International Migrants Day Statement

It is my pleasure on behalf of Mr Charles Abani the UN Resident Coordinator for Ghana to welcome all of you to this year’s International Migrants’ Day commemoration.

This year’s commemoration couldn’t have a better theme than diaspora engagement, a topic that continues to demonstrate the Government of Ghana’s commitment to ensuring all people of Ghanaian origin have a role to play in Ghana’s development. It is this commitment and consistency that has made Ghana one of Africa’s leading examples on how to engage the diaspora. Let me take this opportunity to express my heartfelt congratulations to the Government of Ghana for its achievements and commitments for a robust diaspora engagement.

Excellencies, ladies, and gentlemen,

The speakers before me have already covered the significance of engaging the diaspora and what has been done so far. I will not repeat them again. Let me speak, instead to       the role the United Nations system as a whole plays and how it aims to support the government in this regard.

As my colleague Fatou Ndaye, the IOM Chief of Mission, has said     , the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) is a milestone in the global migration governance architecture. And just one day before the adoption of the GCM in Marrakech, Morocco in December 2018 by the 164 Member States of the UN, the UN Secretary-General established the United Nations Network on Migration, with the aim of ensuring an “effective and coherent system-wide support for implementation, including the capacity-building mechanism, as well as follow-up and review of the Global Compact.

This UN Migration Network is a direct and most visible response to the UN’s commitment to the implementation of the GCM and to supporting its member states achieve the 23 Objectives of the GCM, including Objective 19, which addresses the issues of diaspora engagement. The UN Network also aims to:

• Act as a source of ideas, tools, reliable data and information, analysis, and policy guidance on migration issues, including through the capacity-building mechanism;
• Establish and provide support to the capacity-building mechanism;
• Engage with external partners, including migrants, civil society, diaspora organizations, and the private sector, among others.

Excellencies, ladies, and gentlemen,

The UN system in Ghana has      taken steps in this direction and I am happy to recall the establishment of the country’s UN Migration Network back in July 2019, with all the UN agencies present in Ghana as members. Since then, the UN had fostered a system-wide approach to addressing migration, through the new United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), 2023 – 2025, which addresses migration under outcome three to achieve durable peace and security. This goal will be      achieved through the works of the various UN Agencies working in this area including           through IOM’s work on return and reintegration and border management, IFAD’s work on remittances, UNDP’s support to Ghana’s macroeconomic stability, or ILO work on skills recognition and forced labour situation in Ghana and UNCDF’s work on Green Financing, working with the diaspora.

This decision by the Network to hold this year’s IMD event is the latest in this system-wide effort to bring coordination and coherence to our support of the Government of Ghana’s commendable initiatives. And to add to this, the theme of diaspora engagement presents a unique and timely convergence point for many UN agencies to work jointly. I hope this event, and the panel discussion that will follow, will provide us with a good starting point for possible joint programming by multiple UN agencies.

Excellencies, ladies, and gentlemen,

I would like to conclude my remarks by      recognising       the European Union for its support to this event, and as a partner of the Network in our latest effort to strengthen GoG’s migration governance capacity. We strongly hope such partnership continues in the future as well.

Finally, allow me to welcome you once again to this event. Allow me also to thank our principal partner in this event, the Diaspora Affairs Office of the Office of the President, for the leadership role they played in bringing all relevant partners in this engagement.