The way forward: Expectations, challenges and opportunities for future editions of the International Migration Review Forum

Paragraph 102 of the Global Compact on Refugees states that indicators to measure its success would be developed ahead of the first Global Refugee Forum in 2019. In contrast, the Global Compact for Migration, as a “collective commitment to improving cooperation on international migration” (paragraph 8), only included eight paragraphs on implementation (40–47), with no information on how its implementation or success would be monitored. This left the Global Compact for Migration implementation monitoring question to the 2022 IMRF. 

The IMRF reminded the international community that the Global Compact for Migration will be the blueprint for much stronger international cooperation in the 2020s, especially compared to what existed before the 2010s, based on common understanding, shared responsibility and unity of purpose among the vast majority of United Nations Member States. Moving forward, three aspects of the IMRF Progress Declaration can lay the ground for a further strengthening of international cooperation on migration, in the lead-up to the next IMRF in 2026, and towards the third IMRF in 2030 that will take place in a crucial year for the United Nations and the international community. 

First, paragraph 70 of the Progress Declaration requests “the Secretary-General, in his next biennial report, to propose, for the consideration of Member States, a limited set of indicators, drawing on the global indicator framework for the SDGs and targets of the 2030 Agenda as contained in General Assembly resolution 71/313 of 6 July 2017 and other relevant frameworks, to assist Member States, upon their request, in conducting inclusive reviews of progress related to the implementation of the Global Compact”. This request opens up the possibility for a clearer and more systematic approach towards reporting on implementation of the Global Compact for Migration, starting from the next IMRF. The United Nations Network on Migration has already activated a new dedicated workstream with the difficult task of creating a limited set of indicators for a global framework that includes 10 guiding principles and 23 objectives, possibly drawing on the methodology used to track progress on SDG indicator 10.7.2. No official baseline has been set; as a consequence, Member States may look, during the IMRF in 2026, for the international community to build a baseline against which progress will be assessed from 2030, a year that will also mark the end of the SDG era. The development of indicators remains a critical element that is watched closely by the international community – particularly from civil society – to support Member States in effectively implementing the Global Compact for Migration. 

Second, the latter part of the same paragraph requests that the Secretary-General “include a comprehensive strategy for improving disaggregated migration data at the local, national, regional and global levels”. Such a strategy can build on several years of work in this space, especially by IOM and the United Nations Expert Group on Migration Statistics.⁶² 

Third, in paragraph 76, Member States also requested “the Secretary-General, with the support of the Network and other relevant actors, to include actionable recommendations on strengthening cooperation on missing migrants and providing humanitarian assistance to migrants in distress, including by collaborating with humanitarian actors, in his next biennial report, with the aim of preventing loss of life in transit”. The United Nations Network on Migration has already set up a workstream to develop such recommendations in a participatory way. 

In upcoming years, the international community is expected to work towards a post-2030 United Nations framework for international cooperation and action. The incremental progress towards global migration governance since the turn of the century, and its acceleration since 2015, are paving the ground for human mobility to become a more central issue for the post-2030 United Nations framework. Throughout the 2020s and beyond, the Global Compact for Migration is expected to be an enabling framework for countries to work together on migration governance, solve some of the tensions outlined in this chapter, and navigate global challenges. 

The reality of migration is that it requires a truly whole-of-government, whole-of-society governance approach. Developments in global migration governance will only benefit all persons on the move if the emerging architecture accommodates this reality.