migration data producers to enable them to make the most of the data."

The event is organized around six major thematic areas including measuring progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other global commitments as well as data innovation. Some of the sessions explore the potential of using “big data” to compliment the analysis of human mobility and migration flows as well as ways to address internal displacement through innovative monitoring tools.

The inaugural IFMS took place in January 2018 at the OECD Headquarters in Paris. IFMS aims to become a regular event which can foster discussions on global processes and enhance exchange between producers and users of migration data. The event is supported by partner organizations including ILO, UNHCR, UNODC, European Commission, UNFPA, and UNECEF.