August 2013: The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has released a report on ‘Migration and the United Nations Post-2015 Development Agenda,’ addressing the role of migration in generating inclusive growth and creating employment, managing vulnerability to shocks, and mobilizing financing for development.

The report is a collection of papers on various aspects of labor migration, health and development. The authors write that, while migration was not factored into the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) framework, it should be integrated in the post-2015 development agenda, based on the great increase in the scale and impact of migration worldwide. They present the contribution of migration to capacity-building and poverty reduction, the need to consider migration as a factor in managing disaster risk, and the rise of new trends in North-North and North-South migration, in addition to the more usual South-North flows.

The authors frame migration as a ‘development enabler,’ stressing that migrants themselves are both instruments and subjects of development. They call for policies that will: protect the human rights of migrants, including labor rights; ensure that migration is safe, humane and orderly; maximize the benefits of migration; and establish partnerships to manage the global implications of migration such as labor mobility, fair recruitment practices, and the development of international norms.

The authors outline potential global partnerships around migration in relation to priorities such as health, resilience and disaster risk reduction, and private financing for development. Possible migration-related targets and indicators within such global partnerships are presented in an annex. [Publication: Migration and the United Nations Post-2015 Development Agenda] [IOM Website]