IOM Environmental Migration Newsletter

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Environmental Migration Newsletter
Knowledge Platform on People on the Move in a Changing Climate
January 2018

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Dear Readers, Partners, and Friends,

With this first newsletter of 2018, the IOM Migration, Environment and Climate Change team would like to wish you all a successful, healthy and “green” new year!

Our Environmental Migration Newsletter aims to share information on ongoing initiatives driven by IOM, our partners, and other key stakeholders, and will soon celebrate its fourth year of existence in its monthly format!

Our vision is that migration policy and practice cannot ignore the uncontested evidence we have on environmental degradation, land and ecosystem loss, scarcity of resources and on the impacts of climate change on people’s current and future lives.

Migration policies and practices have to evolve, change and adapt to be able to respond to the challenges posed to our planet. Furthermore, our aim is also to harness the benefits of regular, safe and orderly migration and to showcase the positive dimensions of migration, hence a great number of priority initiatives this year will focus on positive migration management practices.

IOM has defined back in 2009 three guiding principles that remain relevant today: first, to reduce forced forms of migration related to climate change, environmental degradation and disasters; second, to assist and protect those on the move because of environmental factors; and third, to facilitate regular migration measures that allow dignified human mobility in the context of environmental and climate change.

The year of 2017 ended with many events that highlighted the importance of environmental and climate migration, most importantly the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP 23) where migration was discussed through various agendas such as loss and damage, vulnerability, human rights, oceans, water, and land. IOM’s Council devoted a full high level panel on climate change and migration where France’s Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition, Nicolas Hulot emphasized that “Migration in the context of environment and climate change is a living reality that affects hundreds of thousands of women, men and children, already in a vulnerable situation”.

As we now look ahead to 2018 our main priority at IOM level, as an intergovernmental organization mandated on migration, is to support the Member States in the process leading to the adoption of a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration. How do we do this? Through providing the relevant data, state of knowledge, compiling best practices and analyzing current and future trends, while connecting also this process to all other relevant processes that the organization is deeply committed to, in particular, the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change and the work of the Task Force on Displacement.

Other key policy commitments are to contribute to the implementation of the Nansen Agenda through activities developed with the Platform on Disaster Displacement and to contribute to other key global processes all captured in the Agenda 2030 ambition.

In addition, IOM's key priorities for 2018 are to continue our capacity building efforts for IOM staff as well as policy makers and practitioners to seize opportunities and address challenges of environmental migration; to “green” traditional migration management operations, such as returns and reintegration; to develop IOM’s own environmental sustainability policy; to produce innovative data; and to communicate effectively also through our partnerships with artists and with the migrants.

It is difficult to speak just about the year ahead of us when the urgency call we hear from the migrants and from the communities we support is about now. And it is equally challenging to envisage one year of action when the question is what world will we pass on to next generations? But let’s try: we wish you a fruitful 2018!

Dina IONESCO
Head of Migration Environment and Climate Change Division
IOM

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/iom_mecc

© IOM 2018 (Photo: Muse Mohammed)

Humans&ClimateChangeStories is a unique media project by Samuel Turpin that provides a documentary approach to the effects of climate change on our lives. It follows 12 families scattered around the globe, who are subject to different types of climate change phenomena, over the course of the next 10 years. Through their stories, viewers will gain a better understanding of how climate change impacts our daily lives and our capacity for resilience. It also puts the social, economic and political forces that have an impact on environmental phenomena into perspective.

The project offers an immersive multimedia form of storytelling, broadcasting through a multisectoral approach: media and social networks, events and exhibitions, and educative games for youth.

The project also aims to create innovative partnerships, based on the exchange of knowledge and skills.

These stories were recently exhibited at the UN Office in Geneva from 28 November to 1 December 2017, on the occasion of the 108th Session of the IOM Council.

View the Shorthand

Migration, Environment and Climate Change (MECC) Updates

© GIZ 2018

Energy for Displaced People: A Global Plan of Action for Sustainable Energy Solutions in Situations of Displacement
15-16 January 2018
Berlin, Germany

Responding to the need for more comprehensive energy provision for the rapidly growing and unprecedented number of displaced people in the world, the "Energy for Displaced People: A Global Plan of Action for Sustainable Energy Solutions in Situations of Displacement” conference convened governments, the UN system, the private sector, humanitarian practitioners and finance experts to develop a global plan of action on sustainable energy access for displaced people. Working towards the vision that every person affected by conflict or natural disaster will have access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy services by 2030 in line with SDG 7, participants contributed to develop realistic and appropriate aims for positive change in the strategic areas of planning and coordination, policy, innovative finance, capacity building and monitoring. To build on the momentum of ongoing energy initiatives, this working-level conference served as a connecting point for streamlined action around resilient energy provision for displaced populations.

Following the official opening, the two-day conference began with a high-level panel discussion focusing on the importance of the humanitarian – energy nexus, bringing together Mr. Miguel Berger (Director General for Economic Affairs and Sustainable Development, German Federal Foreign Office), Ms. Laura Thompson (Deputy Director General, International Organization for Migration), Mr. Arno Tomowski (Head of Corporate Ventures, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH) and Mr. Craig Sanders (Deputy Director, Division of Programme Support and Management, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).

The conference was co-organized by UNHCR, IOM, UNITAR, GIZ, The Moving Energy Initiative, Practical Action and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves with the support of the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.

© PDD 2018

New Leadership at the Platform on Disaster Displacement

The Government of Bangladesh assumed the Chairmanship of the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) for the next year and a half. Joining at the helm, the Government of France is the new Vice-Chair of the Platform and the upcoming Chair in July 2019.

In 2016, the Governments of Germany and Bangladesh launched the Platform on Disaster Displacement to follow up on the work started by the Nansen Initiative led by the Governments of Norway and Switzerland, and to implement the recommendations of the Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda.

At the Platform’s most recent Steering Group Meeting on the 19th of January 2018, in Geneva, Switzerland, the Government of Germany, the first Chair of the Platform, passed on its seat to the Government of Bangladesh, the first Vice-Chair of the Platform.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) welcomes the Governments of Bangladesh and France in their new roles and is committed to continuing the strong partnership with the Platform.

IOM provided active support to the Nansen Initiative from 2012 to 2015, including to the endorsement of the Protection Agenda in 2015. Continuing its engagement, IOM is now a key partner of the Platform working to implement the PDD 2016-2019 Workplan.

IOM’s activities in support of the Platform are in line with the agency’s longstanding work on migration, environment, disasters and climate change, and are based on its research, policy and operational work in the context of disasters and climate change conducted since the 1990s.

Under Germany’s leadership, the Platform has seen increased engagement and collaboration among States and international actors in addressing the protection of persons displaced in the context of disasters and climate change, both at the international and regional levels.

Read the PDD press release
Read more about the IOM-PDD partnership

© IOM 2018

IFMS 2018: Measuring the Migration-Environment Nexus: State of the Art
16 January 2018
Paris, France

At the International Forum on Migration Statistics, a panel session on data on environmental migration took place in Paris, France. It was the only session dedicated to the migration-environment nexus within the Forum and brought together experts from academia, UN agencies and countries to present the latest opportunities, challenges and gaps on collecting data on migration, environment and climate change (see session 4.C). The panellists discussed key challenges around the inclusion of migration and environment issues in global policy processes and national policies, as gaps in evidence, data and projections remain. While the state of knowledge has improved over the recent years, more information is still needed on the links between different types of human mobility (voluntary migration, displacement, planned relocation) and climate change and other drivers, such as conflict. The panel was organized and chaired by IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC) (Susanne Melde) as a contribution to the work of the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) and its Data and Knowledge Working Group, which is co-chaired by the GMDAC and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

Professor François Gemenne (Director of Hugo Observatory, University of Liege, Belgium) called for more realistic estimates on current movements linked to environmental change and disasters, with small scales instead of a quest for global figures that the media is often pursuing. Leal Kumar Dindoyal of Statistics Mauritius of the Republic of Mauritius explained the difficulty of measuring internal mobility linked to environmental degradation with censuses only occurring every 10 years. Several other speakers underlined the need to be aware of assumptions in data collection models used, the need for cooperation and developing existing tools further despite the existing challenges. In particular, issues of comparability across time and cases highlighted the urgency for harmonizing and providing access to data. Recommendations put forward included developing methodologies with local actors, using new data sources and methods such as big data, agent-based modelling and predictive analysis, and providing funding as surveys are often costly.

© IOM 2018

A Day for Debates on Migration in Mauritania
27 January 2018
Nouakchott, Mauritania

The Islamic Republic of Mauritania is a vast territory with more than 5,000 km of borders and with a long-standing tradition of migration and hospitality. The University of Nouakchott Al-Aasriya has a dedicated Master programme on migration, and in partnership with IOM, the University organized a day of debates on several topics linked to migration: migration and data, migration and international law, migration and health, migration in emergencies, and migration and climate change. Over 50 students and 15 professors attended the event, from varied disciplines, such as migration, law, medicine, geography and computer sciences, making the debates comprehensive and illustrative of the cross-cutting characteristic of migration and its studies.

In the panel on Migration and Climate Change, the students learned that environmental migration was a global phenomenon being addressed at different levels on global agendas, including through legal and normative actions, through cross-cutting policy work in balance with concrete measures to prevent and respond to displacement. In the context of Mauritania, the Sahel region is highly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, such as droughts. Given that agro-pastoralism is the main economic activity in Mauritania and that droughts can disrupt it, the country has witnessed substantive migration patterns from rural to small urban areas and onto big urban centers.

The debates, as well as the conclusions of the day, reflected the several challenges in the field of environmental migration. Firstly, the importance of evidence-based policies and operations is paramount, but the lack of systematic data collection and standards on human mobility in the context of disasters and climate change weakens the responses, the preventive measures, and future projections. Secondly, reflecting the multi-causality of environmental migration and its connection with various fields, the links with other disciplines such as geography, medicine, law and computer sciences needs to be investigated.

The panel on Migration and Climate Change was led by Ileana Sinziana Puscas, Research Officer of the Migration, Environment and Climate Change Division at IOM, and by Dr. Aboubakry Thiam, Geographer-Geomatician, Research Professor at the University of Nouakchott Al-Aasriya. The event took place as part of a project on understanding and countering human trafficking in Mauritania financed by the Federal Government of Germany and implemented by IOM Nouakchott.

MECC Policy Brief Series

The editorial board of the Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Policy Brief Series would like to invite authors to submit proposals for 2018 issues.

The Series is open to all areas of the migration-environment nexus, covering various forms of environmental and climate-related hazards as well as all types of human mobility. We particularly welcome results of inter- and trans-disciplinary research.

Proposals should include an abstract (max. 300 words), a table of contents, and at least 800 words of the draft text or summary of research. Proposals should be single-spaced and should be no more than 1,500 words. References, tables, and appendices count against this page limit. All proposals will be subject to editorial review.

For further information, download the full Call for Proposals.

Research Database Updates

Planned relocation in the context of Environmental Change in Hoa Binh Province, Northern Viet Nam:
An analysis of household decision-making and relocation outcomes

Task Force on Displacement
At a Glance (EN)

En Français

Living with Floods in a Mobile Southeast Asia

Leaving Lohāchāra: On Circuits of Emplacement and Displacement in the Ganges Delta

Climate Change and Human Mobility in the Pacific Region: Plans, Policies and Lessons Learned

Megatrends in Hindu Kush Himalaya: Climate Change, Urbanisation and Migration and Their Implications for Water, Energy and Food

Search the database

Upcoming Events

Preventing and addressing disaster displacement - HNPW Inter-Network Day
7 February 2018 | Geneva, Switzerland

IOM-PDD Regional Capacity Building Workshop on “Human Mobility in the Context of Disaster and Climate Change in the Pacific”
13-14 February 2018 | Suva, Fiji

7th meeting of the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage Associated with Climate Change Impacts
13-16 March 2018 | Bonn, Germany

See events

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Environmental Migration Newsletter Knowledge Platform on People on the Move in a Changing Climate January 2018

Migration, Environment and Climate Change (MECC) Updates

MECC Policy Brief Series

Research Database Updates

Upcoming Events

Environmental Migration Newsletter
Knowledge Platform on People on the Move in a Changing Climate
January 2018