At this year's EDD, MIEUX is organising a project lab on “Gender in migration policy-making: between protection and empowerment” - come join us at Tour & Taxis on 5 June at 9:30!
On 5 and 6 June 2018, the annual European Development Days (EDD) will take place in Brussels. This year’s edition will bring together the development community under the theme “Women and girls at the forefront of sustainable development: protect, empower, invest”, and ICMPD/MIEUX was selected to host its own session on “Gender in migration policy-making: between protection and empowerment” on 5 June at 9:30.
Our session will centre around four questions that address gender-sensitivity in migration policy-making and explore new avenues for protection and empowerment of migrant women and girls:
- How is the topic of gender dealt with in migration?
- How do migration policies reflect the needs of migrant women?
- Why do some migration policies include the gender dimension and other policies do not? What are the effective modalities to include gender in migration policies?
- How can we protect and empower migrant women and girls through policies?
We are excited to be joined by a moderator and four speakers with distinct professional backgrounds and from different geographical areas:
Malin Frankenhaeuser, ICMPD Head of Policy, Directorate of Policy, Research and Strategy
With over a decade of experience with ICMPD, Malin Frankenhaeuser was appointed Head of Policy in 2017. In this capacity, she oversees the analysis and development of migration policy, with a view to fostering the organisation’s contributions to international policy debates and imparting its expertise. In her most recent research, Ms Frankenhaeuser has co-authored a comparative analysis of migration and development policies in eleven European countries and the European Commission. She will moderate our session and present recommendations at the end.
Camilla Hagstrom, Deputy Head of Unit, European Commission (EC), Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO), B3, Migration and Employment
Camilla Hagstrom has worked in the area of external relations for the European Commission since 1995 and holds the post of deputy Head of Unit of DEVCO, B3, Migration, Employment since 2017. She and her team are, amongst others, in charge of the MIEUX Initiative and very engaged in the activities of MIEUX. Ms Hagstrom will talk about the policy framework and operational approach of the Commission with regard to gender mainstreaming in migration policy and programming. She will also discuss DG DEVCO’s experience in relation to the vulnerabilities but also the potential of migrant women and girls.
Ana Isabel García Quesada, Executive Director, Fundación GESO (Costa Rica)
Ana Isabel García Quesada has extensive experience in issues related to gender and social policies, mainly in Central America. She is a consultant for several cooperation agencies and has coordinated projects for the Central American Integration System (SICA) in the past. Ms García Quesada has been appointed twice in the Government of Costa Rica: Executive Director of the National Women's Mechanism (1994-1998) and Vice Minister of Social Development (2006-2008). In her current capacity as Executive Director at Fundación Género y Sociedad (GESO), she has cooperated with MIEUX to produce an analysis of the Costa Rican migration context 2017. In her intervention, Ms García Quesada will present her experience on how to empower and protect women and girls through policies, with a special focus on the need of evidence-based context assessments.
Joseph Kofi Teye, Director, University of Ghana, Centre for Migration Studies
Joseph Kofi Teye is the Director of the Centre for Migration Studies and an Associate Professor at the Department of Geography and Resource Development, University of Ghana. As an expert in one of MIEUX’s actions in Sierra Leone, he supported the integration of the gender dimension in the country’s migration policy and will be able to share his experience and point of view on why some policies address the gender dimension of migration and others do not, and how this dimension can be effectively integrated into policies.
Lanto Rahajarizafy, Diaspora Director, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Madagascar)
Leading the Diaspora Directorate at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2015, Lanto Rahajarizafy has a strong focus on involving members of the Malagasy diaspora into the socio-economic development of the country. Ms Rahajarizafy is the focal point for the MIEUX Action Madagascar, which seeks to support the government in formulating a comprehensive, inclusive and sustainable diaspora engagement strategy. She will speak about Malagasy women and girls abroad and what Madagascar is doing to protect them. Further, she will provide insights on the diaspora policy of Madagascar which is currently under development and how it will support empowerment of migrant women and girls.
Women have always migrated in a similar proportion to men and do so increasingly independently in search of jobs rather than in the context of family reunification. Nonetheless, the costs and opportunities of migration are not gender neutral. Migrant men and women have distinct vulnerabilities which need to be factored into migration policy-making. Acknowledging the central role that gender plays throughout the migration process and experience is the starting point for further development and execution of gender-sensitive policies that will both protect and empower women.
Intrigued? If you are registered for the EDD 2018, come and join us on 5 June at 9:30!
Additional links:
Our work in Costa Rica
Our work in Madagascar
Our work in Sierra Leone