Migration Data and Reporting on Progress Towards the 2030 Agenda: Synthesis Report
Related Sustainable Development Goals and Global Compact for Migration Objectives
This report provides experts' suggestions on improving migration data collection and the analysis tools available at the national and local levels to improve national and local government’s abilities to capture relevant migration data and report on migration-related indicators and aspects of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The IOM-UNDP Global Programme on Making Migration Work for Sustainable Development empowers and builds the capacities of 11 countries to ensure that well-managed migration contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 2030 Agenda explicitly recognises the development potential of migration. Understanding different political, developmental and migratory contexts enables us to ensure policies are inclusive of migrants’ needs, thus supporting the achievement of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Good migration data capacities and structures are a core aspect of ensuring strong, evidence-based policies and reporting comprehensively on the 2030 Agenda.
To empower countries as they conduct Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) for the 2030 Agenda and strengthen their data systems more broadly, a knowledge exchange event was held to share good practices and lessons learned. This report takes stock of the available tools and methodologies that exist for migration data collection and usage, and collects several countries' experiences, highlighting the challenges of collecting data as well as solutions and best practices in data collection and utilization.
Migration data disaggregation, labour migration focus, harmonizing data collection and national-local data coordination were identified as core elements of data collection. Some key elements include:
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Data disaggregation by migratory status supports efforts to reduce inequality through evidence-based policies and better resource allocation for governments.
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Disaggregated data can be used to improve national programmes such as establishing migration and mobility profiles and trend analyses in a given country or territory and sustainable reintegration assistance. For example, public employment registries gathering employment possibilities can promote regular migration pathways, while immigration forms capturing returnees' employment experiences and skills might facilitate labour market integration. However, governments and employment agencies often face challenges in collecting reintegration data.
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To meet evidence-based policy demands, governments must address data sustainability concerns by, for example, establishing technical working groups inside government entities to facilitate data collection and guarantee that data remains up to date, harmonizing data from several sources, matching national indicators with SDG indicators, and encouraging public data on migration to feed into other SDG-related processes and analyses of policy impact across sectors.
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National-local data coordination is essential. A “bottom-up” data gathering system ensures that national data policies reflect local contexts and needs. To make this work, inter-governmental agencies must support regional and local capacity building for data disaggregation and dissemination.
You can read more about each country's experience, get more resources on migration data and SDG reporting, and more in the full Migration Data and Reporting on Progress Towards the 2030 Agenda: Synthesis Report.