VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

IOM and BPS meeting on Wednesday (24/05/23) - 

Jakarta - The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), today held a meeting between ministries and agencies to develop a roadmap for One International Migration Data or SDMI, in Jakarta. The meeting was opened by the Director of Population and Employment Statistics, Ali Said, and was attended by around 100 participants coming from various ministries and government agencies, local governments, UN organizations, and non-governmental organizations related to migration. This coordination meeting is part of the collaboration between IOM and BPS in facilitating the continued design and implementation of SDMI.

Initiated by BPS since 2019, SDMI was formed to be able to support the preparation and implementation of policies and programs related to migration that are more targeted, as well as encourage the positive impacts and minimize the negative impacts of migration. SDMI is also expected to be able to contribute in measuring Indonesia's achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the goals of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM), as well as realizing the protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI), in accordance with Law no. 18 of 2017.

SDMI is also expected to be able to contribute to the achievement of the current National Medium Term Development Plan (RPJMN), as well as in the preparation of the National Long Term Development Plan (RPJPN) and the next RPJMN which will be updated in 2025.

"I believe that with strong cooperation between ministries and agencies, we can produce a solid and comprehensive framework to achieve One Indonesian Data and One International Migration Data will be one of the important efforts in making it happen. HRI is expected to be a reference for making policies and programs related to international migration," said Ali Said.

According to a release received by Voice of Indonesia on Wednesday, IOM, the United Nations (UN) agency for migration affairs, has been supporting many countries in the world in increasing the capacity and management of migration data as stated in IOM's Global Strategy on Migration Data. Joshua Hart, as IOM Indonesia's Senior Program Coordinator conveyed IOM's support to the Government of Indonesia in implementing data and evidence-based migration policies.

“It is very important for us to understand that data is “more than just numbers”.Data plays an important role to improve the lives of migrants. Data can be used to identify challenges, design responses, monitor policy implementation, and evaluate the impact of migration policies," said Joshua.

Apart from being one of the highest sending countries for migrant workers in Asia, Indonesia is also a migration destination country. Every year, around 150,000 – 250,000 Indonesian migrant workers (PMI) work abroad. Meanwhile, there are around 100,000-200,000 foreign workers currently working in Indonesia and there are approximately 13,000 refugees and asylum seekers from abroad who are in Indonesia waiting for a long-term solution to the situation they are facing.

At the global level, Indonesia is also one of the 33 leading countries (Champion Country) for the implementation of the Global Agreement on Migration which was adopted in 2018 by 163 countries in the world, where one of the objectives of the GCM is to improve migration policies based on data and evidence.

The HRI Roadmap or Roadmap that will be prepared in the next few months is expected to support the Government of Indonesia in identifying strategies, priorities, challenges, and needs in designing, implementing, and monitoring the operationalization of SDMI.

The process of preparing the Road Map will include reviewing literature and good practices from other countries, interviews, workshops, as well as focus group discussions with various relevant ministries and institutions at the national and regional levels.

Organizing coordination meetings and preparing the SDMI Roadmap is carried out through the Asia Regional Migration Program which is being implemented by IOM in 12 countries, including Indonesia, with support from the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs United States of America. The main objective of this program is to enhance the capability of governments in the Asian Region in sustainable and humane migration management//VOI