The Migration Governance Framework—What is it, and how can it contribute to my work?

 
Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama
8 March, 2019

 

The Migration Governance Framework, known as MiGOF, is a conceptual-institutional framework that incorporates the essential elements for facilitating orderly, safe, regular, and responsible migration and mobility of people through planned and well-managed migration policies. This framework seeks to present, in a consolidated, coherent, and comprehensive way, a set of three principles and three objectives which, if respected and met, would ensure humane and orderly migration and benefit both migrants as well as society in general.   

MiGOF corresponds to goal 10 (Reduction of inequality) of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and specifically to 10.7, “Facilitate orderly, safe, regular, and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies.”   

This framework is based on three basic principles: adherence to international standards and fulfillment of migrants’ rights, formulating policies using evidence and “whole of government” approach, and engaging with partners to address migration and related issues. These three principles propose the necessary conditions for migration to be well-managed and beneficial to all. They represent the means through which a State will ensure that the systemic requirements for good migration governance are in place.   

The three objectives of MiGOF, meanwhile, are: improve the socioeconomic wellbeing of migrants and society, effectively address the mobility dimensions of crises, and ensure that migration takes place in a safe, orderly, and dignified manner.  

The three objectives are specific and do not require any further conventions, laws, or practices than the ones that already exist. Taken together, these objectives ensure that migration is governed in an integrated and holistic way, responding to the need to consider mobile categories of people and address their needs for assistance in the event of an emergency, building resilience of individuals and communities, as well as ensuring opportunities for the economic and social health of the States.   

Various national and regional IOM teams currently use MiGOF for their programming, communication, follow-up, and evaluation activities. However, it is important for all levels of the organization to improve their knowledge of this conceptual framework and improve its use, in various manners:   

  • As a diagnosis and framework for analysis (using the Migration Governance Indicators, for example); such as when analyzing gaps and existing needs in a given country or region regarding migration governance.  
  • As a framework for reports and evaluation; for example, to prepare and complete monitoring, follow-up, and evaluation reports requested by donors and partners   
  • As a framework for planning and developing programs and projects; for example, when defining objectives, results, products, and contemplated activities in a given intervention and how these align with global development frameworks, such as the SDGs and the Global Compact on Migration.  
  • As a framework for communication and publication of information; for example, to reply to requests for information from various audiences or to prepare press releases or informational content for the internet.   

 

For more information, see this summary video and find more on the MiGOF objectives and principles here. Or, contact Fabio Jiménez at jfjimenez@iom.int