International Dialogue on Migration GFMD-GMG Side-event “Migration and rural development: Fostering transnational partnership”

Mr. El Habib Nadir, thank you for giving me the floor.

Your Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is an honour to be here. I want to thank Director General William Swing for his opening remarks on behalf of the Global Migration Group, that FAO co-chairs this year with IOM.

Today, I am pleased to speak on behalf of FAO, the UN specialised agency on food and agriculture.

Needless to say, 2018 is a critical year for migration as UN Member States negotiate the Global Compact on Migration that will adopted at an intergovernmental conference in Morocco in December.

FAO is engaged in this process because of its co-chairmanship of the GMG and because of the links between migration and FAO’s global goals of ending hunger and malnutrition, reducing rural poverty and promoting the sustainable agriculture and use of natural resources.

Migration has a strong agricultural and rural dimension. A large share of migrants come from a rural environment. It is documented that around 40% of international remittances are sent to rural areas. And it is in these rural areas that three out of four of the world’s poor and hungry live.

In this context, rural poverty, food insecurity, lack of decent employment, and the negative impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are some of the adverse drivers and structural factors that compel people to leave areas of origin.

We believe, therefore, that agricultural and rural development should be part of the conversation on migration. This has not really happened yet, but the negotiations on the global compact for migration are a unique opportunity to address this gap.

One pathway is to tackle adverse drivers by promoting increased investments in food security, climate change adaptation, agricultural and rural development, and employment creation and entrepreneurship development, particularly for rural youth.

Another one is advocating for regular migration channels, including seasonal migration schemes in agriculture and informing rural migrant workers of opportunities and their rights.

By investing in rural development, the international community can also harness the positive impact of migration and mitigate migration-related risks.

Improving disaggregated data and evidence on the dynamics, determinants and impact of rural migration and fostering policy coherence and coordination across different policy sectors will also be key, as it will allow us to better understand how we can make rural migration work for all.
Allow me also to share some concrete examples of FAO’s migration-related work.

In 2017, World Food Day was dedicated to the theme “Change the future of migration: Invest in food security and rural development”, contributing to raise awareness on the need to address adverse drivers of migration.

Also last year, FAO released the first atlas on rural migration in sub-Saharan Africa, in partnership with the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) and the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation. The atlas sheds light on regional migration dynamics and perspectives and we are working on other Atlases this year.

This year, the State of Food and Agriculture in the World, one of FAO’s flagships, will be focus on “Migration, Agriculture and Rural Development”

In addition, FAO’s Regional Conferences taking place this first semester are providing regional platforms to discuss the links between migration, food security, agriculture and rural development.

At the country level, FAO is implementing projects in Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal and Tunisia addressing rural youth migration, promoting entrepreneurship and value chain development and fostering the investments of remittances in productive activities in rural areas.

In Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, FAO is partnering with the national government, IOM, WFP and local communities as part of the response to the Rohingya crisis.

FAO also supports Member States in their efforts to enhance policy coherence between migration and agricultural and rural development policies and programmes.

Multi-stakeholder partnerships are essential in this context. In addition to the co-chairmanship of the GMG in 2018 and our partnership with the GFMD, FAO is strengthening the bilateral collaboration with UN entities such as IOM, IFAD, WFP and UNHCR, as well as academia, the private sector, civil society organizations, farmers and youth organizations, migrants and diasporas.

We look forward to strengthening this cooperation.

Thank you for your attention.