Over 800 applications for 2015 GFMD Civil Society Days

The call for applications for civil society organisations to participate in the Civil Society programme of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) was open from 21 May to 21 June. A record number of more than 800 applications was received from more than 150 countries across the world, representing more geographic diversity than ever before in the history of GFMD civil society organising.

Among the applicants, the International Steering Committee of civil society will select a representative group of about 220 leaders and practitioners to represent civil society as delegates at the GFMD this year—about the same number as in prior years of the GFMD . Selection will strive for a balance of global geography, civil society sectors and gender. Applicants selected to be delegates will be notified by 24 July. Observers from governments and international organisations will then also be invited to register to attend parts of the 2015 GFMD civil society programme.

The GFMD Civil Society Days take place on 12-13 in Istanbul, prior to the shared government-civil society session, known as the Common Space, on 14 October, and the Government Days on 15-16 October.

This year’s Civil Society Days programme (English) (Spanish) (French) will look at global and local movement on achieving “Migration and Development Goals” in the two years since civil society presented its “5-year 8-point Plan of Action” at the 2013 UN High-level Dialogue (HLD) on International Migration and Development, and what needs to happen next. The programme will feature plenary debates on “safe migration, root causes and route causes and alternatives to forced migration” and on “the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) beyond 2015 - civil society’s role in implementing and monitoring migration-related targets”

Parallel break-out sessions will be organised around:

• Sustainable Development Goals  beyond 2015: civil society’s role in fashioning global, national and thematic indicators and implementing and monitoring the SDGs at home
• Human security and human development for migrants on the move: protecting migrants in crises and transit and durable solutions for forced migrants
• Labour mobility, labour rights and decent work:  Reforming migrant labour recruitment and employment policies and practices
• Migrant empowerment and action for human development: social inclusion and diaspora and migrant action on job creation, social entrepreneurship and public policy

Rapporteurs on women and children will be appointed to ensure that these issues will be featured in each of the break-out sessions.

Further information about the programme will be published and circulated widely in August.