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Migration Governance for Sustainable Development, a collaborative program between the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the United National Development Program (UNDP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UN Women supported by the Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MMPTF), (Photo : NK-VOI) - 

VOInews, Jakarta : Migration Governance for Sustainable Development, a collaborative program between the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the United National Development Program (UNDP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UN Women supported by the Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MMPTF), held a National Symposium to marks the culmination of the program's progress after running for two years.

This initiative focuses on increasing the capacity of government officials at the central and regional levels to develop policies and programs that are gender responsive, rights-based, and recognize the potential of migrants as development actors in line with the Global Compact for Migration (GCM).

The project has achieved three important results:

1) Strengthening gender-responsive migration governance.* This project has developed a series of ten studies including the development of migration governance indicators, special training sessions, and facilitation of dialogue on gender-responsive migration at the national and regional levels. This program also supports progress in efforts to protect and strengthen an integrated criminal justice system for female migrant workers who are victims of gender-based violence and human trafficking. This program also integrates several migration governance arrangements into the 2025-2029 RPJMN draft which will be adopted at the end of this year.

2) Increased government capacity at the regional level.* Through special training at the regional level, this project has provided important tools for local governments, including three provinces, and five cities/districts to integrate migration into planning and budgeting and increase capacity beyond 3,000 stakeholders to prevent and respond to violence and human trafficking. This is to ensure that all government stakeholders can effectively manage and utilize migration for development.

3) Promote innovative sustainable financing.* This project has developed and tested three innovative financing and gender-responsive economic empowerment initiatives to support migrant workers to empower their economic capacity.

Migration is often the only option for Indonesian people who have limited opportunities or no opportunities at all. In 2023, the number of Indonesians working abroad will increase by 36.95% compared to the previous year, the majority of whom are women working in the informal sector.

However, these opportunities come with significant risks, including irregular placements, gender-based violence, human trafficking, fraud, and exploitative working conditions. To address this problem, the Indonesian government has adopted the GCM, which aims to maximize the benefits of migration while ensuring comprehensive protection for Indonesian migrant workers.

According to a release received by Voice of Indonesia on Tuesday (24/07/24), the GCM emphasizes effective migration governance and is in line with SDG target 10.7, which focuses on “orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration. Therefore, this project plays an important role in shaping the future of migration governance in Indonesia.

In addition to establishing a sustainable financing mechanism, later this project will officially launch two innovations, namely

(1) the Chat Bot feature, which is an additional feature to complement the existing mechanism, namely a safe travel application that allows quick access for women migrant workers who are victims of violence to seek help.

(2) Juang Mobile Application, which is a financial management application to help migrants manage their expenses effectively which is estimated to benefit more than 3 million Indonesian migrant workers//VOI