IOM Business Advisory Board Meets with Egypt's First Lady, Prepares for High-Level Dialogue
Members of the IOM Director General’s
Business Advisory Board (BAB) met in Cairo on 17 May with Egyptian
First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, who delivered a luncheon address on
migration issues. Given the importance of migration for Egypt, Mrs.
Mubarak is a strong advocate for a better managed international
migration system and a leader in the worldwide campaign to
eradicate trafficking in persons.
In its own deliberations following the
luncheon, members of the Board have adopted a declaration
highlighting key migration issues of interest to the private
sector. This declaration sets forth key messages on migration that
require urgent attention by the international community, including
during the forthcoming High-Level Dialogue on International
Migration and Development (HLD), which will take place on 14 and 15
September 2006 in the United Nations General Assembly.
Members of the Board believe the HLD provides
the international community with an historic opportunity to
identify and support concrete measures to maximize the development
benefits of migration and minimize its negative impacts.
“The time to draw the private sector
into the migration debate is long overdue,” said Shafik Gabr,
the Egyptian Board member who organized the session. “The
private sector plays a critical role in the economics of migration.
Although we are one of the most important stakeholders on migration
issues - particularly global labour mobility - our voice has rarely
been heard, especially at the international level.”
The Board strongly supports the development of
improved mechanisms to better match global labour supply with
demand to maximize the societal and human development potential of
global labour mobility. The Board has identified the need for
genuine partnerships between governments, the private sector and
other stakeholders for the development, planning and implementation
of mobility policies and practices.
“To facilitate supply and demand
matching, there is a need for enhanced knowledge on labour market
trends, labour force profiles and labour migration trends at the
global level,” said IOM Director General Brunson McKinley.
“Beyond this, governments, relevant intergovernmental bodies,
and the private sector need to collaborate to invest in training
and educating workers worldwide for tomorrow’s global
economy.”
As members of the business community, which
both employs foreign workers and consumes the services they
provide, the Board recognizes its responsibility to invest in human
resource training and education.
In addition to benefiting the private sector,
well-managed labour migration also benefits governments in
countries of origin and destination, as well as the migrants
themselves. The development benefits of temporary and circular
migration, in particular, can be significant and result in the
transfer of key knowledge and know-how.
“Safer, more humane, legal and orderly
means of labour movement are needed,” added McKinley.
“Ensuring this is in everyone’s interests, including
individual migrants, governments of countries of origin and
destination, the private sector and civil society. Private
enterprises, for their part, recognize the need for ethical
recruitment and fair treatment of migrant workers.”
With remittances becoming a significant source
of global finance and a potential driver of economic growth, the
Board is dedicated to identifying and supporting initiatives to
create investment-friendly climates in the countries to which
remittances are sent. This way, some of the money sent home by
expatriates could be invested in ventures generating local
employment and wealth.
“We encourage the international
community to capitalize on the attention the HLD will bring to
migration to take action on the most pressing issues,” said
the statement “the Board will develop a proposal for a
best-practice index to help governments, employers and worker
representatives identify and overcome weaknesses in their ability
to participate in the global labour market.”
The Board, which was launched during
IOM’s 90th Council in Geneva last November, constitutes an
important step towards better engagement of private sector actors
on mobility policies and practices. The Board is composed of 16
business leaders representing a cross section of industries and
interests worldwide.
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May 2006
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