Highlights from the 13th GFMD Summit

The Business Advisory Group provides an overview of the events and outcomes from the 13th GFMD Summit, which took place from 18-26 January 2021.

The beginning of the 2021 was marked by a major global event on migration - the Summit of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), organised under the Chairmanship of the government of the United Arab Emirates virtually. The theme of this year’s summit was “The future of human mobility: innovative partnerships for sustainable development”.

During the 13^th GFMD Summit, business events were hosted through the Business Advisory Group on migration, where the importance of frameworks for skills mobility, fair recruitment and regular migration pathways were highlighted as key components of economic and business recovery and building forward better. IOE successfully organised and hosted the following live events during the online Summit:

• Six regional networking dialogues between businesses and governments to identify policy gaps and offer solutions.
• Four Business Panel discussion sessions during prime-time slots to conduct business-government dialogue on migration policy solutions for economic recovery.
• IOE-Seedstars start-up competition.

The business delegations had over 160 participants with nearly 40 formal speaking roles in different government-led plenaries, as well as side events, showcasing their strong presence and engagement in migration and development State-led processes. 

The Asian Employers’ Declarationwas presented and shared during the formal meetings.

We thank our members and partners for the valuable input provided.  

The full report of IOE’s participation in the GFMD will be available upon request.

The agenda of the Business Advisory Group engagement during the 13^th GFMD can be found on our website.