Within the United Nations system, three Rome-based United Nations organizations — the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) — complement and reinforce each other’s activities to address the immediate and long-term challenges of fighting hunger and achieving food security. FAO provides technical expertise and policy guidance. IFAD provides loans and grants to help the rural poor to overcome poverty and gain the means to achieve food security.
Please note: only publishing dates after March 2013 may be considered reliable.
Pages tagged with Population
Date published
With its cross-cutting political, economic and social impacts, the increasing international movement of people touches upon the mandates of many of the United Nations system’s specialized agencies, programmes and funds. Organizations carry out a wide variety of activities that contribute to improving the outcomes of international migration and to assist Governments in addressing international migration issues.
Inter-agency collaboration against hunger; Employment; Migration;
Staff security and safety; Enhancing governance and accountability; Enhancing financial resources management; Enhancing human resources management; Coordinating United Nations system response to the threat of avian influenza; Inter-agency collaboration in information and communication technology.
The United Nations system is unique in the range and coverage of its structures and mandates and in the diversity of the means of action that are at its disposal. These characteristics can be a unique source of strength in addressing the increasingly complex and interrelated challenges that the international community is facing.
CEB took up the issue of international migration and development on the basis of an initial assessment of the implications for the system, as discussed by the General Assembly at the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development; CEB would seek to identify the steps needed to work towards greater policy coherence and programmatic and operational coordination in that area. In that regard, an effort by the Global Migration Group to improve the knowledge base through an inventory of available data sources in each of its member organizations was supported.
International migration and development and Food security theme groups at the country level.
Attention to international migration at the global, regional and national levels has been increasing since the holding in 2006 by the General Assembly of the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development.
Population dynamics and demographic transformations are among the key challenges facing the international community and have major implications for sustainable development, in particular with regard to food security, use of natural resources and consumption of energy. During the reporting period, the United Nations system has increased its efforts to be more effective in advocating for and assisting countries in addressing challenges arising from changing population patterns.
In follow-up to decisions taken by the General Assembly inviting organizations of the United Nations system to increase their efforts in strengthening coordination and coherence when providing input to a number of forthcoming intergovernmental meetings and conferences, CEB addressed the issue of joint contributions by the United Nations system organizations to the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development to be held by the General Assembly in 2013, and the extension of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development Beyond 2014.
Strengthening United Nations system support for sustainable development; Accelerating the mainstreaming of cross-cutting issues into the work of United Nations system organizations; Strengthening United Nations coordination for sustainable development challenges ahead.
Since the holding of the first high-level dialogue on international migration and development by the General Assembly in 2006, attention to the issue of international migration and development has grown.
With the recent passage of the 7 billion world population milestone, the challenges and opportunities brought about by population dynamics and demographic transformation have received heightened attention. In 2012, CEB enhanced its efforts in supporting Member States to address changing population patterns and their implications for poverty eradication and sustainable development.
Acknowledging the important and complex interrelationship between international migration and development, and the need to deal with the challenges and opportunities that migration presents to countries of origin, transit and destination, the General Assembly, in its resolution 67/219, decided to hold a High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development on 3 and 4 October 2013.
In 2013, CEB pursued a number of initiatives for advancing policy coherence and programmatic coordination, in particular in the areas of international migration and development, youth, human rights, cybercrime and cybersecurity, and climate change.
Acknowledging the important and complex interrelationship between international migration and development, and the need to deal with the challenges and opportunities that migration presents to countries of origin, transit and destination, the General Assembly, in its resolution 67/219, decided to hold a High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development on 3 and 4 October 2013.
In 2013, CEB pursued a number of initiatives for advancing policy coherence and programmatic coordination, in particular in the areas of international migration and development, youth, human rights, cybercrime and cybersecurity, and climate change.
With rapid urbanization, economic crises and other transformations in recent years that cause changes in lifestyles and diets in many parts of the world, FAO is particularly challenged to help policymakers and practitioners find new ways of assuring food security and agricultural stability and growth. Since 2006, the Organization has engaged in a range of different activities, including those described in this section.
This publication draws attention to the impressive array of programmes and initiatives in the area of migration and development by UN entities, IOM and their partners, often carried out in collaboration with governments and civil society. The impetus behind the book – the call of the CEB in 2012 to UN organizations and their partners for a Recommendations and Outcomes document on migration to support the preparations for the 2013 HLD – provided a timely opportunity to both take stock of and strengthen the cooperation and coordination among key entities dealing with migration.
The importance of the 2013 HLD for the Special Session of the General Assembly on the ICPD beyond 2014 and the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda, was recently underscored in the resolution “New Trends in Migration: Demographic Aspects,” adopted by the Fourty-sixth Session of the Commission on Population and Development.30 The resolution makes provision for a broad range of elements related to migration and development and calls upon the GMG and other stakeholders, within their respective mandates, to strengthen their collaboration and cooperation in the area of international migrat
The larger group of UN organizations and other partners mandated by the CEB in 2012 to prepare the Recommendations and Outcomes paper on migration for the HLD reflects the ever-widening interconnectedness between migration and other fields of public policy – a crucial fact for the post-2015 development agenda discourse.
The State-led GFMD29 has, from the outset, offered a focus and reference point for the actions of the GMG, mostly by engaging individual GMG members in thematic preparatory and follow-up work on its round tables and/or promoting partnerships on policy- and process-related issues through its Civil Society Days, Common Space panels and Platform for Partnerships. The GFMD has also challenged the capacity of the GMG to respond to migration and development issues as a group.
The GMG has achieved a measure of interdisciplinary collaboration in recent years that could not have been foreseen, or been possible, a decade ago. It has led to a more open, constructive and congenial climate for inter-agency debate and exchange on migration and development, and has encouraged the adoption of more coherent, comprehensive and better-coordinated approaches to international migration among States and their non-State partners.15
The year 1994 was a defining moment in the recent history of multilateral cooperation on migration.6 The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo produced the first comprehensive agenda and call for global action to deal with international migration.
The 2013 High-level Dialogue offers a timely opportunity to take stock of the mandates and work of the United Nations and its partners in the migration (and development) field since the first HLD. It also marks an important occasion to discuss how migration may be integrated into the post-2015 United Nations development agenda.
To prepare their proposed recommendations and outcomes on migration for the 2013 HLD, as requested by the CEB, the relevant international entities were asked to complete a questionnaire covering the following areas:
International migration - the movement of people across international border – has important implications for growth and development. More than 215 million people, half of them women, live and work outside their countries of birth. Migration is a key enables for equitable, inclusive and sustainable social and economic development to the benefit of countries of origin and destination, as well as the human development of migrants and their families.
On 3 October 2017, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Dr. Natalia Kanem as Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.
Dr. Kanem brings to the position more than 30 years of strategic leadership experience in medicine, public and reproductive health, social justice and philanthropy. She started her career in academia with the Johns Hopkins and Columbia University schools of medicine and public health.
The High-Level Committee on Programmes (HLCP) fosters coherence, cooperation and coordination on policy and programme dimensions of strategic issues for the UN system.