South-South and Triangular Cooperation - IOM Factsheet 2025

Migration today is, in great part, a South-South phenomenon. Between 2000 and 2017, the proportion of international migrants born in the South grew from 67% to 72%. Already, countries in the South bear the brunt of the global displacement crisis: over 90% and 75% internally displaced respectively as a result of conflict and violence and because of disasters are hosted in countries in the South.  

As countries in the South navigate major global transformations – from demographic transitions and urbanization to digitalization – and contend with the disproportionate impacts of the climate crisis; the human mobility landscape becomes more complex and challenging for countries and people on the move alike. Many of those opportunities and challenges are best responded to through solutions locally devised and driven in the South.  

The IOM Strategic Plan 2024 – 2028 commits “for long-term impact, IOM [to] double down on our role as a facilitator of South–South and triangular cooperation, promoting South–South regional integration and interregional collaboration through the State-led inter-State consultation mechanisms on migration”. IOM remains fully committed to taking forward the UN System Wide Strategy on South-South Cooperation and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development, and to the promotion of good migration governance through SSC. 

IOM has just published its 2025 Factsheet on South-South and Triangular Cooperation. This factsheet summarizes IOM’s engagements in recent years to advance the principles of South-South and Triangular Cooperation at country, regional and global levels, and to harness the powerful force of well-managed migration to boost sustainable development outcome for all.