VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Head of United Nations Representative in Indonesia, Gita Sabharwal, giving her speech at the National Symposium in Jakarta on Tuesday July 23rd 2024 (Photo : NK-VOI) - 

VOInews, Jakarta : The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations held a "National Symposium: Migration Governance for Sustainable Development" in Jakarta Tuesday (23/7). The event marked the peak of progress of the Migration Governance for Sustainable Development Program after running for two years.

Met after the event, Head of United Nations Representative in Indonesia, Gita Sabharwal said Indonesia has the largest number of migrant workers. Therefore the UN is collaborating with the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UN Women to ensure migrant workers use travel applications to ensure welfare they. 

"So Indonesia is a champion country for migration and we are working very comprehensively from planning to introducing securing livelihood of migrants that are returning back from their countries of work and securing their livelihood of those of the families in the country. In addition we are also working with women migrants and ensuring that they are start using the travel application that has been develop in partnership with Kemlu to secure their live and provide them access to justice to models of justice in their country of origin and the destination country", Gita explain. 

Gita Sabharwal added the global agreement on migration reflects the joint commitment of countries to improve migration management.

The Migration Governance Program for Sustainable Development is a collaborative program between the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, United National Development Program (UNDP), International Organization for Migration (IOM ) and UN Women. The program is funded by the Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MMPTF).

The program aims to strengthen the capacity of central and regional governments in managing labor migration//VOI

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