The UN Country Network on Migration has started its work in Belarus this week. Chaired and led by the United Nations Resident Coordinator jointly with the IOM Chief of Mission in Belarus, the meeting featured participation of representatives of UN agencies and partners to discuss the role of the UN Country Network on Migration in supporting Belarus in the implementation, follow-up and review of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM). The Network will also serve as a platform for coordination and discussion of migration related issues in Belarus.

“Migrants represent approximately three per cent of the world’s population, yet they produce more than nine per cent of global GDP”, noted Joanna Kazana-Wisniowiecki, UN Resident Coordinator in Belarus.  “This represents is some USD three trillion more than if they had stayed at home.

“Migration has always been a source of prosperity, innovation, and sustainable development, especially now in the globalized world”, she continued.  “What has to be adjusted and optimized is how migration is governed.  This is why the UN globally has initiated the creation of UN country migration networks as a cross-sectoral platform for collaboration, in which all sectors of the Government, but also private sector and NGOs can work together to shape the modern, development oriented migration policy of the country”.

For IOM, Chief of Mission Mahym Orazmuhammedova  said “we are happy to establish and launch the UN Migration Country Network in Belarus, with the participation of all UN agencies and stakeholders. It is perfect timing as the Government is at the final stage of the Concept of National Migration Policy development. This will allow us to come up with a holistic action plan and focus on the support of the National Migration Policy implementation, which also means the implementation of the GCM”.

The UN Country Network on Migration in Belarus will work closely with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Interior.

City of Dispatch: Minsk