Building resilient migration management systems: Developing a World Migration Report digital toolkit for policy officials

This project develops an interactive digital toolkit for policy officers to support them in leveraging migration research for evidence-based policymaking and will draw lessons for the scientific community for brokering knowledge in policy circles.  The project builds on the expertise and experience of the Global Migration Centre at the Graduate Institute and IOM’s Migration Research Division, which manages the publication of the key global reference report on migration, the World Migration Report.

Background

Migration has long brought enormous benefits to origin and destination countries and societies, but remains beset with uncertainty and fear, often compounded by rising misinformation on migration and migrants. Migration policies and responses thus tend to be highly reactive and ad hoc to the detriment of a balanced approach supporting societies’ resilience, as well as economic and social development.

Improving systemic resilience calls for evidence-based migration policies and responses that can leverage the positive impacts of migration, mitigate its negative implications and adapt to new developments. Migration research however remains difficult to access and navigate, and is rarely tailored to officials’ needs and timelines, limiting its potential to inform migration policies.

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Aim

This project aims to maximize the utility and usage of research on migration for evidence-based policy-making through the development of an innovative and integrative digital toolkit tailored to policy officials’ needs and constraints, and building on IOM’s flagship publication, the World Migration Report, and key migration resources. The project will also support capacity-building within the scientific community to maximize the policy impact of research.

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Impact

Increased accessibility, utility and usage of research on migration for evidence-based policy-making will help policies leverage the positive impacts of migration, mitigate negative implications of acute migration events and adapt to new developments for the benefit of societies’ increased resilience, and economic and social development.

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Key activities

The project will implement the following activities:

1. Analyse policy officers’ needs and constraints for using migration research through focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews and surveys;
2. Develop innovative and interactive digital tools tailored to policy officials’ needs, building on the content of the World Migration Report and other key migration resources;
3. Pilot the toolkit among selected policy officers and finalize the toolkit based on feedback gathered;
4. Engage policy officials through capacity-building activities;
5. Draw lessons learned for the scientific community on brokering knowledge in policy circles.

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Project updates

• Presentation of the toolkit for the launch of the World Migration Report, 2 December 2021
• World Migration Report – Insights from policy officials (the Graduate Institute Geneva, IOM) [download file], March 2022
• Launch of the World Migration Report digital toolkit for policy officials at the ACUNS Annual Meeting, June 2022

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