Speech for Ms. Seraphine Wakana, UN Resident Coordinator UN Network on Migration and UN Technical Focal Points Training on the Integration of Migration in the Country Framework and Common Country Analysis

It is my pleasure to welcome you to this very important training for UN Network on Migration and UN technical focal points on the integration of migration in the Country Framework and Common Country Analysis.

Let us start by recognizing that migration is the thematic area of our time that cuts across all our work, similar to gender and climate change. Migration is relevant to all of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and many of their targets. Migration relates to many of your work in gender equality, in health, in food security, in skills development and youth employment, in trade, in cross-border cooperation, among many others. We would not be able to achieve the 2030 Agenda and ‘leave no one behind’ unless we fully consider migrants and human mobility across our work.

We are therefore fortunate that the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) was adopted in 2018, as further elaboration of international cooperation on migration rooted in the Agenda 2030. The GCM provides us with the necessary blueprint and practical guidelines to support the Government of The Gambia in implementing the migration-related aspects of the 2030 Agenda. The GCM’s 23 objectives offer a truly comprehensive approach to promoting the human rights of migrants and maximizing the contribution of migrants to and role of migration in development.

At this stage, and with these guiding frameworks, the UN system is faced with an opportunity to work collectively to mainstream migration into national development frameworks. This is why the UN Network on Migration was established by the UN Secretary-General in 2018, tasked to ensure a coordinated UN system-wide support to member states in implementing the GCM. If you recall, in June 2019, the United Nations Country Team unanimously approved the transformation of The Gambia’s UN Migration Working Group into the UN Network on Migration. Since then, the Network has been convening on a bimonthly basis to discuss migration-related work of mutual interest. In fact, this training was one of the action points in the Network’s 18-month workplan, which was endorsed by the UNCT in August of 2021.

This is the background on why we have convened here today for this training, but I would like to further emphasize three reasons why we should take this training seriously.

We are all aware that the Government of The Gambia is in the process of updating its National Development Plan. This training will provide us with the opportunity to leverage on the tools and resources to support the Government in effectively mainstreaming migration into development planning. In The Gambia, migration is often viewed from a negative light; for example, looking at the topic only from the perspective of countering irregular migration, migrant smuggling and trafficking. I implore you all to take away from this training how we can transform this narrative and view migration from a positive light – with safe, orderly and well-managed migration contributing to The Gambia’s development priorities.

This, in turn, leads to my second point focusing on our ongoing Common Country Analysis (CCA) process. Many of you have contributed and shared your thoughts on the Migration and Cross-Border Cooperation briefing paper, one of eight we produced last year. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of having issues of migration and cross-border cooperation incorporated into the CCA, as the next focus of our Cooperation Framework should clearly demonstrate how we, as the UN system, intend to support the Government of The Gambia in addressing not only the challenges, but also harnessing the opportunities that migration and cross-border cooperation efforts present. Again, this training was designed specifically to meet this priority, so I encourage everyone to interact with each other and share your insights as much as possible.

That brings me, finally, to my third point: the upcoming International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) in 2022. To recap, The Gambia presented its voluntary report on its GCM implementation progress this year at both the African continental and ECOWAS sub-regional review conferences. The next step is for The Gambia to participate in the IMRF in May 2022, which is designed to serve as the primary global intergovernmental platform to discuss and share progress in implementing the GCM, which is grounded in the 2030 Agenda. Let us place the UN in a strong position to support the Government as it prepares to participate in this milestone forum and present many of the achievements we have witnessed and supported over the past years.

Taking this all together, today’s training intends to build our capacities to understand the relationship between migration and the SDGs, how to strengthen migrant rights, how to support migration governance and policy coherence, how to mainstream migration into the CCA and CF, and how to leverage on partnerships and financing to achieve our objectives.

Let us think of both how we can complement each agency’s strengths and what each agency – with our diverse set of mandates and expertise – can bring to the table in reinforcing a truly ‘One UN’ approach to our migration portfolio in The Gambia.

Thank you all for taking the time to attend today’s training, and I wish you a fruitful and insightful learning experience.