Kampala, Uganda - The United Nations in Uganda on 21 January formally launched the UN Network on Migration, with 15 member-agencies. 

Speaking at the Network’s virtual inaugural meeting, the UN Resident Coordinator, Ms Susan Ngongi-Namondo, urged the members to actively pursue a UN-wide approach to migration. That way, she said, they would be better placed to support a whole-of-Government and a whole-of-society approach to migration.

The Network was set up by the UN Secretary General in June 2018, as part of the preparatory process of the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). Subsequently, UN Networks on Migration have been formed in countries across the world, co-chaired by the UN Resident Coordinators and IOM, the UN Migration Agency.

The Network aims to ensure effective, timely and coordinated system-wide support to Member States in the implementation, follow-up and review of the GCM.

In Uganda, the Network’s members are:
•    Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)
•    International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
•    International Labour Organization (ILO) 
•    UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)
•    UN Development Programme (UNDP)
•    UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
•    UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
•    UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF)
•    UN Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
•    UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
•    UN Population Fund (UNFPA)
•    UN Resident Coordinator’s Office
•    UN Women
•    World Health Organization (WHO)
•    IOM (as coordinator and secretariat of the Network)

Ugandans are famed for their hospitality towards foreigners, and the country is a host, source and destination of migrants from the Great Lakes region and beyond.  

The Ugandan diaspora sends home on average more than a billion dollars annually. Yet the country still faces migration management challenges, including trafficking in persons, lack of a national migration policy and inadequate protection of its migrant workers.

In his welcome remarks, IOM Uganda Chief of Mission, Mr Sanusi Tejan Savage, hailed the member agencies for embracing the network. He underscored the potential of UN agencies to achieve great things especially when they work together.
“The UN Network on Migration in a great opportunity for the UN in Uganda to work together on an issue that is relevant to the mandates of more than a dozen agencies, other than IOM,” Mr Savage said.