UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged participants at the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) to manage migration as a force for development.
He called for participants to engage in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the post-2015 agenda, noting that many of the factors that drive migration, such as climate change and natural disasters, also influence migration.
21 November 2012: In a statement delivered by Peter Sutherland, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Migration and Development, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged participants at the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), which met in Reduit, Mauritius, from 19-20 November, “to manage migration as a force for development.”
In his statement, Ban stressed that migrants can be “a force for prosperity and progress.” He highlighted the linkages between migration and development and recognized the similarities between factors driving migration and challenges at the top of the global development agenda, including climate change and natural disasters. He urged participants to engage in the post-2015 development agenda to address such challenges. Ban also called attention to the UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) forthcoming second High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development and called for participants to commit to action on practical measures related to migration and development.
The GFMD is a government-led initiative focusing on the linkages between development and migration. This two-day summit represents the GFMD’s sixth annual meeting. [UN Press Release] [Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Statement]