Second Inter-Agency Committee (IAC) Meeting on 25th June 2024

Second Inter-Agency Committee (IAC) Meeting on 25th June 2024

Migration statistics are critical to developing sound, evidence-based policies that harness the contribution of migrants to the national development process and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well to ensure that no migrant is left behind.

The Sustainable Development Council (SDC) and the International Organization for Migration Sri Lanka (IOM) jointly hosted the second meeting of the Inter-Agency Committee (IAC) on Tracking the Progress on Sri Lanka’s Migration-Related Targets of the 2030 Agenda and Assessing the Contribution of Migration towards SDGs today.

The SDC and the IOM Sri Lanka established a formal collaboration earlier this year to develop a sustainable mechanism to track the progress towards the achievement of migration-related targets of the SDGs as well as the contribution of migration towards the national development process and IAC was accordingly appointed.

The project aims to achieve the following objectives:

1. Formulation of a national framework to measure the progress and contribution of migration in line with the developed proxy indicators relating to migration.

2. Development and operationalization of a data collection and knowledge sharing ICT platform.

3. Building the capacities of government officials to manage the ICT platform

IOM consultant Dr. Bilesha Weeraratne, Head of Migration and Urbanization Policy Research from Institute of Policy Studies delivered an in-depth presentation on the proposed methodology of conducting a mapping exercise, highlighting key phases of the project such as a review of existing literature and alignment, data collection and review, data mapping and framework development to measure the progress and contribution of migration.

The meeting was jointly chaired by the Director General of SDC, Ms. Chamindry Saparamadu, and the Chief of IOM Mission to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Mr. Sarat Dash.

A special moment was dedicated to acknowledging the unwavering commitment and significant contributions of the outgoing IOM Chief of Mission Mr. Sarat Dash towards the implementation of SDGs in Sri Lanka. The Director General of SDC presented a token of appreciation in recognition of his tireless efforts and dedication to advancing the SDGs.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment, Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment, Ministry of Defence- National Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education (Higher Education) Ministry of Education (General Education) and Ministry of Education (Tertiary and Vocational Education).