VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The launch of the One International Migration Data Collaboration or SDMI, on Wednesday, December 20 2023 at the BPS Headquarters - 

Voinews, Jakarta - The International Organization for Migration (IOM), in collaboration with the Indonesian Central Statistics Agency (BPS), is holding the launch of the One International Migration Data Collaboration or SDMI, on Wednesday, December 20 2023 at the BPS Headquarters.

The activity was also attended by the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture and Plt. The Head of BPS aims to officially launch collaborative efforts to implement SDMI and introduce the proposed draft Blueprint and Roadmap for SDMI 2023-2028 prepared by BPS and IOM through dialogue with various ministries/institutions; policy summary prepared by BPS and BRIN; guide to SDMI concepts and definitions which is a collaborative product of BPS and ILO; as well as a prototype SDMI portal that can be developed to contain various standardized international migration data from various ministries/institutions.

According to a release received by Voice of Indonesia on Thursday, International migration has become one of the most challenging issues faced by policy makers around the world because of the complexity of mobility and the interconnectedness of migration issues with other socio-economic issues. Reliable and timely data is needed to inform migration policymakers and for the provision of humanitarian assistance, as well as to maximize the positive impact of migration on development.

In this case, it requires integration of data that has been spread across various institutions and organizations from the village level to the national level. Data integration related to international migration needs to be supported by strengthening cross-sector coordination and an integrated system to strengthen better data governance and management.

"To create safe, orderly and orderly international migration, the commitment of the relevant ministries/institutions is needed to continue collaborating and working together through SDMI, thereby producing accurate and integrated data. "In this way, it provides a strong foundation for policy makers to formulate effective, evidence-based policies," said Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti, Plt. Head of BPS.

SDMI is a significant initiative and is a step that shows the active role of the Indonesian government in realizing better management of data related to international migration. SDMI was developed and introduced since 2019 through a series of consultation and coordination meetings.

Throughout 2023, various series of activities have been carried out, such as initial coordination meetings, consultation meetings with key ministries and institutions, meetings with regional governments, development of a draft blueprint and roadmap for SDMI, preparation of policy summaries, preparation of guidelines for the concept and definition of SDMI, development portal, as well as organizing training related to migration and fostering the preparation of metadata and data standards.

In his remarks, 

"One of the obstacles in making policies related to international migration so far is the difficulty in obtaining accurate information and data.", the Coordinating Minister for PMK, Muhadjir Effendy, said.

Therefore, integrated and quality data is needed which is expected to be produced through SDMI. While touching on the celebration of International Migrant Day which fell on December 18, Muhajir stated that SDMI is a form of respect for the basic rights and freedoms of millions of migrants throughout the world who have contributed to their countries of origin and destination, including those from Indonesia.

As a UN organization dedicated to migration affairs, IOM, represented by Jeffrey Labovitz as Head of Mission IOM Indonesia, also emphasized the importance of the SDMI initiative to realize well-managed and evidence-based migration.

"Good migration management can be created through the implementation of migration policies that are comprehensive, coherent and refer to long-term results. This is difficult to implement without adequate evidence and data. "In this case, IOM has collaborated with BPS and the One Data Indonesia Secretariat (SDI) in preparing a proposed draft Blueprint and Roadmap for SDMI 2023-2028 in order to prepare a clear strategy for developing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating SDMI."

This activity is the first step in implementing SDMI and is expected to encourage further dialogue and discussion for the realization of SDMI by considering the scope of collection and use of international migration data in Indonesia, the division of roles and responsibilities between relevant ministries and institutions, coordination mechanisms through the SDMI forum, to technical aspects, such as protecting personal data, as well as data interoperability support systems that can be mutually agreed upon.

This activity is supported by the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM, United States Department of State) through the Asia Regional Migration Program which is implemented by IOM in 12 countries, including Indonesia.

The launch of the SDMI collaboration is expected to support Indonesia's position as one of the leading countries in the world for the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) as well as for achieving Golden Indonesia 2045 and the Goals Sustainable Development (SDGs)//VOI