The GFMD’s relationship with IOM

Since the inception of the GFMD in 2007, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has remained as the closest institutional partner of the GFMD. While remaining a distinct and independent process, the GFMD has maintained a close working relationship with IOM from one Chairmanship to the next.

The IOM has provided administrative, logistical, financial management and substantive support to the Forum. Crucially, the IOM hosts the GFMD Support Unit in Geneva, which provides multi-pronged services to the rotating Chairs-in-Office of the GFMD. By virtue of a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the GFMD 2008 Troika, as amended in 2015, IOM’s scope of services to the GFMD Support Unit covers personnel management, financial management, legal advice and contracts, insurance coverage, information technology, procurement services, travel services and security.

In addition, IOM has consistently offered technical and substantive support to the GFMD, in variable degrees depending on the Chair’s requirements. This includes conceptualization of the Chair’s thematic priorities, leading the drafting process for a number of GFMD Roundtable background papers, providing key speakers during GFMD events, and on occasion seconding international advisors to the GFMD. The Forum’s primary contact point with IOM is IOM’s International Cooperation and Partnerships (ICP) Division.

The IOM’s entry into the United Nations provides a platform for a closer relationship between the GFMD and the UN System . This relationship is likely to deepen as IOM takes on the role of Coordinator and Secretariat of the UN Migration Network.