MOSCOW, May 16 - 18, 2011 – The Second Annual International Conference of participants in the Migration and Remittance Peer-Assisted Learning Network (MIRPAL) will be held at Moscow’s Izmailovo Hotel from May 16 to 18, 2011. The key objective of the Conference is to broaden the platform for dialogue between and within countries on a number of priority labor migration issues. About 40 delegates from the MIRPAL participating countries will attend. The conference program includes two thematic workshops, Building Infrastructure for Organized Recruitment of Migrants in the CIS and Improving Migration Statistics and Data Sharing.
The MIRPAL network, which brings together migration and remittance experts and practitioners from nine CIS countries, including Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Tajikistan, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, was established on the initiative of the World Bank two years ago. All the MIRPAL participants meet every year to take stock of the work done and to share experiences in addressing issues of cross-border labor migration.
The first day of the Conference will be devoted to discussions of the progress achieved by MIRPAL participants.
MIRPAL – Progress and Future Plans
Session One. Cooperation with national institutions and progress in implementing the action plan on migration statistics and remittance accounting are the key themes of addresses by the national MIRPAL coordinators from eight CIS republics, including Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Tajikistan, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
Session Two. The goal of the round table Measures to Improve the Network Performance at Both National and International Levels is to find answers to strategically important questions facing MIRPAL, such as the involvement of government institutions of the participating countries in the implementation of the MIRPAL project and efficient exchanges of experiences among countries. The MARRI project (Migration, Asylum, and Refugees Regional Initiative) implemented in the Western Balkans with the participation of the World Bank will be reviewed as an example of inter-regional collaboration on migration.
Session Three. The round table Planning Future Work is a platform for discussing further MIRPAL efforts and opportunities for contributions from all the participating countries towards achieving the priority objectives of the project.
The next two days of the Conference will be devoted to the two thematic workshops.
Thematic Workshop: Improving Migration Statistics and Data Sharing
As a follow-up to the 2010 workshop, this meeting will address the status of migration statistics in the MIRPAL countries and the results of household surveys dealing with migration in CIS republics and other countries. In addition, the participants in the workshop plan to suggest practical recommendations on improving data collection methods and harmonizing labor migration data exchanges among the MIRPAL participating countries across CIS.
Thematic Workshop: Building Infrastructure for Organized Recruitment of Migrants in the CIS
It takes thorough preparation to develop and efficient service infrastructure for labor migrants. The Workshop program covers issues such as contract standard setting, labor dispute settlement, supervision of private employment agencies and welfare services for migrants. The results of the workshop are going to be used to develop an Action Plan that will define the needs for further technical, research and analytical work in this sphere. The workshop will be the starting point of dialogue on developing a service infrastructure for migrants and define the range of goals to be addressed by joint efforts.
