United Nations Statistical Commission

In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a global development framework for the next fifteen years (A/70/1). In the 2030 Agenda, international migration is recognized as an integral part of sustainable development. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include targets to facilitate safe, orderly and regular migration, to maximize the contribution of migrants and migration to inclusive and sustainable development, and to address migration-related challenges.

Implementing the 2030 Agenda, however, poses significant challenges for national statistical systems in order to generate data and statistics for monitoring progress towards achieving the SDGs. The SDGs require a comprehensive exploration of existing data sources and the establishment of new ones, refinement of statistical concepts relevant to migration-related indicators, and coordination among data producers and stakeholders at the country level. Under the overarching principle of "leaving no one behind", countries are expected to address migrant integration and the vulnerability of migrants through disaggregation of data by migratory status.

On 19 September 2016, Member States adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants (A/71/1), in which they agreed, in paragraph 40, to improve national collection and international cooperation on migration data, disaggregated by sex and age, pertaining to regular and irregular flows, the economic impacts of migration and refugee movements, human trafficking, the needs of refugees, and migrants and host communities as well as other issues.

This side event offers an opportunity for Member States, international organizations and civil society working on migration to (a) present the challenges of measuring and collecting migration data to monitor the progress towards the realization of the migration-related SDGs, (b) discuss the way forward in addressing gaps in migration data through exchanging views and experiences, and (c) discuss efforts to improve data on migration and refugee movements and their impact.

Key questions that the side events intents to address include:

• What are the main challenges regarding the measurement of migration-related SDGs?
• What is your country's national strategy in measuring migration-related SDG targets?
• How should national statistical systems and other stakeholders respond to the commitment to improve data on refugees and migrants?

Moderator:
• Ms. Martine Durand, Chief Statistician, OECD

Panellists:
• Mr. Aderanti Adepoju, Chief Executive of the Human Resources Development Centre in Lagos, Nigeria, and Coordinator of the Network of Migration Research on Africa
• Ms. Lisa Grace S. Bersales, National Statistician and Civil Registration General, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)
• Mr. Enrique Jesus Ordaz Lopez, Director General for Integration, Analysis and Research, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI), Mexico
• Mr. John Pullinger, National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, Office for National Statistics, United Kingdom