The application process for the 2019 Civil Society Days of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) has been opened. This year’s GFMD will take place 19-22 November in Quito, Ecuador under the theme “Sustainable approaches to human mobility: Upholding rights, strengthening state agency, and advancing development through partnerships and collective action”. Deadline for all applications is 26 August. Meanwhile, the host of the 2020 GFMD has been decided: The United Arab Emirates (UAE), representing the major destination region of the Gulf states. You can apply for the Civil Society Days here: Continue reading
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More than half a year has passed since the Global Compact on safe, orderly and regular migration has been agreed upon at the end of 2018 in Morocco and New York. Talks about the implementation and monitoring of the compact and the role civil society can play in all of this are still ongoing. Here are some publications that take the reader along the road to and from Marrakesh: what processes led to the development of the compact, what was the role of the GFMD in particular and what invited and invented spaces could civil society use to bring the voices of migrants into these deliberations? At least some of these publications are open access already: 
Migrant and refugee youth voices must be heard and taken seriously: That was one of the central messages of the inaugural Youth Forum held in in Marrakech last December. The event was part of the “migration week” and took place between the GFMD and UN Conference on the Global Compact for Migration. So Young Chang participated in the Forum and thankfully agreed to share her observations in this blogpost: 
The Mayors Mechanism (MM) will become a process within the structure of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), starting with the Ecuador chairmanship and summit this year. This is a direct result of the 5th Mayoral Forum on Human Mobility, Migration and Development, held in the “migration week” in Marrakesh last November. I was able to participate in the event and conduct a follow-up interview with Dr. Colleen Thouez, Director of the Welcoming and Integrated Societies Division of the Open Society Foundations. For her, the new cooperation brings many mutual benefits: “Local governments’ input bolsters the position of the GFMD in the context of GCM implementation and follow-up as an all-inclusive venue for dialogue and as a platform to mobilize partners for implementation.”. Red the full interview here: 
Die internationale Gemeinschaft hat am 11. Dezember mit großer Mehrheit den Globalen Pakt für sichere, geordnete und reguläre Migration angenommen. Brot für die Welt hat mit mir ein Interview über die Bedeutung des Pakts, regionale Prozesse, Auswirkungen für Deutschland und meine Einschätzungen zur zukünftigen Umsetzung geführt, das ich hier gerne teile:
Migration wird am Besten global verhandelt – deshalb ist dieses Blog in der Regel auf Englisch gehalten. Da die Debatte zum Migrationspakt aber mittlerweile auch in Deutschland an Fahrt aufgenommen hat, stelle ich in diesem Blogpost eine Auswahl meiner Beiträge auf Deutsch zusammen (wird fortlaufend aktualisiert).
The People’s Global Action on Migration, Development & Human Rights (PGA) is a long-established Civil Society event that started in New York in 2007 and will take place for the 13th time this year in Marrakech – right after the GFMD and before the Intergovernmental Conference to adopt the Global Compact for Migration. How does the PGA relate to these events, what is this years’ main agenda, what are the envisioned outcomes? These are some of the questions I asked Felix Braunsdorf from the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), which supports progressive coices in gathering such as the PGA (and hosted the 2017 Meeting in Berlin):. 