 Mr. behaved, excellence is distinguished delegates, ladies and gentleman, it is an honor to welcome you to the 109th session of the Council. I welcome you on behalf of all our colleagues around the world in IOM and thank you for taking the time from your busy schedules to join us today here in Geneva. Seveda milliona prezettistih do prednjih vso prezett. Kaj pa se spacesfrijezovo Omskog silaga, z k Sach파, Nr. Juan Eduardo Egüguren, da je z njega vkaj, in da se prišlo za njih razovit'. Se vzelim vizoranje – v njih veliko propovodnih membrenosnyv, iom, Poz. B. nekaj K. Negas Collomb, njih povodnje, in dnevno, čepersen, Morten Jespersen, embassader Evan Garcia, in češnja repozerva, embassader Sokogo Florezliere, z Mexico. Vespoj sem da je tudi dopovo, češnja repozerva, republiku Izbekistanu in svojimi repozervami. Vzpečenje občaj je vzelo, z kvalitaj za mojšči, But both within the U.N. system and for IOM itself. IOM is giving meaning to its new, closer relationship with United Nations, in line with Council Resolution 1309, just as landmark reform of the overall system brings stronger country-level coordination to development support from all agencies. As I take my responsibilities as SDG I am cognizant of the various responsibilities in izvajati in povoljali, da je oziroma ljudi. In se je zelo obradi, da povoljali, in da se povoljali taj nekaj dojav. V poštih večjih, mnogo nosimo vse in jazem bolj v Marrakeš, da je vsega prodiža čično všednost vsega in regova migracije. Prostavno vsega vsega je, da je mladost in vsega, vsega začeli, ki se vsega vsega polega vsega, na vse, da je zelo pravdješnje, da je vse. Profesije zelo priježene z roli, kako je zelo vse, kaj je vse izgleda, vse v 2015 roli je zelo priježeno, in ni so zelo vse zelo po ključenju, da je vse vse vse zelo, jazim vse, vse, malo zelo priježeno za kooprišnju. Podle površenju, zelo priježenje, IOM has grown substantially and matured into a global leader. But size alone does not determine the strength of an organization. It is the commitment and skills of its staff that has enabled IOM to respond to complex emergencies, provide advice to governments on diverse issues, including labor migration, integrated border management and diaspora engagement, and underpin interstate dialogue, helping to foster greater space for common ground. As this is my first IOM council, I will not attempt to undertake an extensive report of the organization's activities for which I cannot yet claim credit. Instead, I would like to use this time to reflect on the breadth and scope of IOM's work, highlighting some critical areas of action. I would also like to offer some thoughts on the landscape in which IOM will find itself in the coming years, our best to consolidate and reinforce IOM's strengths and set out some broad strategic directions. Migrants are at the heart of IOM's work, particularly those who find themselves vulnerable to violence, exploitation and abuse. IOM has offered support to migrants in numerous tangible ways. The organization has undertaken health assessments for refugees awaiting resettlement, migrants applying for various types of visa and returnies under assisted voluntary return programs. IOM has placed increasing focus on the sustainability of the reintegration process with the aim of reducing the vulnerability of those returned. To bring this service together in a more coherent manner, IOM is developing a range of migrant support mechanisms focused on offering a range of integrated tailored services for visa applications to training assistance. IOM has worked with dozens of governments throughout 2018 to review and support the integration of international standards into national policy frameworks, as well as their implementation. This includes training of officers, roundtable discussions and sometimes one-on-one discussions. For example, IOM invests in a range of counter-trafficking initiatives from prevention programming to direct assisting assistance training people from all sectors. Indeed, IOM has specifically developed guidelines on how businesses can protect and assist victims of exploitation. The organization also works individually with governments to improve the situation of those in detention and to ensure critical access to health care. As it grows, the organization is taking steps to systematize this type of support. This year, IOM produced the end book and toolkit on unaccompanied miners and separated children and launched an institutional framework for addressing gender-based violences in crisis. Gender mainstreaming remains a priority for the organization with a significant increase in the number of IOM offices introducing a gender perspective into their projects, ensuring that women's voices and needs are incorporated into all phases of a project. In working so closely with migrants and civil society groups, IOM takes its own responsibilities very seriously. It has committed to UN-wide policies on prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse by its staff, conducting in-house training while hosting trainings for other actors in the field. IOM is also piloting a framework to improve its accountability to affected populations involving stakeholders and beneficiaries in the decision-making process. The migration landscape has been characterized by a series of crises in the very recent years. The large-scale movements of people driven by diverse motivations have posed a political as well as humanitarian challenge to states. In 2018, IOM has responded to a number of urgent complex situations working in cooperation with other actors to ensure basic immediate support for those affected while working towards more durable outcomes. Mounting numbers of Venezuelans have moved to neighboring countries, a dynamic that has accelerated in recent months. The situation as I lighted, the need for and benefits for of close cooperation between IOM and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Together, and the leadership of Eduardo Stein, joint representative for refugees and migrants from Venezuela, the two agencies are working with regional governments alongside the broader alliance of agencies, civil society and face-based organizations to ensure a coordination and effective response. The continued openness and commitment of countries in the South American region and their willingness to offer various forms of status for new arrivals should be, I believe, commanded and further strengthened by states beyond the region. The situation in Libya remains a source of deep concern and distress, particularly regarding the significant number of migrants and refugees still trapped in detention. IOM has provided voluntary humanitarian return to nearly 15,000 migrants in Libya so far in 2018, including to Nigeria, Mali and Niger. But the situation remains fiddlishly complex. It is impossible to desegurgate instability in Libya from instability across West and Central Africa. The broader challenge of maritime migration across the Mediterranean and the political and practical responses to mixed migration within the European Union. IOM must work with all states to reduce uncertainty and suffering amongst the migration population while recognizing that these are symptoms of a deeper vacuum of governance that urgently needs to be addressed. Yemen has become one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the world, affecting all populations, including migrants. It is an example of an enduring challenges faced by the international community in delivering effective humanitarian action. IOM is an active partner alongside other agencies, programs and funds, and is offering direct assistance to those internally displaced by conflict, as well as support to the many migrants transiting Yemen. More than 7,000 migrants journey across the Red Sea in each mouth to Yemen, many of whom are subjected to various forms of abuse and exploitation. Indeed, this week at the moment I'm speaking, IOM is conducting a delicate operation of extracting several hundred Ethiopian nationals from Yemen and support their return and reintegration. The State of Rohingya refugees, hosted by Bangladesh in Cox Bazaar, continues to be a priority for IOM and the organization has established a comprehensive response offering support in a wide range of areas from water and sanitation to prevention of trafficking and exploitation of young girls at risk. This population is also particularly vulnerable to extreme weather, such as early rains, cyclans and monsoons. As a result, IOM has invested in upgrading shelter to reduce the impact of these events on overcrowded populations. While IOM has the capacity to generate quick, life-saving responses to emergencies and disaster, it also recognizes the need to improve pre-antive action. IOM contributes to reducing the risk of disaster, helping states implement the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction, and investing in crisis preparedness from camp management and camp coordination to improving on the ground real-time information on displacement and population mobility through the displacement tracking metrics. IOM provides rapid relief to address the most acute humanitarian needs while at the same time developing transition and recovery programs to address the longer-term impacts and drivers of vulnerability. This generates trust, stability and legitimacy, not least by placing communities at the art of programming. In Bangladesh, for example, IOM is already developing stabilization programming in the region alongside critical humanitarian support. This approach forms parts of IOM's commitment to strengthen the humanitarian development and peace nexus, and places particular focus on marginalized population, such as ex-combatants, refugees, and internally displaced people. The relationship between mobility and development outcomes is complex and deeply dependent on context. Economic roles may motivate individuals to move, just as the absence of livelihood opportunity can push immigration. But still more people lack the means to move, even when circumstances become dire. IOM is one of the agencies with the widest reach with respect to internally displaced populations in terms of both operational scope and financial resources. People may be displaced for a broad range of reasons, notably conflict, but also environmental disasters such as floods and droughts. In addition to meeting humanitarian needs, helping IDPs access basic services, sustainable employment, and livelihoods are a critical part of this work. When faced with multiple complex crisis situations, it is sometimes art to take the long view. IOM believes that just as sustainable development policy can determine migration patterns, migration can also contribute to stronger development outcomes, whether through remittance contributions, skills transfers, and return migration. But these benefits are not guaranteed and will only be realized with strong policies and institutional frameworks. This year, IOM has been developing a strategy on migration and sustainable development, designed to hardware migration into the implementation of the 20th certain agenda and ensure that no one is left behind. In addition, over the past five years, the need to bring environmental concerns into migration policymaking and vice versa has become a significant policy issue for IOM. IOM's dedicated unit on migration and climate change has become central to a number of interagency and multilateral partnerships focused on the impacts of climate change, building a robust evidence base and helping states build capacity to respond. Longer term responses frequently focus on redressing negative impact. But migration has enormous potential to benefit individuals, communities, and countries. Through the design of sustainable, effective legal channels for migration, whether for work, for study, or even for love, states can begin to proactively integrate migration into their economic planning and community building. This is not, of course, a new idea. Indeed, many states have designed strong programming to welcome migrants. But it can sometimes be lost amongst daily headlines centered on disaster and an anticipated change. IOM's work brings it into contact with a wide range of national government ministries from home affairs to foreign affairs to development to education, as well as local government actors. The migration governance indicators have offered dozens of governments the opportunity to reflect on how they govern migration and the linkage between separate areas of work. In 2019 IOM will include local governments in the indicators for a first picture of how local governments respond to migration. IOM offers support for governments on a broad range of issues, from labor migration policy development policy to designing mechanisms for reaching out to diaspora communities. We have developed border management information systems and supported states in developing cross-border corporations, data collection and risk analysis. IOM development fund offers states the opportunity to build capacity in particular policy areas and offers IOM an opportunity to assess where demand for support exists. For example, in recent years there have been increasing number of requests for support on dealing with the impacts of climate change from across the globe. But partnerships with states is also accompanied by partnerships between states. IOM has participated in a large number of multilateral dialogues from the negotiations of the global compact through the Pan-African Forum on Migration held in Djibouti just one week ago. We have been developing a productive and close working relationship with several regional organizations such as the European Union and the African Union. Regional consultative processes around the world from cartoon to Colombo play a critical role in building trusts between states and we offer support to this process in a variety of ways. As you might recall IOM's International Dialogue on Migration this year have set the stage for more open global exchange on migration incorporating a wide variety of actors focusing on developing successful partnerships across governments with cities and with migrants themselves in anticipation of the global compact. The endorsement of the global compact by the UN General Assembly will create a new test of partnerships across the UN system but also between states as well as between agencies and with a broad set of stakeholders. No, though non-binding the compact offers clear terms of presence and a common language. And in 2019 IOM will focus the dialogues on migration on use in acknowledgement of calls made at previous meetings to engage young people in global migration discussions and policy debate. A critical part of IOM's work is to utilize the available evidence base to inform publics about the dynamics and impacts of migration both good and bad. This includes data on stocks and flows of migrants as well as analytic assessments of emerging trends. The last edition of IOM's flagship world migration report is a key example of this covering a broad range of topics from regional trends to violent extremism. IOM has two key tools to collect and operate the global migration data analysis center in Berlin and the displacement tracking matrix. But migration also comprises thousands of stories. Tomorrow evening the IOM film festival will launch here in Geneva and around 100 countries across the globe showcasing dramas and documentaries that bring the migrant experience to life. IOMs feature stories highlight particular places that do not always make the headlines offering a rich tapestry of action and aspiration and revealing the real faces of migrants worldwide. Let me now turn to what can we expect in the next decade. IOM reach is extensive and its impact deep. But the coming decade will bring new challenges for which the organization will need to prepare itself. The drivers of mobility are constantly evolving. The impact of climate change combined with growing intercontinental demographic disparity widening economic and social inequality and unresolved instability is likely to lead to increased internal, regional and international mobility as individuals seek to establish sustainable livelihoods for themselves and their families. While some countries in the world experience demographic expansion others face sharp decline. It is easy to make sweep in generalizations. Migration dynamics are an aggregation of thousands of individual context specific decisions that are often poorly understood. And reveling how developments affect micro movements and vice versa will be key to ensuring that policies can remain effective, supportive and globally created. The world also is rapidly changing. Technology created new opportunities to connect populations as well as identify them more efficiently. Widespread access to social media is accelerating migration trends and expanding the networks through which migrants can seek support. Advancements in artificial intelligence and big data collection may offer new insight into predicting patterns and ensuring timely responses. Advances in digital identification may offer migrants and others new opportunities to access public services and manage their own mobility. But to ensure continued trust between governments and migrants, the management of data, security and privacy will need to be carefully overseen. The use of new technology should not just be based on visibility, but also on desirability. And IOM will need to be a trusted partner and advisor as the world innovates. Rapid urbanization continues to transform the demographic landscape of many countries around the world. Cities today are already home to the majority of international migrants driven by opportunity as well as necessity. And local authorities becoming leaders in finding creative solutions for rapid social change supporting communities through innovation. But rapidly expanding cities are also fragile ecosystems. Governments and international agencies tasked with supporting large populations in small geographies must navigate access to resources, balance deep inequalities and rethink the delivery of public services. All of these may be exacerbated when job growth does not keep pace and the need population grows. And environmental change threatens the livability of urban centers located in coastal regions. Labor markets, never static, will value a different set of skills in 2030 than they did in 2010. And at the same time, the terms of employment are becoming ever more flexible in some cases precariously so. So to succeed, citizens across the world, including migrants, will have to become more adaptable, more resilient, and ready to take on several careers in their lifetime. And how to learn will become as important than what to learn. Though some skills will remain in critically short supplies. The investments governments make today in their working age populations, including at this is very important migrant groups, will be determinative of their success in the future. It is, of course, indispensable that governments maintain sovereign control over migration. But nowadays, non-state actors will become more influential. Migrants do not simple truth and they often choose specific locations drawn by the promise of growing industries and feedback from personal and social networks. The private sector has a huge influence over all or over all moves where as employers, as well as service providers and yet their participation in migration governance remains limited. Local governments address the real impacts of migration street-by-street and yet to often their collective experiences remain unexamined. Civil society actors and diaspora movements are increasingly filling gaps left behind by government services and yet their actions are overlooked. Smugglers and traffickers if unchecked will continue to cultivate new routes to desirable destinations. They have they may take account of public policies to reduce irregular movement but yet remain undeterred by them. As global changes increase in scope the political space to find solutions has narrowed but only through cooperation will answers to the challenging questions of the future will be found. Excellence ladies and gentlemen what will IOM need to deliver in this landscape? We are globally present responsive and flexible capable of delivering positive impact on the ground. IOM is recognized as an institution of extraordinary scope and delivery characterized by the positive impact it has on everyday lives across the globe. Increasingly the organization will be called upon not to just to support governments and migrants at different stages in the migration journey but to connect those stages in the journey. We are well positioned to understand the complete system of migration management to ensure consistency of outcome from specific policy and operational approaches regardless of where they are applied and addressed interplay between different programmatic areas. For example assisted voluntary return is a key programmatic area for IOM but success of these programs depends on understanding the specific humanitarian and development context in the country of return. Migration has become a whole of government endeavor but in spite of effect that we work with a number of ministries in national governments sometimes we have the feeling that those ministries do not work one with the others together. There is an opportunity for IOM to help connect key policy domains more strongly and ensure that migration issues thread through the full range of policy intervention. And to fully capitalize on its potential IOM will need to become a learning organization capable of offering a consistent state of the field perspective on every aspect of migration management and migration support. This is not simply a question of building policy capacity to support member states but developing a standing pool of knowledge and experience from which the organization can share new ideas and identify new developments. This requires in the body of IOMs work but presents an opportunity for the organization to build additional muscles to strengthen that body and this includes five key points developing policy capacity based on the vast compendium of knowledge and expertise that exists within the organization building on the decentralized approach that characterizes IOM. Knowledge is not simply something to be static in databases but to be drawn from the constantly expanding expertise of IOM staff. Second, strengthening foresight capacity to improve operational planning and increase preparedness for and the resilience to moments of crisis insuring the needs of individual migrants in full respect for their human rights and at the same time anticipating them, meeting them at all points of the journey. Third, pioneering new means of data collection and building capacity for research and data analysis that can enhance operational outcomes. This includes the use of new technologies and systems and in end with the responsible management of data by all its users. Fourth, ensuring policy is coherently applied across the organization taking into account the vast diversity of context in which IOM works. Principles of good governance are of course universal but the means through which they can be affected are many and varied. Fifth and last, incorporating innovative practice at every level of the organization from simple improvements and acting as a communicator bringing together distantly located staff through the ensuring that border management systems evolve alongside new developments in technology. I believe IOM will need to become a strategic partner as an implementer helping governments to adopt a long term perspective as well as to fulfill their short term perspectives. The organization as you have seen has evolved through the expansion of its membership and project base. It has demonstrated its ability as well as its flexibility to adapt to the changes scope and complexity of migration at global, regional and national level. But to be truly effective as a partner IOM will also need to ensure the internal structures are fit for purpose. The expansion of activities within the organization now needs to be matched ensuring strong processes of accountability and review. Comments made by states during the recent SCPF reinforced the need for stronger oversight within the organization. IOM is fully committed to continuing enhancing its managing systems and controls by deepening IOM's internal capacity with the aim of implementing measures to streamline and maximize the efficiency and cost effectiveness of its resources. Will foster a risk awareness culture which ensures that risk is embedded in this decision making process in full compliance with the international standards. This will require additional resources in some time. A key challenge in the years to come will be the consolidation and effective management of the IOM's growth which is expected to continue. IOM will need appropriate funds to match those growing and demanding roles and to keep pace with its growth. The core structure and budget must be strengthened as a sustained and continuing effort. The 2019 budget is a transition budget. It has been prepared based on the confirmed funding for planned activities and taking into consideration current trends and crucial developments in agression phenomenon in the international arena. You have the proposed administrative part of the budget and the operational part of the budget in the slide. I want to thank the member states who have honored their obligations to the organization and encourage others to do so. And I trust that the member states will approve the revised program for 2019 as proposed following the amendments introduced post the meeting of the SCPF. Your excellency, ladies and gentlemen, let me just conclude by saying that for IOM the year 2019 will be a year of continuity and change. We will be called upon new tasks in relation to the UN migration network that we will have the opportunity to discuss tomorrow with the special representative of the Secretary General Madame Louise Arbour. Collaboration will be based of course on the global compact on the UN migration network but collaboration is not limited to the network alone. IOM will place emphasis particularly with the UNHCR building upon the effective cooperation that exists already around the world. It will strengthen the productive and honest dialogue it has built with civil society organizations at all levels and seek to ensure that voices of migrants and other populations affected are heard. Over the next several months the organization will set out a series of institutional cross cutting and dramatic priorities for its work through a series of consultations with IOM offices our member states and other stakeholders. This process will identify areas of work where further investment may be needed to ensure the organization can meet your expectation. At the same time we will set a roadmap and design for a new policy that will coordinate and share knowledge and guidance within the organization. This roadmap will be made public in the early part of next year. And in parallel under the edges of the Deputy Director General IOM is reviewing its internal governance framework identifying areas of work including risk management internal justice and procurement and these reforms will be submitted to you during the first quarter of 2019. But IOM has already allocated two new professional staff positions to the office of the Inspector General responding in this way to the demands that were put forward in the recent SCPF. Across the world governments are recognizing that migration is an essential yet political sensitive topic for international cooperation. There is an opportunity for IOM to lead discussion that a knowledge and builds upon the complexity that characterizes management but also ensures that migrants themselves remain at the heart of the conversation. Over the next four days we will have the opportunity to explore some of the issues I have highlighted in my report including else internally displaced people and migrants voice and I'm also looking forward to discussing the future of IOM with you during this week and also to come. Thank you for your enormous patience.