Exchanging Knowledge on Migration and Development: M4SD Third Global Programme Board Report 2023

In June 2023, the IOM-UNDP Joint Global Programme on Making Migration Work for Sustainable Development, M4SD, held its third and final gathering of all national and local experts at a Global Programme Board (GPB) meeting in Geneva. The two-day exchange brought together IOM, UNDP and SDC experts with over 70 national and local government representatives from more than 11 countries after a decade of implementing migration-related policy and programming in pursuit of sustainable development and prosperity. 

Since 2019, the M4SD Programme has supported new opportunities for over 14,000 migrants and community members, mainstreamed migration into 20+ policies for policy coherence and contributed to over 30 SDG indicators and targets. Read more about our results. This third phase is the culmination of more than 12 years of work from more than 15 countries to pilot an innovative methodology to mainstream migration into national and local development and sectoral policies and to put these policies into practice for stronger, more inclusive communities.

Given the midway review of the 2030 Agenda (High-Level Political Forum in July and SDG Summit in September), the event took place at a critical time to collectively reflect on the successes and lessons learned in order to feed the knowledge into ongoing and new solutions to achieve our Global Goals. Governments will continue to lead this work after M4SD ends, and this exchange offered an opportunity to equip practitioners to apply the migration mainstreaming and sustainable development approach to solve the interconnected challenges of today and tomorrow (e.g. climate change, displacement). Training and brainstorming around opportunities and challenges such as assessing the drivers of migration and putting policy into practice also strengthened the network of champions and experts on migration and sustainable development.

Read the report to access more than 120 solutions that our partners uncovered to accelerate migrants' inclusion and empowerment in different areas of development such as entrepreneurship, environment and climate change and health. Find good practices, government priorities and future areas of action to scale up and ensure our solutions are sustainable and effective. These lessons can be replicated in other countries across the Humanitarian-Peace-Development Nexus to leave no migant and no person behind as we work towards a better world for all.