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DG's Statements and Speeches
18 Sep 2023

SDG Summit: Statement of the IOM Director General

The 2023 SDG Summit is a moment of truth and reckoning. Major global transformations – from climate change to digitalization – risk leaving billions of people behind. Human mobility can be part of the solution. It is imperative that we incorporate it into the rescue plan for the Sustainable Development Goals. 

This is no easy task. Human mobility patterns are increasingly complex – driven and impacted by the changes we see in the world today. But international migrants, internal migrants, and displaced persons represent one in eight people in the world. And managed well, human mobility can become a cornerstone of development, prosperity, and progress. 

Migrants are meeting the demands and needs of changing and tightening labour markets and mitigating divergent demographic trends within and across regions. They are driving entrepreneurship, including green transition initiatives – such as the Green Finance Facility in North Macedonia – and supporting adaptation to the impacts of climate change and conflicts. Further, people on the move can boost global value chains and development financing – through regular migration pathways, remittances and diaspora capital. 

We need bold commitments and transformative actions to ensure these contributions are fully realized. We must further develop opportunities for safe and regular migration, while reducing remittance transaction costs; we must extend social protection and universal health coverage to all, while including migrants’ voices into national and local development plans; we must invest in skills development and recognition of qualifications for people on the move, while improving digital access and, we must build resilient and peaceful societies capable of adapting to the impacts of climate change and violence, while reducing conflict and climate-induced displacement. 

The blueprints already exist. The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and the Secretary-General’s Action Agenda on Internal Displacement set out the means through which fully inclusive governance of human mobility – leaving no one behind – can be achieved. 

IOM will continue to support Member States, people on the move, and all other stakeholders to design, implement, and scale up new, and accelerated actions to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. 

Let’s act now, with migrants, for the benefit of all.

Regions
Office type
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Asia and the Pacific
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas (The)
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cabo Verde
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Central African Republic (the)
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros (the)
Congo (the)
Costa Rica
Côte d'Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czechia
Democratic Republic of the Congo (the)
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic (the)
East and Horn of Africa
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Eritrea
Estonia
Eswatini
Ethiopia
Europe and Central Asia
Fiji
Finland
France
Gabon
Gambia (the)
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Global Office in Brussels
Global Office in Washington
Greece
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
IOM Office at the United Nations
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Iraq
Ireland
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Lao People's Democratic Republic (the)
Latin America and the Caribbean
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Manila Administrative Centre
Marshall Islands (the)
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia (Federated States of)
Middle East and North Africa
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands (Kingdom of the)
New Zealand
Niger (the)
Nigeria
North Macedonia
Norway
Pakistan
Palau
Panama
Panama Administrative Centre
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines (the)
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Republic of Korea
Republic of Moldova (the)
Romania
Russian Federation (the)
Rwanda
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
Sao Tome and Principe
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Sudan
Spain
Sri Lanka
Subregional Office in Brussels
Subregional Office in Pretoria
Sudan (the)
Sweden
Switzerland
Syrian Arab Republic (the)
Tajikistan
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Türkiye
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)
United Republic of Tanzania (the)
UNSC Resolution 1244-Administered Kosovo
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)
Viet Nam
West and Central Africa
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe