REPORT: INAFI Joins GFMD 2010 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

The opening of the GFMD

More than 400 delegates and observers from 80 countries, representing migrants and a wide range of other civil society actors, international organizations and 33 governments, met during the Civil Society Days of the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Puerto Vallarta to discuss the theme of this year’s meeting--"Partnerships for Migration and Human Development: Shared Prosperity, Shared Responsibility." The event was honored by the presence of H.E. Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, President of Mexico and the active participation of the First Lady, Sra. Margarita Zavala.

In September 2006 the General Meeting of the United Nations organized the High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development. More than 140 State Members analyzed the global consequences of the international migration and its relationship with the development and proposed an informal dialog over six years.

GFMD is a process wherein the governments participate voluntarily, informally and not bindingly. Policymakers from all over the world participate to share experiences, identify the best practices and encourage cooperation among nations to use migration for the benefit of development. The first GFMD was carried out in July 2007, in Brussels, the second one in Manila (October 2008) and the third one in Athens (November 2009).

BBVA Bancomer Foundation hosted the 4th edition of the Civil Society Days (CSD) within the framework of the Global Forum on Migration and Development 2010 (GFMD). These two events took place successively: the first one with representatives of the Civil Society and the second one with representatives of the State Members of the United Nations. The GFMD 2010 was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Migration Institute of Mexico.

The statement issued by Civil Society Days to the government emphasized that "the right to development is a basic human right; it is far more than economic growth. It is a holistic principle that guarantees the social, economic and cultural rights of all, including migrants; it must include opportunities for human growth, access to decent work at home and abroad, health care, education, security of life and person, and full participation in political and social processes. In short, there can be no real development without human rights."

The Dutch delegation together with the official representatives
 of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Leila Rispens-Noel, Senior Advisor at International Network of Alternative Financial Institutions (INAFI) was accredited to attend the Civil Society Days Global Forum on Migration and Development 2010 which was held last November 8-9 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. She was asked by the GFMD organizer to moderate Session 2.1 titled Recognition, Empowerment and Capacity Building of Migrant Organizations. The panel consisted of Carlos Zarco, executive director at Oxfam Mexico, Agustín Escobar Latapí of Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS), and Richard Mandelbaum of CATA-Farmworkers acted as rapporteur. The participants clarified that the  term capacity building should be interpreted in a holistic sense, meaning: providing migrants and their organizations with the skills and tools needed to facilitate empowerment and active involvement in processes and decisions that affect their lives (such as development projects, policy setting and governance, etc.)

Key recommendations, to whom and partners to involve:

1. Migrants need to be empowered to defend their human and labor rights in order to combat exploitation and abuses.  Migrants’ rights including the right to form and join existing trade unions must be recognized.  States should ratify and implement the International Migrant Workers Convention.  States must implement international treaties that they have ratified by incorporating them into national legislation and practices.  The global trend of criminalization of migration including the militarization of borders and the detention and deportation of undocumented migrants, should be reversed.

2. Resources need to be increased by governments, foundations, and other donors for capacity building of migrants organizations including the areas of finance, organizational skills, and education, including recognition of and granting access to resources to small diaspora organizations and binational organizations and their work in both countries of origin and destination.  This effort should be sustained over time.  Positive contributions by migrants to development in their home countries should be recognized.

Recommended practices related to the recommendations:

1.  Remittances should be leveraged for development, while at the same time recognizing the potential pitfalls, i.e. not to rely on remittances alone.  Migrants and their families in countries of origin should be empowered to be able to handle their finances effectively to maximize community development.

2. Accountability: While resources need to be focused on migrants organizations that have a track record of success and concrete results, capacity building should take place continually to empower new organizations.  Migrants’ organizations and programs that promote social, political, and economic integration should be supported in particular.

3. States should engage in binding and formal processes to adhere to Human Rights standards in migration policy and implementation.  Civil Society needs to hold States accountable.  States’ policies should promote acceptance and tolerance of migrants and their beneficial impact in countries of destination. 

4. States should institutionalize a permanent role for Civil Society and migrants’ organizations in policy setting from the national to international levels.

5. Future of the Forum: The GFMD should be returned to the United Nations system.

Before attending the GFMD in Puerto Vallarta, she also attended the People’s Global Action as part of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD in Mexico City last November 2-5.  INAFI together with Diaspora Forum for Development organized a well-attended workshop on European Network of Diaspora Associations – Building partnerships: The European experience. Leila gave a presentation on how INAFI established partnership with Diaspora Forum for Development and the EC-funded project on Harnessing the Potentials of Migrants by Linking Microfinance Institutions and Immigrant Associations. The aim of the project is to leverage remittances for development by linking MFIs and migrants’ remittances. The workshop was well attended which was held at Fiesta Inn.

The objectives of the workshop were:

1. To discuss how to reinforce the EU-wide Network among Diaspora organizations and institutions so as to establish viable contacts, learn from each others’ on development-related activities related to effective protection of economic, social and cultural rights of migrants and their families.

2. To discuss how best Diaspora organizations can initiate feasible cooperation and act jointly on integrating an international human rights framework and principles for the protection of migrants, as well as, to increase the participation of civil society organizations like Oxfam Novib and INAFI.

3. To learn more about different experiences, lessons and challenges of technological innovation such as social media as factors for enhancing the right to access to information as basic tool for development.

4. To discuss how best we can develop effective networks among Diaspora organizations which will enable them to enter into strategic alliances and initiate joint development projects across countries. Present cases and examples of successful collaboration among Oxfam Novib’s local partners to empower communities of origin to participate in public policy processes. 

The DFD-INAFI workshop with support from Oxfam Novib drew positive responses from the participants. Sustainability of the migrants-driven initiative was the key issue brought up during the workshop.

Meeting with UN-EC JMDI Team

During the two events, Leila took the opportunities to meet several key people. She had meetings with the Philippine Government delegations, and informal talks with representatives from IFAD, UN-EC Joint Migration and Development Initiatives (UN-EC JMDI) where she serves as a member of the Advisory Board, Marianna Torres Blair, President of GFMD 2010, and Migration Policy Institute. She also joined DFD during the interface with the representatives of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  At the forum, she linked up with other groups which advocate more visibility of migrant-driven co-development initiatives at the GFMD.

After the GFMD, Leila stayed for another week to visit various projects of the Federation of Zacatecans in Zacatecas located in the central highlands of Mexico, the birthplace of the tres por uno program. During her visit, she facilitated a meeting to open possibilities to set up a migrant-powered microfinance institution in Zacatecas with possible collaboration with Oxfam Mexico. Matt Rolland, a Fulbright scholar at the University of Zacatecas is prepared to write a mapping study on the feasibility of the project which will form as a basis for further discussion.


Source: Info about GFMD are excerpts taken from GFMD 2010 website