UN Migration Network prepares Eswatini for first global review

The United Nations in Eswatini, through the technical leadership of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), has established a UN Migration Network.

The Network seeks to ensure effective, timely, coordinated support to the Government of Eswatini in their implementation, follow-up, and review of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM), for the rights and wellbeing of all migrants and their communities of destination, origin, and transit.

The Network has been established in line with the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration which UN Member States endorsed in 2018. The Global Compact  sets out a range of principles, commitments, and understandings among UN Member States for better managing migration at local, national, regional and global levels.

On the 15th to 16th of March 2022, the UN Migration Network hosted a retreat at the Piggs Peak Hotel to develop an action plan, identify the areas of joint programming and support the Government  of Eswatini in preparing for the 1st International Migration Review Forum to be held in New York in May 2022.

The retreat was officially opened by the Head of IOM in Eswatini, Mr. Jeremias Mendes who underscored the importance of the UN working together on issues of migration. “Migration is a cross-cutting issue and affects all the work we do as UN agencies operating in Eswatini,” he said.

The retreat was attended migration focal persons from UNDP, IOM, ILO, UNFPA, FAO, WFP, UNESCO, UNRCO, World Bank, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development.

Mr. Wonesai Sithole, the IOM Regional and Policy Liaison Officer, facilitated the meeting.

The UN Migration Network has been set up to support strengthened policy and operational coherent action by the UN Country Team (UNCT), including coordination and linkage with regional and global initiatives in support of GCM implementation as well as preparation, implementation, and monitoring of a GCM Action Plan for the country. They will also prepare  an annual work plan in line with the priorities of the Government of Eswatini to support implementation of GCM and other migration related developmental agendas.

The Network will also act as a source of ideas, tools, reliable data and information, analysis, and policy guidance on migration issues, including through the capacity-building mechanism established in the GCM.

The Network will ensure close collaboration with other existing UNCT coordination mechanisms, including ones on the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), Human Rights, Gender Equality and so on addressing migration-related issues, actively seeking out synergies and avoiding duplication; and ensure effective, open and ongoing engagement with external partners, migrants, civil society, migrant and diaspora organizations, local authorities and communities, the private sector, employers’ and workers’ organizations, parliamentarians, National Human Rights Commission, human rights-based organizations, trade union/employers’ association, academia, the media and other relevant stakeholders at national and local levels to feed into national, regional and global processes for GCM.