World Refugee Day: Every Action Counts

June 20 marks Word Refugee Day. The theme of 2020 is “Every Action Counts”.

Every minute 20 people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror. 

The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol help protect the fundamental rights of refugees. 

According to the UNHCR’s annual Global Trends report, as of the end of 2019 79.5 million people were displaced.

FAO’s work focuses on rural migration, from, to and between rural areas. Together with its partners, FAO is expanding on its work to strengthen the positive contribution that migrants, are making toward poverty reduction, improved food security and nutrition and resilience of rural households.

Coherent policies between migration, agriculture and rural development are essential to ensure safe, orderly, and regular migration.

Facilitating the investment of remittances, mobilizing migrants and diaspora, and facilitating the transfer of knowledge and skills are key elements to harness the opportunities associated with migration

FAO aims to protect the right to food of all people on the move, while fostering their integration into their new communities and strengthening the social and economic resilience of host communities.

Working with its partners and using resilient agricultural livelihoods as a key instrument, FAO plays an important role in addressing the adverse drivers that compel people to move and boosting alternatives in rural areas. 

FAO is facilitating rural mobility and ensuring that people can move regularly and safely between rural and urban areas as well as across international borders. FAO is reinforcing the positive contribution of migrants and displaced people for agricultural and rural communities, and promotes resilient, agricultural livelihoods for migrants.