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By Nora O. Gamolo, OFW Times Editor
Migrant worker support groups have kicked off
the so-called Philippine process of the Peoples’ Global Action
on Migration, Development and Human Rights to prepare for the Second
Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD).
The Second GFMD will be hosted by the
Philippines on October 27 to 30, with government and nongovernment
representatives of various labor-exporting and labor-importing
countries of the world in attendance.
The Philippine process was launched on June 17,
and the Mindanao leg of the consultations was already conducted in
Davao City on Friday, June 20, said Ellene Sana, coordinator of the
Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA). It is one of the country’s key
nongovernment organizations (NGOs) involved in local and
international lobbying for migrant workers.
CMA is a member of the Philippine Working Group
on GFMD, a coalition of civil society organizations in the
Philippines that is organizing the Peoples’ Global Action on
Migration, Development and Human Rights.
“This is an independent civil society event,
separate from the official ‘civil society days’ of October 27
and 28,” said Sana.
The GFMD is comprised of two processes, the
Civil Society Days (October 27-28) and the intergovernmental
meetings (October 29-30).
“While there is official civil society days
programmed into the GFMD, this is very restrictive and will not
allow the participation of a large number or range of civil society
groups. This underscores the need to mainstream the voices of
migrant workers, and members of their families, and reintroduce the
voice and concrete contribution of the migrants, NGOs and civil
society organizations in the global debate,” said Sana.
The NGOs’ Civil Society Days will include
workshops, panel discussions, mobilizations, time for internal
meetings of organizations, space for self-organized workshops,
cultural performances, and other activities.
The Second GFMD is an outcome of the United
Nations High Level Dialogue held in New York in September 2006. It
is an inter-governmental forum, or a meeting of governments, that
has started to take place every year to discuss issues related to
migration and development.
The GFMD has become one of the principal
international spaces in which governments discuss migration and
development policy. The first GFMD was held in Brussels, Belgium, in
July 2007.
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