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Introduction

Conceived as an informal, multilateral and State-led process, the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) is intended to add value to the current debate on international migration and development by fostering international cooperation, enhancing inter-State dialogue and discuss and promote new policy ideas in the field of migration and its interrelation with development.
Through a well-prepared and sustained dialogue between developing and developed countries the Forum seeks to arrive at common and evidence-based understandings on those areas where migration policies have the greatest potential to contribute to development, and where development policies take greater account of migration and its potential benefits for development. The Forum is also intended to make explicit the growing recognition that international migration is a normal and crucial element in the development process.

Purpose of the first meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development

In launching the Global Forum on Migration and Development as an informal consultative process, migration origin, transit and destinations countries, irrespective of their level of development, are invited to share their national experiences, discuss their specific perspectives and challenges, and develop practical and innovative policies aimed at reinforcing the mutually beneficial relationship between migration and development. As a result of the two-day inter-governmental consultations, and also based on the additional input provided by civil society, government policy makers should have available a series of policy recommendations that can enhance migration and development policy planning at the national, regional and global levels, as well as a number of concrete proposals for short and medium term follow-up action before the next meeting of the Global Forum in 2008.

The meeting in July will have the following specific objectives:

• to share current policies and practices that strengthen the positive development impact of migration and to assess how migration policy planning can be linked with development policy planning;
• to identify best practices that seek to ensure mutual migration-development benefits;
• to produce concrete outcomes in the form of new models of policies and practices,, of multi-stakeholder partnerships and of a matrix of knowledge gaps;
  for this purpose, to explore and establish concrete multi-stakeholder partnerships; and.
• to lay the foundation for the future Forum process, including concrete short and medium term actions taken on the outcomes of the Brussels meeting, the possible assessment of these follow-up activities and the implementation of required research; and to define a reporting process on these follow-up activities for the second meeting of the Global Forum in 2008.

The GFMD should also ensure that development is not instrumentalized for migration management purposes, and avoid that migration is seen as an alternative to development at either individual or country levels.