 Perfect. I think we can start. Good afternoon or good morning, everyone, from the EURM Knowledge Management Hub, the App on Return Migration and Sustainable Reintegration. The conversation that we will have today is part of a set of webinars organized by the Knowledge Management Hub and aiming to present specific return and reintegration practices and tools, and to encourage knowledge and experience sharing. Today, we will present an important tool recently released by IUM, the Return Counseling Toolkit. This toolkit is a capacity building instrument aimed at providing a coherent and harmonized approach to return counseling based on migrant center principles that will further be addressed by our speakers today. The aim of the toolkit is to address the capacity building needs of return counselors and to facilitate in a very practical way their work, as well as to strengthen the knowledge of other stakeholders such as national, local authorities and civil society. So I quickly introduce myself. I am Francesco Giassi and I'm pleased to welcome you today to this webinar. I work as knowledge management officer at the Knowledge Management Hub funded by the European Union and implemented by IUM through its protection division. So before we start, let me share with you some technical indications about this webinar. If you have any technical problem, please contact us at the email address you see on the screen. Please feel free to ask your question through the chat. They will be collected and addressed during the question and answer session after the speaker's presentation. And as a last point, this webinar will be recorded and made available in the return and reintegration platform. So we are very pleased to share with you today different voices and experiences on the return counseling. We will have Rose Bolland, head of the IUM return and reintegration unit at IUM HQ, who will help us to set the frame and share a few considerations including on the relevance of the toolkit for the operationalization of return or admission and reintegration policies. In addition to her intervention, colleagues from the Western Balkans, Donatella Bradich, Migration Management Team Leader, and Alexander Yugović, AVR Protection Migrant Assistance, will tell us more about the tool and share best practices from its development and implementation. Colleagues from Save the Children and UNICEF, respectively Bogdan Krasic, Program Director of the Balkans Migration and Displacement app, and Verena Gnaus, Global Lead of Migration Development at UNICEF, will tell us more about the upcoming module of the toolkit developed in partnership with the tree organization and focus on children. After these interventions with the help of Jamaica Scopa from the IUM Regional Office in Vienna, we will move to the interactive session where we will ask the panelists to address the questions that you will share with us throughout the webinar. We can now start our conversation and I'm very glad to give the floor to Rose Borland, Head of Return and Reintegration Unit. As you see from the screen, Rose has 18 years of international development experience. During her career, she specialized on issues related to the migrants' human rights, particularly on trafficking in persons and health, as well as return, migration and reintegration. So let's start this brief journey around the return counseling toolkit. As mentioned, the toolkit also contributes to the operationalization of the IUM's policy on return, redmission and reintegration. So please, Rose, the floor is yours. Thank you Francesco and good morning, good afternoon to everyone who's joining us. We're so pleased to have you with us now or those who will listen to the recording in the future. I have the honor to be here to set the stage a bit for this launch of this very important tool. So I have been asked to share a bit of information about our work globally on return and reintegration with our partners and our member states, and to situate today's discussion in that international context. So I'm quite honored to be here and and I'm very delighted you're joining us. The first point that I would like to make is that return and reintegration are increasingly important to governments and other actors around the world who are setting policy. We've seen this for example in the dedicated objective within the Global Compact on Migration, Objective 21, that is a commitment of states to cooperate and to facilitate safe and dignified return, as well as sustainable reintegration. Those of you who have been involved in the GCM International Migration Review Forum, you will have seen this topic included in the progress speculation, but perhaps more importantly, we're seeing in the pledges that we're receiving in the GCM from countries a tendency to include return and reintegration. So again, the importance of the topic is is high, and it's now our responsibility within the UN system including IOM as the UN Migration Agency to contribute to these commitments, as well as those in the 2030 agenda that link to return, readmission and reintegration. So within IOM strategic planning and objectives, there's a few here that you can see. We really focus on the rights of the migrants and ensuring that their return is safe and dignified, and then the element of an informed decision to return voluntarily. And we're going to talk about that a bit more and that links very closely to this tool that we're going to be discussing today. That includes supporting returnees at the individual level, but also work that is done to support their communities, structural systems and the authorities, and looking at return and reintegration in ways that link to development priorities and sustainable development actions at the local level as well. And work in IOM, for example, with our partners often includes technical support and advice training, fostering dialogue and cooperation, and all of this again towards the rights based approach to this continuum of return, readmission and reintegration. And because of today's webinar, it's important to also talk about an evidence base. And part of what we do is that we are accountable to the people that we assist to our member states, but also to the community that's working on these issues to learn from what we do and to do it better. So this evidence based programming leads to this kind of global tool that we hope is useful not only for IOM but for everyone who's working on this topic. And then the IOM global policy on the full spectrum of return, readmission and reintegration, which has a holistic approach. It's again linked to a rights based focus and it has different guiding principles. And again it has this aim of safe and dignified return, readmission and sustainable reintegration. Today what's worth highlighting is again that we want this process to be focused on the well-being and the rights of the people who are returning, and that they are involved in every decision and process related to their return. And that micro centered focus is very important and their protection and well-being is central, but not as objects, not as people who are being moved around. There's an issue of their own leadership in their process their own agency and decision making to make an informed decision about participating in a voluntary return program or not. And this leads us then to the tool that we're talking about today and the actions related to return counseling. And this is something that's been like IOM work and our partners work in return and reintegration for a very long time pre-departure information provision has been a part of this, but really looking to increase the agency of the migrants and the ownership of their decisions, ensuring that their rights are upheld, that we detect any vulnerabilities or needs that are to be addressed. And so in the return process during the reintegration to come and preparing for safe travel and and sustainable reintegration that that requires a more comprehensive approach and a different kind of counseling and that is the good practice that has been captured that you're going to hear more about today. So there's a link finally I want to emphasize between return counseling and sustainable reintegration. And this is linked to the way IOM and our partners approach the reintegration and the fact that there is an integrated approach that has different dimensions. When someone returns to their country, they look to reintegrate in different ways and we, we talk about economic reintegration, social reintegration and psychosocial dimensions. But in addition to the support to that person as an individual and their household or family, we also have reintegration work at both the community and the structural level. And this again is that important link to systems and sustainable processes to ensure that this reintegration work continues, as well as local priorities and community priorities. So when you are conducting return counseling, you are already preparing for reintegration and that link needs to start from that stage of pre departure and decision making. That includes the first steps towards a reintegration plan. It includes identifying needs and vulnerabilities and including them in your planning, such as the specific needs of certain family members. But it also means building on the strengths and the resilience factors that a person has that can facilitate their migration. So again, that agency to to look at the person and not only address risks but also protective factors as well. And finally, I would say very important, this sort of planning for reintegration while it begins at the pre departure stage should never happen in one country without the link to the country of return. And one good practice that I can mention is remote counseling, where counselors from the country of origin from the country of return are speaking to the potential returning who are in Germany, for example, awaiting return and that information about the real return context what is truly available, how the country has changed is critically important to return and reintegration. So I believe that I will stop there and hand back to you Francesco thank you so much and congratulations everyone on this important tool. Thank you so much Rose for setting the frame of our conversation and describe the policy context, the importance of the counseling as well as a strong link with the sustainable reintegration as part of its integrated approach. So the toolkit as a global perspective, although it also includes some specific focusing on the Western Balkans. And I'm glad now to give the floor to colleagues from the region that we'll add more on the toolkit. Let's start with Donatella Bradich. Donatella specialized in migration management with focus on protection sensitive procedures in mixed migration flows. She has more than 25 years of experience in aid and development, and an extensive expertise in border management practices. Donatella the floor is yours. Thank you Francesco and thank you Rose for this introduction and giving us the setting the stage for drive a bit deeper into the toolkit itself. I also wanted to take the opportunity to acknowledge the presence of the Danish Foreign Affairs, who has kindly funded this initiative in our region and is here and I am glad that you managed to be present here today. It is indeed through an initiative that we started working on the toolkit that was supported and was kindly kind of acknowledged by the Danish colleagues and we were able to provide or to develop a global global tool that came from a national or a regional initiative, so to speak. And we have seen that the return counseling assistance has evolved over the years and the necessity, let's say to develop institutional guidance and operational tools has gained a lot of importance. We in the Western Balkans, let's say, have been on the forefront of this new developments given the mixed migration flows that we have been facing over the years. And while many resources to guide their integration process already exists. There was no institutional guidance on pre departure counseling that was available that was available and practices have essentially would say being developed as country and mission level, driven by local knowledge and experience which is in essence, totally agreeable and contextually right because every context has its own particularities, but there was a need to standardize to ensure consistency in service delivery and also to learn and make the learning central to it. That's why today we have with us counselors not only from the countries of the departure but also the countries of origin, because as rose mentioned, you know return doesn't doesn't stop or doesn't end at departure. The counseling last throughout the process of return and and reintegration. Either the return counseling toolkit has six main areas of work and the conceptualizing return the understanding the context in which we operate the method that we use for counseling which is very important and that's where I thought about the standardization and the consistency. And also the fact that we made the protection central a central element in this in this toolkit. Working around the, the agency of the migrant and because we see that you know how do we need to be aware that the migrant agencies and important element but how you make that work in practice. So we need to be able to work along those vulnerabilities addressing them and understanding them in the context of the return process which has many faces. So delivering return counseling is different settings. It's very important and you will see how this will be further kind of described by my colleague afterwards. And of course, the element of working with children, which is very important. That's why we partnered with other organizations who have specific expertise in this in this area of working with children. So we paired our expertise in working on return and and prepare the specific annex of the counseling toolkit that has that deals only with counseling of children and their families in the return process. And an essential component of the return process of course, as I said is the, the provision of counseling and to enhance the agency and to enable individuals to make an informed decision for the future and their migration pathway. And as also my role said it builds upon, you know, info information provision, but that's only the beginning. So, it really needs to be tailored to each migrant specific a situation, and we as practitioners and my colleagues in the field as practitioners, indeed have that kind of exposure that each situation is indeed very specific and requires a very tailored approach, which in a way we realize the need for having a case management approach in the toolkit and this is where we, we kind of aimed at, at perfecting this, this toolkit in that direction. And of course, empowering the migrants in making the right decision and also not only the right decision but in case they, you know, in the issue of in issue of readmission situations and other elements that are not necessarily, you know, voluntary as such they can still decide what's best for them and among the different opportunities choose the one and work on the opportunity and the decision before they start their journey home. And the element of protection is the something that we have really tried to make central throughout this document. How do we do that? How do we work with the specific individual vulnerabilities and vulnerable individuals? You know, we have the standard vulnerability screens tools and forms that we have used over the years so we try to adapt those and and really make sure that they adapted to the local context. What is the local context? I mean, we have seen over the preparation of this toolkit that many of our counselors work in very diverse environments. We have a European environment of counseling, which is very different from the ones that we have in the Western Balkans than the one maybe there are in the other continents. So for what has, let's say, began as a local or as a regional tool and a regional initiative, we realize that it has its utility globally. But it cannot not address the issue of being tailored to the specific needs of each setting and each context. And the issue of vulnerability screening, you know, when we talk about standardization and also consistency is not one off and should be reassessed as necessary as often as necessary and also throughout the return process. This is where the case management element comes in and the approach and the methodology and the method that we use and had in mind when we were producing this was the central element of it. And any vulnerability needs to be considered throughout the process and the information that we come across during the counseling needs to be understood in the context of vulnerability and and analyzed and also referred to in due process in in due time. The issue of confidentiality and privacy is something that, of course, it's promoted and it's well important but I think my colleague Alexander will explain how that may be a challenge in the context specifically of the Western Balkans. So to go back to the to our region. I introduced this pictures from our library on purpose so that you can see what kind of settings we have and what kind of context that we are facing in providing counseling and outreach first, and then also information and also counseling. So it's a challenging environment and the element of privacy as it said previously in the in one of the main kind of issues is very difficult and we know that migrants in groups are very reluctant to voice their plans or needs or thinking about the pressure there's a lot of other dynamics going on so the consistency in in making sure that people are informed and we also what we also have noticed is that the root base approach that we have and the consistency of the messaging that is provided from the entry point to the end point to the opening is a very important element. So gradually people can, you know, accept this information metabolize it and eventually reach and maturity of making their decision at some point during the journey. So, you can see the four main standards that we have taken into consideration when when working on on the toolkit. So, of course, we are working with people who have been exposed to trauma has been exposed to violence risk brutality very often. So this needs to be very central in our approach. We need to be able to refer and provide migrants with key services in in relation to their vulnerabilities, and we don't work alone in that so there's a variety and a placer of organizations and government settings that can provide that so very important the network that we build in the counseling process. And then, of course, share this information about availability available available services in the country of return, because that is where our network IRM network of counselors in countries of origin is becomes key. There's a lot of steps, which includes also online counseling and virtual counseling. So that before the return, our colleagues in the countries of origin are able to already establish a connection with the returning migrants provide up to date information. So first hand from the context in which they're sitting and make sure that the migrants can have the most up to date information about their returning decision making process. And of course work in cooperation with government because that's the host government member states but also they have they are the duty bearer at the end of the day. The responsibility for the welfare of the people on their territory is of the government. So we are very aware of the importance of making sure that the right approach protection sensitive approach is embedded in our procedures, but also in the procedures of the government and the society organization. One last slide is this map that we show you here with the blue dots and you can see where counseling is taking place in the Western Balkans to see how many locations there are and how widespread the work is. And that means that at every given time, there are counselors working not only in reception centers, but also as you saw on the road in very remote areas in areas next to borders in areas where migrants are exposed to traffickers or smugglers. So it's a very demanding outreach and counseling approach, which is making different from the context maybe in new member states or in other areas that we have we are used to or have been used to working in as an organization. So this will be from my side and I'll take the opportunity to now present you my colleague who works in Bosnia Herzegovina in Sarajevo, Alexander is a migrant protection and AVR counselor working in our mission in Bosnia Herzegovina under a regional of course, VB, the Western Balkan AVR program. He has joined some time ago he's now on his fifth year already he has grown I would say with us and with our program and has gained significant expertise and experience in the field of protection and migrant assistant and I'm very proud that he's here speaking on our behalf today. And as you know, as you can see here he's also certified trainer for delivering employability skills to VOT. So Alexander please take the floor and looking forward to hearing what you have to say. Thank you. Thank you Donatella for such a kind introduction. I will use the opportunity to read all the colleagues here. I'm very happy to be here today especially as this really is a huge minus for not only for us but for R&R and R&G globally. I think that this toolkit is providing significant value for the future and for the present so I will just take a few minutes of time to go through our field experience with testing the toolkit and what were the developments and how we managed to get the best practice from the Western Balkans. So I can say that we really tried to from the start of the development of the toolkit to address vulnerabilities of beneficiaries as a core and as well to have a migrant centered approach at all times. So when we were testing the toolkit, we wanted to use the document toolkit in a full scale like we had no previous working experience and what was very successful within the toolkit is that we managed to come from first step to last step with no difficulties because this document really presents a core document which covers all the we can say needs. of one who is providing counseling to a beneficiary to a migrant in any particular setting. Protection and vulnerability screening needs assessment, vulnerability assessment as well are again at the core of the rights based approach of the migrants who should facilitate and who we are as well facilitating to use and assess their agency. At the core really what we were trying to do at all occasions was do no harm principle which is highlighted to the toolkit at all occasions and we can say that the whole of the term counseling methodology laid out in the toolkit is very, very intuitive, very easy to use and it really brings huge value for the future. I can say that because R&R and delivering counseling is a bit challenging, especially because those information that needs to be shared with the beneficiaries during the counseling session, they must be in a very trustful manner, very disclose and it is important to ensure confidentiality and physical and virtual spaces must always be safe for our beneficiaries. And of course to apply the do no harm principle. What was really useful during our testing was done, we can say, especially delivering counseling in detention facilities, which is as well is quite, quite highlighted nicely in the toolkit, especially in a form of a challenge and proposal solution, which as well is a part of the feedback which Jamaika and Kiara and all the other involved colleagues received during the work which was put through to create the toolkit. What is particularly important is that we manage to allow all the stakeholders who are involved in the return process, will get a better understanding on the R&R policy as well as what an assistant dignified voluntary return and the integration program should include, still keeping the safety and the confidentiality and protection of our beneficiaries at heart. We are trying to empower migrants in this way to really step forward and take ownership through all the phases of the return process. And enable them to make an important decision on how to proceed with their return. As well, it is very good to mention that the toolkit lays out various challenges, which can occur, let's say for a migrant who is returning with a condition, etc, etc. So I will not take much more of your time. Thank you for the opportunity to share my experience and later, of course, some questions I will be open to. Thank you so much. Thank you Donatella and Alex for your intervention, for the comprehensive description of the rationale behind the toolkit and also for the examples you brought from the region. Indeed, it is important to show the practicality and usefulness of the tool for all those operating in this area of work. So we move now to another aspect not addressed yet of the toolkit, which is the forthcoming module on children. This module is conceived as an integral part of the toolkit, but it can also be used as a standalone tool. It is a collaborative effort between IUM, UNICEF and Save the Children to promote a rights-based return counseling to children and families. Bogdan will tell us more about this. Bogdan is the program director of the Balkans Migration and Displacement app at Save the Children. Over to you Bogdan, the floor is yours. Thank you Francesco and thank you especially to IUM for partnering with Save the Children and developing the module that concerns children. It's been really a couple of months of really hard work, but we're happy to have the module finalized and ready to be implemented. For Save the Children during the development of this module, the most important thing was to ensure that the module really reflects meaningful and ethical children's participation in the process. And we are happy that it was developed here in the Balkans through the support of the Balkans Migration Displacement Hub of Save the Children. We operate from Belgrade, Serbia, but we focus on knowledge management, advocacy and partnerships. And we think that this experience that the hub has gained over the years, especially in the recent times with the increasing refugee migrant flows has been very important to support IUM in creating the module. As you know, child participation is an ongoing process which includes information sharing and dialogue between children and adults based on mutual respect and which children can learn how their views and those adults and taking into account and shave the outcome of such processes. This is said by the Committee of the Rights of the Child in the general comment 12. And if we look at how can we ensure meaningful ethical participation of children, which is focused on nine main areas. In practical terms, what does it mean? It means that if we want to ensure that the process is transparent and informative, it should ensure that children clearly understand the rights to express their views and that they will be heard and valued. Children know why they're involved in a given project or activity, and thus their participation will help to achieve types and decisions and plans that their participation will influence. How do you ensure this in practice? How do you know if there was a checklist, you would say that it means to provide child friendly information in appropriate and accessible language or formats and to define the roles and responsibilities and limitations. When it comes to the process being voluntary, children should clearly understand the implications of their choices and should be free to make decisions to participate or not to participate accordingly. In practical terms, again, this means that children, we should ensure that children have time to make informed decision about their involvement and to ensure that children can withdraw at any time. Addressing adult and child power imbalances to ensure a truly voluntary process is also very important. The process needs to be respectful, so children's views need to be treated with respect by adults but also by other children and staff needs to have created a culture or an organization that enables children to initiate any ideas themselves and express their views without feeling that they must first seek permission from an adult. This means that we need to take into account children's other commitments and rights and to ensure ways of working our culture and gender sensitive. The key adults needs to be supportive and informed, and this includes also parents and teachers in any process. The process needs to be relevant, which means that children should be able to contribute their expertise and draw upon their experiences, knowledge and capabilities to express their views on issues of relevance and importance to their lives, and to have relevant information provided and to be accessible to children. This means that we need to ensure the issues are of real relevance to children and to support any child defined topics and to ensure that adults have not pressured children. The process needs to be child friendly, and this means that children need to feel welcomed. In practical terms again, staff needs to be approachable and responsive to children. Working methods should not discriminate children but take into account their evolving capacities, age, diversity and capabilities. This means that we need to use child friendly methods and approaches and to ensure that the meeting places are child friendly and accessible. The process also needs to be inclusive, which means that recognizing the children, we need to recognize that children do not all belong to one group, participation promotes, of course, inclusiveness and treats each child as an individual. No child should be discriminated against during the participation in the process. Then when it comes to training, we need to ensure that staff and partners have the confidence and skills to facilitate any child participation process. And we need to show that we are safe and sensitive to risk, which means that children should know that all considerations in relation to their safety and protection from harm have been taken into account. Staff need to have a responsibility towards the children with whom they work, which means to undertake conflict sensitivity and risk assessments to develop a child safe guardian plan and to ensure that all children know where to go if help is needed, if further help is needed. Finally, we need to be accountable, which means that children receive feedback on how their contribution has advised informed or influenced any developments to date. This can be done through developing a monitoring evaluation strategy. We can include or should include children in such processes. We need to define communication and follow up mechanisms with children, and we need to ensure that children see the results of their participation. So this is, I think this should be really helpful to all those who will be implementing the module in practice we are looking forward to working with I am in the future on developing also the different training modules and also the module is not set in stone. It's a thing that can be developed based on the feedback from the ground so we're looking forward to hearing comments from all of the colleagues who will be using it in practice. Thank you again. Thank you, thank you Bogdan for guiding us through these upcoming tool, and also for the considerations taken into the development process. I would like to add that the tool I also saw this questions coming through the chat. The tool will be available in the coming weeks and then disseminated also through the return and integration platform. As mentioned, save the children and UNICEF collaborated with I am on the development on this module. And now we are very glad to have today with us Verena now is UNICEF global lead of migration development. Verena she's been supporting countries operation leading on policy development advocacy partnerships. And she's also an extensive knowledge of the Balkans region so Verena thank you for joining us and the floor is yours. Thank you so much, Francesco I hope you, you can hear me and see me. Wonderful. Well it's very hard to come after after Rosalind after Donatella after Bogdan after all these excellent speakers before us. What I thought I can do, maybe most usefully is to build on what has been said and maybe spare you more details on what is in the tool because we want to, you know, maintain a little bit of suspense to get you actually to open download and use the tools. What we wanted to do and maybe we can move to the next slide already is to thank you to ground the discussion for a moment back on on what this tool is for and who it is for. And as we have heard just before the importance of first of all recognizing children as as rights holders just purely with their own needs and not just as the luggage of the parents when they are returning for example in the family unit. Doing so means that you need to find a way and to support and capacitate the return counselors to actually know how to comfortably engage with children, how to talk with them, how to identify what has been said before their resilience factor to identify their expectations, their hopes, their needs, and also to identify potential child protection flags that would need to be referred. In some cases, and to do this of course across the age range from the very small to all the way up to other lessons, who have very different fundamentally different needs and ideas for the future. And all of them in one way or another need to be addressed engaged and supported through and with the important work that return counselors can play. So when you're saying we want with reintegration and we want to support return counselors to help us deliver child sensitive and child centered reintegration, putting children really at the center of what we do has been key. I want to thank our close partners IOM, I want to thank those who saved the children for the excellent cooperation that has led to us coming together to actually produce these tools, and to specifically dive deeper into what is the role of return counselors when it comes to children. Now if we move on to the next slide. I want to also just highlight, we have a lot we have heard already a lot of details a lot of important aspect. It was really inspiring to hear about the great work of the wide network of return counselors in the Balkans. But really what do return counselors do. Let's just step back for a moment and probably many of us have been on vacation this summer. We've been running lists of things to pack for our kids what not to forget the diapers, the book, the phone charger, whatever it may have been, because what we need to do when children travel, including when they return is to pack their rucksack with the things that they need to be safe to feel well to be protected, and to be able to just kickstart their life and continue their life in the best possible way. In my mind, I always have that image of what I once was told by a very, very high working dedicated Swedish migration official who was explaining the Swedish approach to reintegration and return, including the important work of return counselors as packing the rucksack of children and putting into that rucksack safety, the right information for them to make the right decisions, a feeling and a sense of dignity being recognized for who they are for their wishes, a sense of ownership of their own destiny, but also packing into that rucksack portable skills and the certification that they need, the documents they need. And really working through and with those children, including children in families who are with their parents, working through what child specific reintegration planning and support should entail and needs to entail to support that one individual child. So that image of a rucksack, I think is what I would like to just reinforce as we are thinking about how to use the tools going forward, and also recognize the critical and the important work of return counselors, as we have already heard before. But if we could move on to the next slide, there is a second very important point that I would like to just highlight here, or several points in fact, we would like you all to look at these tools and use these tools. And obviously you will need to help us to improve them in the future and to adapt and socialize and contextualize them to the different contexts where they get used. But there's a few key considerations that need to be top of our minds. And it's really at recognition that children are not just their parents extension that we need to think of providing return counseling supports to all children. Those are moving and returning on their own, as well as those with families and that means finding and engaging them as part of the return counseling procedure, which is why those tools are so important and we were so happy to work with partners on them. Secondly, we really need to, in the return counseling work, capacitate the return counselors and we hope these tools can move us a step forward on that task, so that everyone feels comfortable engaging children and engaging parents and engaging living guardians, in the case of unaccompanied children, in the most meaningful, dignified and ethical way, and in the most productive way so that you can identify those resilience factors and aspirations and plans and support needs. So that return really isn't an end point, but reintegration is just another step on a child's journey towards adulthood and towards fulfilling life. That's a really important point and this is sort of an appeal to us all as we are here in the room, many of us are really in the thick of it, we are either working on reintegration, we are practitioners, you are experts, but there is still some sense that return counseling is a nice to have. It really is a must have for child centers for sustainable reintegration, the role of return counselors is key. It is that glue, it is that peace that actually enables us to identify what a child needs and what needs to be packed in that rucksack. So it is really critical that those tools get used and applied and that the important role and work of return counselors is not just recognized but supported. And obviously the last consideration that is just critical from our perspective is that focusing on children and doing return counseling in a way that works for children and engages and empowers and supports them isn't just again a nice to have. It is at the center of sustainable reintegration. Once the other day I was told by a colleague of mine that a parent's happiness is defined by how unhappy the unhappiest child in the family is. And we can all imagine that feeling if there is something wrong with your child in the family, your happiness is affected, your parental capacity to reintegrate is affected. So getting it right for children is the key for getting it right for parents is the key for getting it right for community overall. And that means really that with these tools we hope practitioners and governments that are designing national reintegration tools and standards and guidelines that you can find in those tools what you need in order to design return counseling to be child right and protective, protection sensitive and safe to design the right training needs for the staff involved so that they can deliver those trauma informed and protection sensitive counseling supports that data protection confidentiality is all upheld that children are meaningfully engaged across different age groups, and that we have those referral pathways so that the work of return counselors is really plugged into a national system. And if we could move on to the next slide, this is my last important point. Return counseling and reintegration support to be itself sustainable really needs to be part of a national system of community support child centered services. And so really embedding the return counseling and strengthening capacities and building and strengthening those, you know, system wise support mechanisms that are available for children that are returning and reintegrating. This is the number one investment needs that we need to together keep on working because the return counselor doesn't sit alone and we saw the pictures before of the busy places the library the centers. Nobody sits in the vacuum, the return counselors need to rely on a system and need to be connected to a system where they can refer children, where they can link up and support and get information from education from protection systems where they can work across where they can confidentially share information where they can be follow up mechanisms. So building that ecosystem of active of systems and partners where the return counselor can play his or her role using these tools and others available. This is really the future that we need to invest in. So my last slide if you could move on is really a small discussion site as we're opening up for hearing from you and answering and receiving your questions. Tools are only as good as they can actually use. And so really important we would like all of us here now collectively to use those tools and to use them in the best possible way. And also to help us strengthen data and monitoring systems so that the return counseling work can be improved as we move along that we are using these tools to guide us also when how we can strengthen capacities of the people that are behind the work, the individuals and the women and the young professionals that are delivering the return counseling so that they are capacitated to use the tools apply the tools and that they can do their work in the best possible way, linking into a wider ecosystem where they can work with social workers case managers teachers health professionals and with the migration management system in the country. So we hope that the tools can be used for all of us collectively to continue identifying where there are maybe remaining gaps in the system where children fall through the cracks, so that we can build those bridges and close them and return counseling, including the follow up that we need plays a critical role to help us identify not just individual needs of children and their own plans before reintegrating, but also gaps in the system. And last but not least return counselors notice to you know in their sleep, we can get some of the best information from listening to children and learning from them themselves, they are not just our customers. They are the end users of our tools. So if we hear back from them that they find these tools and their rollout they use helpful and beneficial. Then we're on the right track, but in order to make sure we can keep finding out that we're using them in the right way and also the way and that we delivered what they really needed the most. This is why it's important to continue engaging and listening and learning and working with children as partners. So with this I hope that I provided enough food for thought for discussion. The tools really are not just excellent for practitioners I think they're also very helpful for the wider community of partners that are thinking how to design return approaches in a most child friendly way in a child centered way. So please use them and help us improve them going forward and take them to the road and take them to the corners, the offices, the libraries, the busy places where we hope to come to life. Thank you Francesco. Thank you so much Lorena for bringing your energy to our conversation to bringing also the considerations of the protections of children with your needs, the value of the importance of partnerships, as well as the different steps on tools development and and use. So for tools, I take advantage of this occasion to inform you all that a set of tools indeed jointly developed by IM and UNICEF, which are complementary to the module on children of the reintegration and book will be released in the coming days. So we will make sure to reach you through the channels of the return and reintegration platform. Having said this, we have reached the last session of this webinar. Before we move now to the question and answers. I leave the floor to Jamaica Scopa from the IM regional office Vienna will moderate this interactive session over to you Jamaica. Thank you Francesco. Thank you very much. And thank you first of all to all the participants. I'm really glad to see such high interest and participation today. And then to the colleagues from the knowledge management app to support for the organization of this webinar, and all their enthusiasm and their work done so far, as well as all the panelists that speak today and their valuable contribution, not only to the discussion today but really to the development of the toolkit and the additional model on counseling children and their families. So we are a little bit running out of time but I have seen so many questions in the chat. Thank you colleagues and participant to be so active. So I will maybe start addressing one interesting one to Donatella. I explained that the toolkit has been, let's say, developed in the context of the Western Balkans but of course it can also address the needs of the return counselor working globally. Would you please maybe explain how it's easy to the adapt the toolkit to other context and a little bit more about the context of the Western Balkans and why it was so needed such a toolkit. Thank you. Over to you. Thank you for this question. I will start with maybe picking up where Verena left about making sure that we embed the counseling skills and ability to respond into a national structure, which is very central to the reasons why we started working on the toolkit. Namely IOM has started a capacity development effort in the Western Balkans in the 2017 on AVRR where we have worked closely with the government of the Western Balkans in embedding the structures for assisted voluntary return to be recognized by their national legal and policy framework. So the work on the toolkit became kind of a normal or a logical continuation of the engagement that we had already reached with the outreach, with information provision, with the operational aspect of return and now integration as well as counseling. So we have worked closely with the institutions that are involved in, in, in returns in, in the national kind of administration for governments, migration governance in the Western Balkans, not each one equally, but there are of course differences in capacities and also the responsibilities. But that's definitely something that we have taken in consideration. The context has also proven to be very complex and challenging and I'll explain why the vulnerabilities of the migrants are not visible, not all of them are visible. So you can see quickly a vulnerability if there is an underaged person or a child traveling alone or if somebody has physical injuries, but the other vulnerabilities are not necessarily so easily spotted. So the counseling and the ability to screen for vulnerabilities has become very important in the Balkans. Also because the speed of which, and by which the migrants move across the Balkans is very different from the context that we have in the, in Western Europe where the migrants or the asylum speakers are in a context where they are waiting for their decision, whether it's going to be positive or negative. So you have years of counseling ahead of you and they have quite long time ahead of them to make their decision. Here, our context is not like that. Migrants sometimes spend days, sometimes spend months, but sometimes spend a matter of hours. So it's very important how you deliver the information, how able you are to provide consistent, reliable and very acceptable information to usable information to the migrants and capture their attention in this, in this quick turnaround that they have. So that will be my answer. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Donatella. Thank you very much. As always, you are clear and loud and really into the context. So thank you very much for these following your question. I think that maybe Alex is the best person plays to reply to this other question on how migrants exposed to the toolkit during, for example, the field of questioning that we did in the Western Balkans reacted to the toolkit. And also, I include another second question about the challenges. So, Khaled is asking what are the main challenges that an IUM return counselor face when working in the ground. Over to you, Alex. Thanks. So, I can say that the majority of our beneficiaries migrants responded very well to the toolkit because we were trying from the very beginning of the testing phase to implement the methodology of the toolkit to the full extent. We noticed that really the migrants took the opportunity and took more ownership of their return return process. As well, we can say that they really engage with us more. They felt more open to us, especially that is important to us counselors, which enables us to in the aftermath of course to assess vulnerabilities which initially were not visible to us on the initial counseling session or the follow up counseling session. And on these we can actually see if there are potential signs that a person could be a victim of trafficking and etc. I think that we raised their awareness level of their migration options. And I really think that the beneficiaries got the sense that they can really assess their rights within the agency. Regarding the challenges, each counseling setting has a different set of challenges, but we can say that usually it's their hidden vulnerabilities because they spend a lot of time out of their country of origin. They are exposed to a lot of trauma, let's say, in the immigration journey, which is not simple at times. It can be very challenging for the migrants or all the border crossings and situations. So I think that the biggest challenge is to establish trust. And once the trust is established, I think that then we can actually really assess their needs and vulnerabilities and support their return and integration process to a full extent. I hope my answer will fill the question. Thank you, Alex. Thank you very much for this first hand experience is really important and the toolkit actually it aims to provide this a bottom up approach to return counseling and it's important that it has been piloted and field tested. Thank you. Thank you so much. And maybe we have last question for Verena regarding children and the model on return counseling children and families. Since Bogdano from Save the Children unfortunately has to leave a little bit earlier. Participants are asking what are the red flags that return counselor should be able to detect during counseling and how they should refer it so maybe you can also speak about partnership that are possible. In regard, depending of course on the national context of course there are always different actors working with children. Thank you Verena over to you. Thank you, Jamaica. I mean, I don't claim to be comprehensive now but I think really critically is the basic question of identifying if, if the child faces threats within the family, identifying any child protection risk. Sometimes a counselor in a conversation with a child may actually have indications that there may be violence, gender based violence, or other forms of protection risks that the child may face even from their own parents. There may be threats or risks related to trafficking that may need to be identified. There may be risks related to mental health and psychosocial risks aggravated you know suicidal ideations or other indications where alarm bells should go on on the side of a return counselor to be able to identify those types of child protection risks. First, return counselors would need to be trained on how to identify what are signs that should raise alarms, but really importantly return counselors are not expected to then respond to the risks. They are their own profile of what they need to do, but in order for them to play that link between identifying child protection risks and making sure that that child gets help, they need to have clear referral pathways worked out. So any return counselor would need to know, okay, when I have, when I'm identifying a potential risk, who do I call, where can I refer the child to? How do I link back into the national system? How can I be? Do I have the hotline? Do I have a direct access and you know link back to the national child protection system, caseworkers, social workers, the right people in the context that would need to come into action here. And I think that is a very good example to illustrate why we keep saying as UNICEF that embedding the important work of return counselors in a national system makes those referrals easier and makes the harmonization and the standardization of approaches easier. So long answer for a very important question. It is referrals. It is being trained and getting the right tools and support to identify and then know how to respond to those risks. Thank you Verena. Thank you very much. I don't know Francesco, maybe I leave it to you since we are a little bit over the hour. I may be informal the participant that if you want to continue the discussion, we have the community of their integration, returner integration platform to address the question that unfortunately we don't have the time to address now, but thank you so much to be so active and for the interest in the toolkit and the model on children. Thank you very much. Thank you, Jamaica, and all of you for remaining also beyond the plan time. So, as mentioned, the conversation goes online. Please do not hesitate to register to the platform community and join the tomato group counseling. We will appear shortly in the chat under the somatic group, you will find dedicated forum where you can share comments and experiences with us and where we will actually address the questions that remain unaddressed unfortunately today. But before leaving the session, it will be great if you could take a few seconds to respond to the polls that just appeared on your screen. As last information, I remind you that the recording of this webinar will be shortly available on the returner integration platform. So we have reached the end of our conversation. We hope that the description of the toolkit triggered your interest. Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information on the tool. Once again, many thanks to all the speakers that join us today. Thanks also to colleagues in Vienna, Belgrade, Geneva that helped us on the organization and moderation of the webinar. On behalf of the Knowledge Management Hub, thank you everyone again and I wish you a nice rest of the day. Goodbye everyone.