 I would like to ask you to have a seat. Now we are about to start our panel three or our work today with the title of strengthening resilience the most vulnerable to economic adversity, upskilling the financing job and the green economy. The moderator for the third panel is I am Deputy Director General Amy Pope. Thank you so much. And it is such a pleasure to be here with all of you talking about one of my favorite things, strengthening the resilience of the most vulnerable to economic adversity. This is about upskilling financing jobs and the green economy. And I am very, very excited to be here with a tremendous panel who I will introduce in just a moment, but we're very, very lucky to have them here. While migration is often used by households as an adaptation strategy to cope with environmental shocks, when it's unregulated, it can put migrants and their families and frankly their communities at greater risk. It's therefore essential that migrants and their households become more resilient through gaining necessary skills, education and have access to finance and knowledge, which will allow them to make better strategic decisions. This panel is going to review recent cases in labor mobility, as well as crisis driven displacement to see how migrants and their households can be best supported in their times of very, very critical need. Migration as we know, when it is voluntary, when it's well planned, when it's regular, it's been used over the years for centuries really as an adaptation strategy and particularly to cope with environmental shocks. Did you see, sorry, there's a problem on Zoom, they don't have audio at the moment, can you just pause for a few seconds, I'm apologizing. No problem. Yeah? Okay. I won't revisit all of it, but I'll start where I left off because I think it will be enough for those following along on Zoom to follow. Migration as we know here at IOM, when it is well planned, when it's voluntary, when it's regular, it's been used as an adaptation strategy to cope with environmental shocks. You know, young people can use migration as a path toward acquiring knowledge and skills and it also can reduce the burden on their families. Labor mobility offers tremendous opportunities for diversifying incomes and allows, especially young people, but all workers to gain a broader outlook and that's particularly important when we're talking about families who are often facing multiple shocks, particularly in this day and age, when we're looking at the impact of COVID and inflation and economic pressures in addition to other conflicts. But the rapid onset of climate events, food shortages, labor market disruption, what we're seeing right now can compel individuals and families to depart with very few assets, making use of irregular channels and eventually putting them at risk of greater exploitation and abuse both in transit and at their destination. Federal stakeholders, including our colleagues with us at ILO, have noticed the concern that with COVID-19 and the associated economic and social crises, these really have exacerbated the conditions of employment access to health and social protection for people who are already tremendously vulnerable, who are particularly concerned about the exploitation of children and people who are forced into labor. So it's incredibly important that we monitor the incidents of exploitation, that we make investments in compliance, that we look at gender responsive mechanisms so that we tackle every single angle relating to social protection and particularly recognizing that migrants might have more limited access to education and other tools that would allow them to become more resilient. I know that other panels have talked about how we strengthen the resilience of migrants and their families, and the conversation today is really going to talk about what tools we can bring when we talk about improving collaboration between governments, between countries to provide more regular, safe channels for migration. We have three incredible speakers with us here today, and they're going to talk about some of the recent cases that they've seen, both with labor mobility but also how it can apply to crisis driven displacement, and what they've seen can allow migrants to build resilience. This is a really good introduction to what is a big, big topic that I know a lot of us have interest in, and where we can draw on responses that can be applied globally. So I'm going to start first with our, I'll introduce our panel members. First we have Eduardo Jose de Vega, who is the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs within the Philippines. And it's really a delight to have the Undersecretary here with us today. I was just in the Philippines last week. I can tell you from firsthand experience that the country is really on the cutting edge of looking at how we can empower migrants, how we can build solutions with both the hosting country and the sending country that allow people to have access both to economic opportunities but skills development and really at a benefit for all people, including those in the hosting country. I'm also here with Michelle Layton, who's the branch chief of the Labor Migration Branch within ILO, and ILO is an extremely important partner to us at IOM, and we only are looking to deepen this partnership in the years to come as we look to labor mobility as an increasingly important solution. Finally, I have one of our star chiefs of mission, Vladimir Georgiev, did I say that okay? He's our chief of mission in Azerbaijan, who's going to bring some of his real life experiences to bear as we talk through some great case examples. So maybe I'll start with the first question and I'll open it up first to the Undersecretary, and then I'll ask each of our panel members to give us some of their own perspective. But really, when we look at what policies are needed to reduce short-term vulnerabilities of people on the move and to increase their own and their family members' resilience to economic shocks in the long run, what works? And maybe what doesn't work? I could turn it over to you. Good afternoon. Well, we were glad to welcome you to the Philippines, madam, always. Of course, as the new Deputy Minister for Migrant Workers Affairs of the Philippines, it's a great privilege for me to be part of this year's session of the dialogue. And of course, it's well known, as you mentioned, the work being done by the Philippines to strengthen resilience among our migrants. Now, what works? Well, one, you have to be a champion. You have to be a champion country. You have to be known to be a champion country for safe orderly and regular migration. The Philippines is known as a champion country for all migration governance. And because of our active global discussions on migration policy and what we have sought to achieve in this end, our foreign policy, in fact, is founded strongly on what we think should be a sustainable migration for the benefit of the very global Filipino. So we played a significant role in the crafting of the GCM. And we're proud of how it promotes a cooperative framework among states for the protection of all migrants. So one thing, for migrants to be resilient, vulnerabilities and risks in all stages of migration should be reduced. So that's where you see in the GCM something which the Philippines lobbied for is the inclusion of measures to enhance regular pathways for migration that facilitate labor mobility. And address illegal trafficking. So that's one thing important. We advocate social protections and portability of social security entitlements of migrants. And so this reduces the vulnerabilities of migrants through the migration cycle. Now the COVID, we mentioned the COVID-19 pandemic. Well, we stay in the room and I'm glad that we're having this meeting and not just virtually, it makes it alive. So it masks our gaps on labor mobility, particularly on the massive displacement of migrants. So what happened in the case of the Philippines, 2 million migrants from abroad out of about 10 million had to be returned within a very short period of time. And I'm sure this has been the experience of many other countries of origin that had to bring home their own national. So one thing necessary is that you have to have in each government a system of providing them financial and welfare assistance to keep them out of harm's way. It's not just the responsibility of international organizations, but your own governments who should be spending money to help them adjust. Because we look at it this way, the Philippines, a lot of our resources come from the remittances of migrant workers. So we're just giving back to them. And these pathways for increased mobility complemented our efforts to forge global partnerships with a lot of migrant receiving countries, for example, in the Middle East. We've had discussions with Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. And we've had groundbreaking efforts to introduce reforms in their labor systems and how to fight trafficking. So in the Philippines also, we have our own government created a new ministry called the Department of Migrant Workers which consolidates all existing offices with migration-related functions into one entity. Everything from recruitment, from providing online assistance, from assisting them in cases of labor issues or criminal cases that they face abroad, up to the time they have to go home and get integrated into the country. So this made the country, our country, the first to include in its domestic laws an explicit provision on the progressive realization of the objectives of the global compact. So we strongly support the recommendation to enhance and diversify the availability of pathways for migration. And now this theme, of course, this year is a climate change show. It's become an important driver for migration. So one thing important is to look for sectors in your respective countries where migrants often come from. In our country, the new president of the Philippines has made agriculture our top priority, recognizing our climate change impacts food security and the fragile economic foundation of our rural community. So because of that, we're trying to strengthen the agricultural base and it does work. What's happening is that in recent times in the Philippines we've had more migrants coming from skilled labor, meaning it's not just household workers or the lower paying jobs where migrants from the Philippines seek employment abroad because now more and more it's also improving in that respect. So you just have to have a focused approach towards it. The foreign policy of the Philippines is based not just on defending our country's integrity or advancing our cultural or economic interests, but specifically protecting our overseas workers because they bring a lot and especially its globalized world. It's part of being part of one global community and to all fellow migrant-sending countries and of course countries who have been so hospitable to our workers, we thank you. So it's just a matter of the focused effort. Thank you, madam. I'd like to take the opportunity to point out that the Philippines is the first country to implement the GCM with the creation of this new department but codifying into your own policies and practices. Protections for workers is really, I think, an important model for many countries to follow. So it's really important and frankly, the work that you're doing with the Gulf countries to negotiate these protections for workers is something that will benefit, I think, more than just Filipino workers, but workers from around the world who are now working in the Gulf and again, it's a really positive model. So really, really exciting to watch what you're doing and such a pleasure to have you here to share your real-life examples with us. On that turn to Michelle Layton who is the branch chief at the ILO and in addition to the policies that are needed to reduce the short-term vulnerabilities, I'd also be curious if you have thoughts on challenges that have emerged recently with regarding the rights of migrant children and youth or those who are otherwise extraordinarily vulnerable. Are there policies that you've seen which are successful to strengthen their resilience? Or are there any particular lessons that we can draw from some of the recent crises relating to labor mobility, especially when we're talking about addressing the root causes of displacement? I know very, very big issues and you have tremendous experience. So very much looking forward to your views on any of you, Buf. Thanks very much, Amy, and it's really a pleasure to be here for ILO and sorry that our director general was unable to be here today, but he's very concerned about this issue. I might take a step back and maybe talk about the broader approaches of ILO and some of the areas we see that are of concern and some challenges. As many of you know this year, intensified heat waves, fires, floods, desertification, droughts and the impacts on climate change, on people and their communities and jobs and livelihoods have been tremendously devastating. The most vulnerable continue to be the ones who are most acutely affected and many of them are forced to leave and the relationship between climate change, employment and livelihoods and migration is rather complex and certainly highly context dependent. Even where we see environmental or climate hotspots, environmental change and shocks are joined by a range of other social, political, economic challenges of these communities face, of course poverty, lack of access to financial services, how low levels of education and localized tension and conflict and it's within this context that the IPCC for the first time identified with high confidence that climate change and extreme weather events are increasingly driving displacement in all regions. It determined that people in vulnerable regions will experience further erosion of livelihood security which can interact with humanitarian crisis such as displacement and forced migration and we know that this is going to perpetuate more vulnerability among communities. ILO estimates in that by 2030 2.2% of total working hours worldwide will be lost to temperatures, high temperatures and that's a productivity loss of about 80 million full-time jobs and this isn't a time when we want to increase job creation. Floods and other disasters of course cause immediate displacement but we're also concerned that the effects of prolonged drought and degradation take longer time to put pressure on people and their families to migrate as a coping strategy which Amy mentioned and this is a reality we know that is already taking place in sub-Saharan Africa. This is not something that we are going to see in the future it's happening now and as you said when it's well managed migration can ensure that people can diversify their income, they gain skills, they can invest in their home communities and build resilience and we also know that increasing their adaptive capacity is going to go a long way to helping make migration a choice rather than a necessity but this will not happen automatically. People affected by climate change will move but our policies haven't necessarily caught up with that and without regular pathways that offer protection they're likely to be forced into taking irregular and dangerous channels forced into the informal economy and this puts them at risk of forced labor and trafficking but certainly lower wages and poor working conditions. We know that if these pathways are well managed people can contribute to increase their adaptive capacities and also help ensure their families are protected but they need fair wages, fair working conditions, access to social protection and they need them for their families. So the proper governance of migration is truly at the center of how we're going to address these threats and I think we can point to certain tools as you mentioned that are available to us now and I want to discuss some of these in the context of these challenges. ILO has adopted recommendation 205 which is a standard that contains guidance to improve employment and job creation in crisis situations. We've also adopted what is a programmatic roadmap for countries which are general principles, guiding principles on access of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons to the labor market and these we think are also playing in tandem with something else the ILO has that you may be familiar with which is an initiative for a just transition towards sustainable and green economies. So green jobs but also green economies and what this means is the inclusion of migrant workers and their families in climate responses including migrants with multiple backgrounds and vulnerabilities recognizing their intersectional realities being women, being indigenous people, being people who face distinct challenges in relation to climate impacts and the policies need to respond to them accordingly. But we also see there are real opportunities for creating better jobs and one of our reports identifies that there could be creation of 100 million jobs worldwide in sectors such as sustainable energy among others by 2030. But to do this we will need to have serious investments in skills and upskilling, re-skilling and also to ensure that future generations are not lost to unemployment. Now there will be and there is migration in all regions. So an important step that countries need to think about now is considering how to upgrade or modernize their labor migration migration policies if you will to ensure that people can gain new skills, fill labor shortages and protect them in the workplace. And this can be challenging because labor migration policies are still fragmented across the world. They're not consistent and they're not necessarily rights-based. But member states and other stakeholders are engaging in new approaches and we were very excited to hear during the IMRF many of recognition of those practices including some adopting new humanitarian visas and other channels for regular movement of climate-affected migrants. The ILO's been working with governments in this context but particularly on regional migration pathways that include climate displacement as one of the areas in which they can move. We've supported the intergovernmental authority for development the IGAD in East Africa for example in their free movement protocol which is the first time it recognizes that climate is a legitimate reason to move and move through those regular pathways. And in the Asia-Pacific region we're working with countries to improve those labor migration frameworks so that employment and migration policy find much more policy coherence together. With Bangladesh and Tuvalu for example we've helped integrate right-space labor migration planning in directly in the climate adaptation strategies that they're developing. And this is something we'd like to promote further. And of course together with IOM we're supporting the regional discussions around a regional labor mobility framework in the Pacific. This will be the first time this kind of agreement exists that recognizes labor mobility, skills transfer and protection as central features. Our constituents in the business community are also upscaling their efforts doing a lot more for training on entrepreneurship and green jobs, working on value chains with local communities to see where green jobs might help in the future. What is the capacity for that and for upscaling? And the trade unions are increasing work at migrant resource centers to offer legal advice, counseling, job counseling but also other protection measures, information to avoid trafficking and forced labor and so on for those who are affected by climate change. And we see the direct benefits that social dialogue can bring. Certainly there are many opportunities in the ASEAN's form of migrant labor, the ASEAN and Mercosur and SADAC. There are tripartite discussions going on but we are not seeing enough of this. And some of this does come up in our governing body in our international labor conference. And so employers are calling for more regular and organized dialogue with member states between the private sector and government and of course with trade unions to talk about how we can have more data-driven evidence-based policy making in labor migration. So let me turn finally through the potential for the UN system to support the kind of national work that I've just touched on but also more synergies at the international level in the debates. We co-chair with IOM and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, the UN Network's thematic working group on climate, the GCM and the Paris Agreement. We're all so happy at the same time to be supporting the Task Force on Displacement which is under the Warsaw International Mechanism created by the Paris Agreement and that is in the climate negotiations under the UNFCCC. And we see a number of synergies that aren't happening that could happen. In 2018 the Task Force for example adopted overall guidance that linked to the GCM and it was adopted in 2018 just as the GCM was adopted. And so that guidance needs to be realized or operationalized if you will. The Task Force at the same time is now going to move forward on technical guidance for countries who are in those climate change negotiations and for member states looking at adaptation plans. And we've committed under this work plan with a number of the experts including IOM, UNHCR, the Platform on Disaster Displacement to support the member state led Task Force to develop this technical guidance with the input of the UN Network and the stakeholder consultations that we've agreed to hold so that we can have the voices and inputs and lessons from around the world. And we really think that this new technical guidance should be able to help governments expand the regular pathways in a number of fronts. Certainly we would promote the labor mobility front. Now let me just conclude by recommitting or expressing our commitment of the ILO to work very closely with all of you with IOM, with our sister agencies as we move forward in this. This is a huge issue. You mentioned it, Amy, when you started. And we have a new policy brief coming out that will release and Sharma will shake at the conference of the parties, COP 27, on just transitions and labor mobility and will be cosponsoring a number of events. So if any of you will be there, we hope to bring the migration and environment and climate change communities together there to talk more about some of the work that's going on on the ground. We look forward to working with you and supporting more social justice and climate justice as we move forward. So thank you very much. Thank you, Michelle. That's fantastic. And we also are very, very excited to be working on this issue with you. Now to the field, to the real life examples that we're seeing play out. We have our chief of mission here from Azerbaijan. Flanmer, can I turn it over to you? Thank you very much, DDG. Dear distinguished participants of the panel, the Excellencies and Online Participants, it's a great pleasure and opportunity for me to represent one specific project that my mission is implementing in the last 21 years. Well, I would just like to share this for me an excellent example of how historical knowledge of the people and can be revived and used for a better future. Basically, in IOM Azerbaijan, we are implementing the project Integrated Rural Development for Internally Displaced Population in Azerbaijan through revitalization of the Khakris water systems. Or Khakris is also known as a kanat in Iran or Iraq, Fogaras in Northern Africa, or different names, but the purpose is the same, to bring water to the surface with a natural slope. And this water basically it's used by the people since ancient times. It's used in the countries like Morocco, Italy, Turkey, Oman, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, China, Afghanistan, Pakistan. We can see all of these khakrises around the world. Basically, these are the silent witness of human development and migration, I would say. Basically, these are built khakrises hundreds of years ago, thousands of years ago. And actually, we are witnessing their development, the development of the humans who live around those khakrises. But also we are witnessing the ignorance of those khakrises and the abundance of the khakrises. But also in Azerbaijan, we are also seeing the revival for a better and more sustainable future. Basically, the project itself is to address negative effects of the livelihoods of the rural population in Azerbaijan, which is around 40% of the total population is engaged in agriculture sector, which makes agriculture the second biggest sector of the economy after the oil. And of course, in the agriculture, the lack of water can have a big problem, but not just for the agriculture, but also for hygienic and other well-being of the individual households. And overall, with the rural communities and economic development in Azerbaijan. Indeed, also the growing population and shortages of the water for irrigation leads to decline of household incomes, decrease in living standards and serve as a push factor for economic outmigration from rural communities. With our approach, we are genuinely addressing the water shortages problems within these rural populations and rural areas. And we already successfully implement, tested and proven, but also effective of eco-friendly hydraulic systems called kahrises. Well, the main advantage of this approach is that once this kahris is rehabilitated, it provides a sustainable water all year around. Not for 10 years, but for hundreds years. So, talk about sustainability. We just need to look into the history in order to better to understand what is going to happen into the future. And then it also helped to create a low income communities who are with the low financial capacities and limited access to electricity, free water. And these are all communities of IDPs who are affected from the first Karabakh war in late 80s, early 90s. In addition to the rehabilitation of these kahrises actually, it's not only about the rehabilitation of the kahrises. We did so much more. First, although it's highly technical, sometimes risky job to rehabilitate these kahrises. Basically, we focus on the water discharge from these water kahrises for drinking purpose, for irrigation, but also we move an extra step in our work. We start to implement innovative technology and this innovative technology allows us to renovate faster, effective, cheaper and more safer without any risks. In addition to this rehabilitation, we also created the handbook for establishment of small and medium businesses. And basically, this is also in line with the ILO criteria for that one. And this handbook was used to train number of IDPs and also in addition to the training, they also receive small grants to which they were able to establish their small businesses. In addition, once they are trained, those people can also apply to the Ministry of Social Protection and Labor and they can apply to the social protection funds and receive additional funds for their small and medium businesses. Well, this combination of access to water and establishing businesses created opportunities for further growth and help support IDPs to better adapt for their livelihoods and future. In addition to that one, we are establishing water user committees and where 50% of these committees are women's. Basically, they are making decision how the water will be used for what purpose, for what distribution. And in addition to that one, the water user committee, once the CAHRIS is rehabilitated, actually will continue to make sure that CAHRIS will have its own life for many years to come. They will be the one to take charge of maintenance and support of that CAHRIS. In addition, we also work with the academia in Azerbaijan. We established the CAHRIS Research and Information Center and with this academia, now there is also a website, very useful website that everyone who is interested into CAHRIS rehabilitation can access and learn or visit the institutions or academia. In addition to this one, we also work with the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Labor, Social Protection, other water supply institution. And also, we work with the national adaptation plan where we would like to include migration aspects into that national adaptation plan. In addition to this one, we also in 2021 receive an energy global award for sustainability out of 1,800 projects that apply worldwide, IOMA's Azerbaijan Receive Award for this specific project. So let me try to sum up my presentation with one very interesting aspect. In May 2020 in Baku, I had the privilege to participate as a part of the public. And listen, Michele Dellucci is a well-known Italian designer, architect awarded with a number of awards around the world where he actually started, he was invited to talk about regeneration, design, new technology for a sustainable future. And then during his presentation, actually he mentioned that he worked with a team of anthropologists, philosophers, architects, sociologists. And they come up with some sort of an idea how probably future will look alike. They say that the future will look alike like interactors where work, office, and interaction with the schools will be happening in actually one place. Then they say that in the future, most of the things will be built by hands and by local communities. We will have education stations within these interactors and small communities. And they say that these stations will be happy stations. When I heard that one, actually, somehow I connect with what we are currently doing in Azerbaijan. Actually, we are working with the small villages. We are establishing better work. We are helping them. We are actually using the local community to build the capacity. And actually, if I may say so, we are actually leaving the future. Thank you very much. Thank you, all of you. So we get our now, we are now at the fun part of the conversation where we open up the floor to all of you to ask your questions or provide your comments or feedback. We'd love to hear from you. I know many of you in the audience and if folks are listening online have important points of view that you'd like to bring into the conversation. But if I may exercise my prerogative chair and start the questions, I think sometimes when we talk about labor mobility, in particular with populations that are extremely vulnerable or already in distress or are living on an extreme poverty, for example, there are always questions about how do we make sure even the process of recruiting people and make sure that the conditions under which they are employed are not themselves exploitative. And I know all of you at the table have good experience with policies and practices that allow us to protect the most vulnerable so that they are able to really benefit from the migration and not just in terms of the money they earn while working, but also in terms of knowledge and skills transfers. So if I could open that up, what do we see as sort of the best tools for protecting those who are most vulnerable? Yes, one thing we actually do in the Philippines is to have also the migrants themselves, protect themselves in the sense that we encourage overseas Filipino groups to themselves create these help centers which coordinate with the government to tell us about possible problems or more important to report to us about this or that illegal recruitment activity which is going on. It's actually, to be frank, it's almost a Pandora's box where you can't close it again. I mean, you can only limit it. We're talking about how they could be exploited or what we put up the mechanisms to try to regulate, in accordance with the GCM, the deployment of workers abroad and we come out with labor agreements, but sometimes they will just take undocumented who means out and it will be a problem. That's why we also have to work hand in hand with civil society. It's not just a government responsibility. It's international cooperation under the framing of a whole of government and a whole of society approach. So yes, it's an issue, we are aware of that, but we also look at the fact that it has the situations. As far as the Philippines' concern has greatly improved. When this started in the 90s, I would say the vast majority of Filipinos, well, I wouldn't say the vast majority of Filipinos might have been easy victims of trafficking groups or groups which did send them abroad legally, but for less paid than they were promised. So it's a matter of ensuring that we're trying to work to lessen this incidence. Another thing we do, the Philippines is now fighting or combating with other nations the phenomenon of wage theft. And when foreign employers realize that the sending country is going to be relentless in pointing out that this should be done, that should be done, this should be done, it builds momentum, which somehow lessens the incidences of human trafficking. There's no one size that's all approach, but one thing we do recommend the Philippines that government work together with civil society. So a tripartite thing between the government, the people, the migrants themselves, and the employers. So that's one approach we take. Thank you. So whole society approach and real advocacy on behalf of the government itself to protect its workers sounds key. Michelle, do you wanna jump in here? Sure, I mean you asked about recruitment and that is a huge concern of ours. And I think many, even in this room and online, we are very concerned because obviously those who have to be taking informal or irregular pathways are going to find themselves in situations where labor brokers may approach them and charge very high recruitment fees and costs. And that puts them at risk of debt bondage forced labor and trafficking. We adopted the Global Fair Recruitment Initiative and it's operating in about 30 countries. We're very happy to work with the Philippines and very happy countries like Mexico and Italy and others are really stepping up as well as our partners in Africa. But very pleased to see in fact that most recently the United States adopted a fair recruitment guidance for H2 visa holders in the United States. And we think these are the kinds of measures that are gonna be needed to first raise awareness about the problems in the recruitment process. It's the most unregulated area of migration and labor migration governance certainly. But also to ensure that there are mechanisms for oversight. And that means cooperation, and I'm glad the Under Secretary mentioned this, cooperation between sending and receiving countries, origin and destination. Because you can adopt all of the recruitment policies and programs and regulatory requirements in your own country, but because this is about people moving across and overseas and labor brokers operate in the margins and undetected and between jurisdictions, you really have to work with bilaterally with countries that are receiving migrant workers, but also within a multilateral context. Otherwise it's not going to work. And this is something that we're really encouraging governments to take measures to eliminate. And they can do that because when you ensure that there are fair recruitment processes and you have that oversight and monitoring, and it's between the countries who are receiving origin and destination, then the labor brokers who are violating law and criminally and really nefarious brokers who take money from these migrant workers and put them at risk, they have nowhere to go. So they are exposed. And this is something I think that's going to affect whether the climate migrants, women migrant workers who are in the most vulnerable situations or others, those even affected by COVID. We've just seen a lot of those kinds of abuses. So we would very much, and we think it starts the beginning of the abuse process that leads to wage theft and substitution of jobs, as the Under Secretary mentioned, because in the recruitment process, they won't have contracts, they won't have access to their rights, and they'll be unprotected when they get to destination and have nowhere to go. So thank you for raising that concern, Amy. One thing the Philippines noticed as well is when you're firm and don't link the receiving country or their institutions, eventually will cooperate with you. I won't mention countries, but there have been countries which were putting as part of the legal process, a certain exorbitant service fees for our work, which our workers have to pay for the recruitment agencies. And we said, well, well, we're not going to allow them to work. We're not going to verify their employment contracts because we don't agree with that. Eventually they give in because they do realize that it has to be win-win, win-win situation. The Philippines is the advantage though of the fact that Filipinos work everywhere. So if they don't go here, they could go there. So that's something, but one, that's piece of good news. Host countries, and we thank host countries receiving migrant workers all over the world. Thank you, thank you. Thank you for listening to our advocacies and our, well, I wouldn't say please, but our firm requests for us to put up the mechanisms so that there's no exorbitant fee charging or the possibility of trafficking. There is another situation wherein possibly to bypass legal means, I mean, the recognized deployment and recruitment means, what some countries do is to accept foreigners as trainees or as students with the ability to work afterwards. So that's a phenomenon, we're still adjusting to that because it's completely legal in the host country, but as far as workers, we don't know how to categorize or departing a countrymen and countrywomen because they're supposed to be going about the onious interns, supposed to be coming back, but there is a process for them to stay legally in the host country, but in that way, they're not part of our recruitment process. So it's an evolving, it's a world evolves and we'll adjust in accordance with it, but I do think that we have succeeded in great, me by leaps and bounds in protecting migrants around the world and we'll continue to do so. Thank you. Do you see anything in particular that works to protect the most vulnerable to ensure they're not exploited? Well, for me personally, and I believe we share the same vision, it's that there is a necessity for inclusiveness, meaning that when we talk about vulnerable population, we talk about human beings. They need to be involved into any consultation or participation when it comes to the development of policies or national strategies. With this, I think we will make sure that also those who might be most vulnerable will also raise their voice and we will hear their concerns. On the same time, we will also have the local institutions, international institutions, UN agencies who will help to develop those policies and strategy for the benefit of the citizens. And I think, indeed, it's not the kind of solution that provides, it's not a solution that once time resolve everything. I think we have to be aware that all these strategies and policies are very dynamic and I think GCM give a great opportunity to see how migration should be managed and it's great that all the member states are supporting GCM and I think with GCM vision and with all this necessary consultation and inclusiveness, I think we will see very good results. But I would also like to say that those results needs to come very soon. I think this morning we heard our Digi when he was saying it's not a matter of also discussing but also a matter of urgency. We heard that 1.3 billion internal migrants are existing around the world. One billion people have problems to access a proper land for agriculture. Climate change is there. So I think there is a need, a sense for urgency and a lot of work which is ahead of us. I see our colleague from FAO who's been a good partner and a lot of this work has your hand up. Go ahead. Madam Chair, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start by thanking the esteemed speakers, participants and organizers for drawing the attention to this increasingly important topic. Climate change is already negatively impacting food production and food security around the world, particularly for low income households and small scale farmers. Food security, rural lives and livelihoods will be increasingly affected by projected future climate change with direct and indirect impacts on human mobility. FAO supports rural communities to better manage climate related risks by helping create climate resilient livelihoods and green job opportunities in rural areas while also promoting the sustainable and use and management of resources. For instance, FAO's action against the certification has helped to restore the productivity of degraded lands and the livelihoods of local communities in the Sahel region. More than 500 rural communities have seen improved food security and income generation opportunities through the development of value chains linked to the restoration of degraded lands which benefited in particular women and youth to improve their livelihoods and resilience. In rural communities of Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and Timor-Leste, affected by environmental degradation, depletion of natural resources and severe lack of decent jobs, FAO strengthens the resilience of rural economies by building the capacities of young men and women in green agriculture, green energy and waste management and supporting the implementation of green businesses through public green employment schemes. Migration is a common adaptation strategy for rural households and has the potential to strengthen the household's adaptive capacity and contribute to building climate resilient livelihoods. In order to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities and to tap into the potential of migration to contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation, it is of critical importance to create enabling environments in areas of origin, transit and destination and recognize gender-specific needs. This will require improved coherence and coordination between sectoral policies and programming as well as enhanced collaboration between policy actors at all levels. Thank you for your attention and for providing a platform for this timely discussion. Thank you very much. We now have a list of speakers so I'll turn to the Eurasian Economic Commission for your comments, please. The participants of the session, ladies and gentlemen, the Eurasian Economic Commission is a permanent supernational body of the Eurasian Economic Union. In the commission, I serve as a member of the board and represent of Republic of Kazakhstan. Aside from economic and financial policy, I supervise labor migration issue. I would like to note that the interaction between the commission and the IOM has a rich history based of the memorandum of cooperation between organizations signed in 2013. The global compact adopted at the 73rd session in the UN General Assembly in December 2018 reflects the commission's recommendations based on the experience of Eurasian integration in the field of labor migration. The commission holds the act as an observer at the annual meetings of the IOM Council. The formation of a common single labor market is on the goals of the Eurasian Economic Union. Today, the EAU labor market comprises of 93 million workers for whom all conditions are created for legal, voluntary, and safe labor migration. We created the digital system work without borders as a mechanism to promote the development of organized forms of employment. The system gives citizens the opportunity to look for a job without leaving their place of residence and allows employees to recruit workers from other EAU countries. Mobile applications are being launched to provide necessary services online in order to ensure the free movement of workers between countries. The single labor market is entirely linked to the issues of training through the system of vocational education. The Treaty of the Union regulates the direct recognition of educational documents. Also, the issue of recognition of qualifications is a matter of great importance. In the very near future, we plan to start to work on the concept for the development of the single EAU labor market with the involvement of international organizations, including the AOM country offices in our member status. Despite the created conditions, we are a number of difficult spaces by citizens of our status. They are mainly related to issues of poor awareness of citizens and the lack of certain skills. All this gives us reason to recommend of governments to include migration issues in the development of local policies. The sending countries should provide pre-departure preparation of citizens, including issues of training and retraining, organized forms of employment. The host countries should provide conditions to legal stay of citizens, integration into local communities, and protection of their rights. In conclusion, I would like to point out that the commission supports the efforts of the International Organization of Migration, which works to improve the working and living conditions of migrants, protect their rights, and expand opportunities to self-fulfillment. The commission also supports the AOM principle that humane and organized migration benefits both migrants and society. We are interested in the effective partnership that aims to promote social and economic progress, improve well-being, and working conditions of people. Thank you. Thank you very much. I next have the United States, followed by Morocco. Thank you to the distinguished panel members and to Deputy Director General Pope for this important discussion on resilience that is both relevant and timely. We recognize that climate change exacerbates existing social, economic, and environmental vulnerabilities, and can undermine food, water, and economic security. We appreciate that Deputy Director General Pope and others on this panel have had firsthand experience helping to respond to climate-induced disasters and displacement and have an invaluable perspective on this issue. With this recognition, the United States has deepened our support for climate change adaptation and is dedicated to reducing the risk of climate-related disasters and to building resilience to the impacts of natural hazards and climate change, including climate impacts that contribute to forced displacement and to regular migration. President Biden's emergency plan for adaptation and resilience, better known as PREPARE, aims to help more than half a billion people in developing countries adapt to and manage the impacts of climate change. Through PREPARE, we are investing in agricultural climate resilience in least-developed countries. We've also invested in efforts to improve the climate resilience of food systems through expansion of our Feed the Future program and through contributions to the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the Food and Agricultural Organization. Russia's war on Ukraine exacerbated the food security crisis globally, adding to the impacts of drought and other environmental factors. In response, the United States has scaled up humanitarian food assistance globally, contributing nearly $6 billion to the World Food Program in 2022. Developing labor pathways are also a focus by promoting fair labor practices for migrant workers, as Michelle noted earlier. For example, in the Western Hemisphere, the U.S. funds IOM to support development of host country government's capacity to promote access to regular labor pathways and reduce risk of exploitation of vulnerable migrants, including through ethical recruitment. We were very pleased to see the prioritization of climate for projects funded by the Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund and in support of the Global Compact. For this reason, we announced just last week a contribution of $5 million to the MPTF to support programs to benefit vulnerable migrants affected by climate change. This was a recommendation in the White House report on the impact of climate change on migration released last year, in which many of our international organization partners and civil society organizations participating today met with us to discuss and provide their thoughts and recommendations. We appreciate and want to continue the conversation with all of you as we are doing today as we develop policies and support programs that address the nexus between climate change and migration. We look forward to building on the work that has been done here in Geneva, as well as to the upcoming discussions to take place at COP 27. Thank you. Thank you very much. Morocco. Thank you. Honorable Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs of the Philippines, Madam Deputy Director General, Excellencies, dear colleagues, let me first thank the IOM for this timely initiative with COP 27 taking place in only a few weeks. The decision to dedicate this year's IGM to the impacts of food insecurity and climate change on migration and displacement reflects a shared awareness of a common environmental destiny, a destiny rich in opportunities and challenges. In particular, this panel is an encounter with the future that my delegation wants to stress on, that of green economy. This issue lies at the intersection of sustainable development and fight against climate change as well as it is now established, their consequences on displacement and migration. I will dedicate these few words to a region, the African continent, which bears a burden and for which the challenges are as important as the opportunities. Indeed, the need for green and more sustainable finance is one of a bitter observation. Africa, which accounts for only 1% of greenhouse gas emissions, is paradoxically the first victim of climate change. 20% of its economic production could disappear by 2050. At the same time, green financing is limited by the extractive nature of African economies, while electricity production in Africa will double by 2030. Fossil fuels will still account for 2-3rd of the energy mix. Africa therefore faces a double burden, a difficulty in accessing green finance, Africa mobilizes only 5% of climate finance, a high cost of green finance. When financing is secured, African countries pay higher costs for adaptation and mitigation. Excellencies, African success stories exist and they are duplicable. For their part, African financial institutions capture the breadth and depth of the challenges facing green finance. Thus, the funds allocated by the African Development Bank to climate change have increased from 9% in 2016 to 40% in 2021. In other words, they have increased fourfold in five years, totaling some $3.6 billion. In addition to the targeted aid provided by international financial institutions and foreign direct investments, a new innovative piece of this financial puzzle has materialized through label bonds known as green bonds. Green bond issues in Africa have increased by 495% from 2018 to 2019. As an example, the West African Development Bank raised in January 2021 some 750 million of green bonds well below the market price. The trend was even more pronounced in Morocco in the wake of COP 22 held in Marrakech in 2016. Green bonds issued by the kingdom financial institutions raised eight times more funds than the initial targets. 380 million instead of 40 million. Despite these advances, the post-social growth remains significant. Of the 1 trillion in green bonds issued worldwide, less than 20% is from developing markets. Latin America and Africa combined account for less than 3% of global green bond issuance. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the inability of government to provide green finance has a direct impact on households. This is the very objective of this statement. Morocco strongly believes that it is a top-down approach supported and desired by the international community that will enable localized financing that can prevent forced displacement and produce sustainable economic opportunities for African citizens. There is a need to create a consensus on the importance of the increasing impact of climate change on human mobility. The means to address this issue does not limit themselves to green finance. We do believe as Morocco in African-led initiatives. The COP27 can build up on the outcomes of COP22, organized in Marrakesh, notably the AAA initiative, adaptation of African agriculture, the triple S initiative, sustainability, stability and security in Africa, the blue belt initiative for sustainable fisheries in Africa, the water for Africa initiative, the African youth climate hub initiative, as well as the coalition for access to sustainable energy, especially with Ethiopia. I have only touched on a small part of the interrelationships here. As the various panelists have indicated, education, training, as well as fighting human trafficking are equally important in building the resilience of the most vulnerable. I particularly commend IOM's four messages to COP27 and we wish Morocco is in line, particularly for ensuring that human mobility leading to climate hazards is recognized and well-addressed at local, national, regional and international levels through dedicated climate change and migration policies with whole of government approaches. Ladies and gentlemen, Morocco has high hopes for carrying a message and action that combine resilience and economic development and will be present to do so at the COP27 in Egypt. Thank you very much. Thank you very much from Morocco. I next have the representative of Bangladesh followed by the representative of China, who is online. And finally, the ambassador to Niger, who is also online. Bangladesh, please. Thank you, Madam moderator. I thank IOM for dedicating this year's IDM to discuss climate change, particularly when we are going to have COP27 within one month. And I would also like to thank the panelists for their very thought-provoking discussions and observation. Madam moderator, as you are aware, Bangladesh is a highly climate-vulnerable country. In fact, when I'm delivering this statement, my country has already been hit by a very strong, very powerful cyclone called Citrang. So we have just been informed that it has hit our coastal areas. So Madam, our people face the threat of large-scale climate migration and displacement. And we are also aware that we are yet to have any global legal protection for the climate-induced migrants and displaced people. We know that migration is a very effective adaptation strategy. However, as a migrant-sendering country, we are also aware that there are lots of vulnerabilities and challenges that the migrants, particularly the migrant workers, face. As an effort to improve their condition, the government of Bangladesh has undertaken different skilling, upskilling, and re-skilling training programs. In the context of international migration, mutual recognition of skills, qualification, and competencies is an important contributing factor for facilitating pathways of regular migration and ensuring decent work. However, sadly, this is yet to be widely established. Time has come that we scale up bilateral and regional partnership to ensure such recognition. Bangladesh has always been a great advocate for the rights and benefits of migrants and their families. In our continued efforts to ensure social protection for migrants, we formed a fund for rehabilitation and re-employment of jobless migrant workers who have returned home after losing their jobs overseas due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The affected migrants and their family members now are given humanitarian assistance including financial aid. We are providing aspirant migrants easy and low-cost loans to relieve their financial stress while going abroad for jobs. The family of each expatriate worker who have passed away due to the COVID-19 pandemic is getting death compensation. Scholarship has been given to meritorious children of migrant workers. We need to ensure effective portability of benefits and entitlements as well. In this regard, a bilateral regional or multilateral social security agreement could be concluded. This forum can facilitate discourse and dialogues on such international cooperation. We have made pre-departure training mandatory for all outgoing migrants to empower them and facilitate social cohesion in the destination countries. This training covers rules and regulations, food habits, safety and security, social norms and customs and working conditions of the destination country. Language training has also been introduced. Despite all our endeavors, we have seen that many of our migrants, particularly women migrants, have faced intolerance, abuse and discrimination in the host countries. We hope that governments, IOM and all other stakeholders will make efforts, concerted efforts to put in place measures that would address the vulnerabilities of the migrants and strengthen their resilience against discrimination as well as economic shocks. I thank you, madam. Thank you very much, China. We hear you, go ahead. Yes, yes. Good afternoon, Ms. Polk, colleagues. I would like to add some additional information and recommendations. COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected migration and impacted stability of industrial and supply chains. Global migration becomes complex and fragile. It is urgent to overcome such impacts and help vulnerable migrants improve their resilience. During the United Nations General Assembly last year, President Xi Jinping put forward the Global Development Initiative, accelerating implementation of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. The 20th Congress of Communist Party of China has also stressed the idea of building the community with a shared future for mankind and creating a new form of civilization. Chinese governments will be committed to building an economy open to the world, strengthening micro-policy coordination and safeguarding stability of industrial and supply chains, seeking to people-oriented development, giving priority to promoting development and ensuring people's wellbeing, facilitating international cooperation in poverty reduction and food security, striving to address unbalanced and inadequate development, especially attaching great importance in protecting legitimate rights and interests of foreigners. Here, I would like to share some points of view. First, we should include migrants in national sustainable development plans to unleash their potential. We have delivered many inclusive initiatives to protect legitimate rights and interests of foreigners. We have introduced policies to facilitate extension of residents for foreigners in China, including automatic extension of residents permits, speeding up visa insurance for new foreign entrepreneurs, expanding insurance of long-term visas and residents permits, and enriching application of permanent resident permits. We have established migration service centers with bilingual service platform named 12367 with more than 2.8 million calls received. We have provided non-discriminary medical observation and treatment for foreigners. Second, we should strengthen international cooperation and provide better conditions for migrants. The Chinese government has always taken an open, inclusive and partial attitude towards migrants, upholding the opinion that regular migrants do make contribution to social and economic development. China proposed that we practice extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared health benefits in global governance and real multilateralism. We should strengthen international cooperation in order to improve economy and a well-being in origin countries as well as promote inclusion and integration of migration in primary destination countries. Third, we should strengthen exchange of experience in the practices to improve living environment for migrants. Under the impacts of the pandemic, it is obvious that issue of migration management cannot be addressed by one nation alone. It is essential for competent authorities of all nations to strengthen exchange of experiences and best practices with the purpose of providing practical and effective solutions for migration management. Thank you for your attention. Many thanks, China. Finally, we have the ambassador of Niger, who is online. Madam moderator, it is always a pleasure to see you moderating, particularly for this important panel. Congratulations to you and to the panelists for their excellent presentations. As we have always said, the geographical location of Niger between North and West Africa means that it is a country of transit. It is a country of great migration. And it is also a country of destination. And it is one with different characteristics. It is a country which has a long tradition of seasonal migration, which is done through the sector, going to neighboring countries. And then there are people who leave in search of better economic resources. And that is why our economic development is linked to migration. And employment policy is a priority in our country. And we have taken these aspects into consideration in our economic and social development plan and our national migration policy as well as our national migration strategies. So it is through our different tools that the government has been fighting against vulnerability, which has an impact on certain populations, including migrant populations and above all children and women. And that is why the government is strengthening its efforts to ensure migrants' rights are respected and that they have access to decent work, education and health care, as well as ensuring they have access to social protection. And this is being done through a number of provisions for providing training. And we also ensure that there is the fundamental right for social protection, which is granted. And this has legal coverage. The government has also a policy for promoting food security and to ensure that we have land conservation as well as job creation in the productive sectors, particularly in rural areas. And we also support businesses being created in urban areas. We have a number of examples that we could go through, but I will conclude by saying, we believe that because we face new challenges linked to migration, such as the challenge of natural disasters, climate change and sociopolitical crises, we need to ensure that there is greater protection given to migrants. We need to ensure that economic development programs and national programs are given greater support. We also need to strengthen our global partnerships by showing international solidarity. Thank you, Madam Moderator. Thank you for your very important statement. I think we are ready to wrap up. So perhaps I could ask our three panelists to offer any closing views, especially including some of the very, very thoughtful interventions we've had so far. Thank you. Well, I'd like to emphasize again how migrants find themselves in vulnerable situations. And therefore, we hope that to achieve migrants resilience, our policy should be preventive as well so that migrants will not be placed in vulnerable situations. We've heard how we should work so that migration is a matter of choice and not of survival. I'm very pleased as a country which receives and of course sends migrants to hear the points raised by colleagues around the world in Asia, including Eurasia. We have people coming in, coming out. We thank, for example, the intervention of our colleague from China. And for Bangladesh, we are actually working together on a wage theft side event in the United Nations next month. And it makes me proud. And now in French, we have heard the words from the Ambassador of Niger. And I have to say that I am very pleased to hear that Niger has policies that are very similar to those that we have in the Philippines. And that is policies for all people, whether they are migrants or not. But of course, we have a long way to go. We would like to thank you for your support. Of course, we didn't hear from our colleagues from Latin America, our brothers and sisters. We haven't heard from our Spanish-speaking colleagues. But we know that you also have a very important role to play. Philippines and Mexico worked together to sign the convention on protecting migrants and their families. Endeavour. And similar as how we, I hope I can say this, we have conquered COVID, I hope. I don't want to jump the gun, but we are actually meeting. Let's admit it, a few years ago, we didn't think we'd ever have something like this. We thought it might take five years before we do something like this, but we're here. And I think we shall be able to advance the, continue to advance migrant workers. And remember, all these are cross-cutting principles, including climate change, women's rights, children's rights. And they're all consistent with the principles of the United Nations Charter. Thank you. It's a great pleasure for me to have been here. Thank you, Undersecretary. Michelle. Well, thank you very much. And I think there's been a lot said and it's certainly been a rich discussion. And I think I've heard from many different speakers different aspects and angles. But I think the one that we all keep in mind is that we're talking about human beings. And thank you for all the colleagues who've mentioned that this is not just about policy. This is about really people who are in the process of having to move fighting issues of discrimination and lack of protection. But they find themselves also in the socioeconomic context in which countries are evolving. And as they move into another country, they may or may not be subject to those kinds of influences. Certainly discrimination against women is a huge issue in the context of the fact that women don't have access to jobs and the same jobs and equal treatment. The fact that migrant workers are even more subject to wage discrepancies and unequal treatment than even their national women counterparts. These are the vulnerabilities they face and climate change is going to exacerbate that in significant and exponential ways. So I think we have a lot to do, a lot to consider in terms of updating and scaling up our migration policies. But I want to pick up just on one note because there was a lot of discussion about of course the national policy work we need to do and coherence between decent work, employment and migration policies. But also about cooperation across borders. And I mentioned fair recruitment but there is guidance now on bilateral labor migration agreements that the UN network adopted and ILO and IOM were co-chairs of that but it was multi-stakeholder involving many different groups in civil society, many UN agencies and so on. This guidance was rolled out earlier this year and it really pertains to cooperation agreements that can help support a right space protections for migrant workers who are leaving climate affected areas. So I think we would encourage you to take a look at those sorts of tools as well as things that are coming online, that migrant recruitment advisor which is like a trip advisor for migrant workers to report on the kinds of fees and costs they're paying. And there's many tools out there. I hope we'll have opportunity for further exchanges as we go forward. But thank you very much. Thank you. And Vladimir, the last two minutes are yours. Thank you very much. Did you hope, okay. Probably I will just go with some kind of also interesting suggestions. I think there is a need to do some mapping of all good practices that exist around the world, especially when it comes to the climate change, migration and displacement. And I think it's not only Azerbaijan. I think we have so many countries around the world that can give a good example of how we can address those vulnerabilities. And I think once we have that mapping, maybe we can even do a little bit more promotion of those best practices that exist and try to improve on those best practices that exist. And I think this will also help. I think climate financing will be able to probably a little bit more focus on peace innovations, listen more innovation and basically trying to mimic the natural processes. I believe that is also one of the factors that we need to take into consideration for our healthy planet and for our healthy future. And I will just finish with last sentence. I will just say that all of these policies, strategies, these are the dynamic documents. They should remain dynamic and they just need to be probably reviewed and improved. I think I'm talking from the perspective of a person who was able to create some policies and work on the policies and improve over a period of time. So no policies are guaranteed that things can be fixed. There is no one time fix. We need to constantly work on those things and make sure that, as I said, we'll have an effect on the healthy planet and the healthy population. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. There's quite a lot that has come out in the last hour and a half, but I think the bottom line is that there's a tremendous opportunity here for us all to work together to improve the labor mobility opportunities for migrants around the world. And frankly, that's not just an opportunity that we must take, but it's an urgent requirement, particularly in the face of a changing climate. So I hope this conversation has helped spark some good ideas for all of you. And we look forward to continuing the conversation when we reconvene the IDM tomorrow morning. Thanks very much.