FAO welcomes GA adoption of Global Compact on Migration
The UN General Assembly adopted the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) today in an historic agreement aiming to forge a stronger and fairer response to migration.
The General Assembly endorsement follows the intergovernmental conference held in Marrakesh from 10-11 December.
The GCM is the first intergovernmental agreement on international migration negotiated under the auspices of the UN. It represents a non-legally binding framework intended to serve as guidelines for enhanced management of migratory flows at the local, national, regional and global levels.
“How we manage migration will determine the success of our efforts to achieve Zero Hunger. To this end, we must try our hardest to make migration a voluntary decision. It is also essential to improve the livelihoods of poor rural people threatened by disasters and conflicts to tackle the root causes of hunger and forced migration. The Global Compact adopted today can be a powerful instrument to galvanize political will in this regard,” said Carla Mucavi, Director of the FAO Liaison Office in New York.
The number of international migrants worldwide has reached 258 million in 2017, up from 220 million in 2010. Moreover, FAO’s flagship report, “The State of Food and Agriculture 2018,” informs that rural migration will continue to be an essential element of economic and social development for both destination and origin countries. Improving infrastructure and services in small cities, towns and surrounding rural areas - known as the territorial development approach - can create better links between rural communities and provide more opportunities for people to stay.
The Compact sets out common understanding, shared responsibilities and unity of purpose among Member States to address issues regarding all people on the move, including considerations of human rights, humanitarian, economic, social, development, climate change and security.
The GCM also welcomed the establishment of the United Nations Network on Migration, which comprises 38 entities from within the United Nations system including FAO.
“Migration is a phenomenon with many dimensions,” said António Vitorino, speaking as the Network Coordinator on behalf of its Executive Committee and wider membership. “It touches on profound and urgent questions of sustainable development, climate change, humanitarian crisis, border control, security, fighting trafficking in human beings as well as smuggling, fostering means of legal migration, including for work, and greater protection of our universal human rights. No single part of the UN community can effectively address all dimensions of migration but together we have the chance to make a real difference. That is what the Network is about.”
Working with its partners and using resilient agricultural livelihoods as a key instrument, FAO plays an important role in a number of different areas, which include addressing the adverse drivers that compel people to move and boosting alternatives in rural areas; facilitating rural mobility and ensuring that people can move regularly and safely between rural and urban areas as well as across international borders; reinforcing the positive contribution of migrants for agricultural and rural communities; and promoting resilient, agricultural livelihoods for migrants and host communities.
FAO supported the GCM process with the International Organization for Migration by serving as the 2018 co-chair of the Global Migration Group. FAO also advocated with the UN Rome-Based Agencies—IFAD and WFP—and other partners on the importance of addressing the adverse drivers as well as the agricultural and rural dimensions of migration, as over 70 per cent of the extreme poor live in rural areas and base their livelihoods on agriculture and other rural activities.
Relevant links