Summer Updates

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View this email in your browser Mayors Mechanism 2023 Summer Updates Dear colleagues and friends,  Welcome to our latest newsletter! The Mayors Mechanism – co-steered by United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the Mayors Migration Council (MMC), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) – is pleased to share with you our recent updates.  Happy reading! Call to Local Action 2023 Edition – Join us before October 1st! More and more cities are joining our Call to Local Action for Migrants and Refugees! We welcome the municipality of Godoy Cruz (Argentina), the municipality of Lago Pueblo (Argentina) and Eurocities who just joined our growing community of cities and city networks!  Interested in spotlighting how your local government or network leads the way in welcoming refugees and migrants as we prepare for the UN Global Refugee Forum (GRF) this December and the Global Forum for Migration and Development (GFMD) Summit in January 2024?  For city actions to be included in our Call to Local Action 2023 Report, the deadline for submission is 1 October 2023.  Find out more Takeaways from the GFMD Thematic Workshops in Paris 27 – 28 June The GFMD community met in Paris for two thematic workshops:   27 June (9:15 - 17:45 CEST): Culture, Narratives and Human Mobility 28 June (9:00 - 18:30 CEST): Climate and Human Mobility (Read summary notes of this session here).  Representatives from the cities of Casablanca - Morocco, São Paulo - Brazil, Paris - France and Mardan - Pakistan, spoke in various sessions across the programme, emphasising:  The need to include municipalities in regional and global decision-making spaces.  The critical role of municipalities to prevent and address climate change and climate-induced displacement as well as to prevent xenophobia.  The need to localise knowledge and data to build local resilience and to help cities anticipate the effects of climate change. The importance of ensuring cities have direct access to funding, and include cities as beneficiaries of the COP27 Loss and Damage Fund. In-person meeting of the GFMD Working Group on Balancing Migration Narratives June 2023 The GFMD Working Group on Balancing Migration Narratives met in-person for the first time since its inception in 2020. It was hosted at the Canadian Embassy in Paris on 26 June on the margins of the GFMD Paris activities.  Participants discussed new initiatives, with keynote presentations from Xenophobia Barometer, Dialogues Migrations and the OHCHR Stand up for Migrants campaign. The Working Group also discussed future strategy and vision. The co-chairs – the Mayors Mechanism, the government of Canada and the government of Ecuador - are now at work to incorporate these conclusions into an updated work plan. Peer learning activities on Climate Migration and Displacement June and July 2023 The Mayors Mechanism hosted a number of peer learning activities on the topic of climate change and displacement in June and July. In-person deep dive on climate migration with the City of Paris – 27 June  On the side-lines of the GFMD workshops, the City of Paris hosted a technical exchange for cities on Tuesday, 27 June to discuss the results of the “Climate Migration in Urban Areas: Challenges, Representations and Inclusion” project developed by the City of Paris and IOM.   Read summary notes from the session here. Virtual peer learning: ‘Climate Migration and Displacement: What are LRGs Doing?’ From 4 to 5 July, UCLG hosted a peer learning session on Climate Migration and Displacement as part of the Call to Local Action on Migrants and Refugees. (background note,  agenda, summary day 1, summary day 2). Find out more The Mayors Mechanism will host another peer learning event this autumn on migrant and refugee inclusion in local policy making. Dates to be confirmed – stay tuned here! 2023 High Level Political Forum The High Level Political Forum (HLPF) is the central United Nations platform for the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the global level, which meets annually in July.  This year, SDG 11 (‘sustainable cities and communities’) was under review. Below an overview of some of the key highlights:  On the Local and Regional Governments’ Day, the Global Taskforce on Local and Regional Governments (GTF) released its 7th Report to the HLPF, with key examples from cities that joined the Call to Local Action.  UN Habitat released its SDG 11 Synthesis Report, which considers human mobility as helping to make a ‘transformative shift for a better urban future’, including through the achievement of the Migration and Refugee Compacts.  IOM and UNDP hosted an HLPF Side Event: ‘Leveraging Human Mobility to Rescue the 2030 Agenda and Accelerate the SDGs’.  Find out more Other News The UN Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund announced the funding of 5 new initiatives, 4 of which include strong collaboration with municipalities. This responds directly to our continued call to see local governments as crucial partners and the need to design tools to channel funding to them. More info here. A representative from the Country of Nairobi joined the Khartoum Process ‘Thematic Meeting on Building Resilience and Ensuring the Protection of and Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)’ taking place from 4 – 5 July in Nairobi, Kenya. He called on humanitarian organisations to consider local governments as equal partners so they can work together on displacement crises and respond with long-term inclusion strategies instead of short-term emergency reactions. The Director General-Elect (DGE) of IOM, Ms Amy Pope, participated in the panel on ‘key advancements on sustainable food systems and cities’ during the special event at the UN Food Systems Summit Stocktaking moment (UNFSS+2) in Rome, Italy on 24 July. The DGE reiterated the links between migration, displacement, and food security within countries, and underlined the need to bring cities and mayors to the national conversation.  The SDG summit will take place from 18-19 September 2023 and will mark the half-way point in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Ahead of the Summit, MM partners are advocating for increased collaboration and partnership with local governments and people on the move, as essential strategies to get us back on track and “rescue” the SDGs. They also highlight the  Call to Local Action for Migrants and Refugees as a valuable ‘high-impact partnership’ that provides crucial support to this objective.  About the GFMD Mayors Mechanism: Established in 2018, the Mayors Mechanism – co-steered by United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the Mayors Migration Council (MMC), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) – connects local and regional governments (LRGs) to the state-led Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD). As of 2021, the partnership scaled to also follow the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). More info here. Copyright (C) 2023 GFMD Mayors Mechanism. All rights reserved. You have received this email because you opted in at our website, have participated in activities of GFMD Mayors Mechanism or took part in a past editions of a Mayoral Forum on Human Mobility, Migration and Development. 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