Good afternoon from Switzerland. This is Bettina Etterspeaking. I'm going to be moderating this session. I'm senior global migration governance manager for the Swiss Agency for Development and Corporation of the Foreign Ministry of Switzerland. I hope you can all hear and see me well as I'm joining you virtually this afternoon. Good morning or evening, wherever you may be around the world. And apologies for the late start of this session, which I understand is due to technical difficulties in the earlier sessions. And so I'd like to announce at the outset that unfortunately, we have lost one of our panelists because of this delay. The minister from Ethiopia had to cancel a short notice because he had or she had, I'm sorry, prior commitments. And so we will only have five panelists or four panelists. That will allow us a bit more time for questions and comments from the floor, although I am informed by the organizers that we should definitely come to a close of today's first day of the IDM by 6 PM Geneva time, so in two hours time from now. So let me start with a few introductory remarks and then we'll go right into the panel discussion. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, it's a pleasure to welcome you to this session on enhancing migrants agency and contribution to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The pandemic not only endangers the prospects of advancing implementation of the objectives set out in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, but also threatens to reverse the progress achieved so far and further exacerbate existing challenges and vulnerabilities across every area. In working together to identify measures to respond to the pandemic, it is important that governments and the wider international community cease this crisis as an opportunity to reiterate their commitments to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and use their implementation as a means to create more resilient societies and to ensure that they can better respond to future crisis. During the recovery of the pandemic from the migrants' contributions will be essential for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Moreover, it's important to also look at how the economic contributions of migrants and diasporas are affected by the pandemic and how they could be safeguarded in the future and during the crisis. In this vein, Switzerland was prompted to take action in light of the alarming estimates that were released by the World Bank back in April about the expected staggering decline in remittances by 20% or 110 US billion dollar, which equals almost 70% of global ODA in one year. Together with the United Kingdom and multilateral partners, including IOM, but also private sector and civil society partners, we launched the call to action remittances in crisis, how to keep them flowing. The intention of this call to action was to raise awareness about the potentially devastating effects. The decline in remittances will have not only on migrants and their families who depend on those flows, this income to cover basic necessities, such as food, housing, education, but most importantly, during a pandemic, healthcare. It also threatens not only individual households, but also poses a great risk to economic stability in many low and middle income countries where flows make up a big fraction of finance that goes into the books of these economies. We all know the numbers, remittances are three times larger than ODA in normal times. They also exceed foreign direct investment. And so this is a significant contribution to economies. And so a decline in remittances is potentially threatening to the progress of the SDGs and threatens people to fall back or even deeper into poverty. So the call to action calls on different actors in the system, like policymakers from governments, but also regulators and also partners from the private sector, like the remittance service providers themselves to take measures to mitigate the effects of the crisis on remittances and ensure that migrants can retain access to remittance services and remittances can keep flowing. The part that still is able to be transmitted because of course we're aware that there's unprecedented unemployment involved with the crisis. And those are incomes that definitely will not be able to, this will be a gap in the remittances that are usually being sent. But that's where it's most important that those flows that can still exist can be maintained and even supported. So it's important, for example, to ensure that remittance service providers are declared as essential services, but also promoting digital solutions. This is what the crisis has shown. There's definitely still a need there, including financial literacy and education, awareness raising among migrants on how to use these digital solutions, but also temporarily or permanently waiving or reducing transaction costs, but also ensuring that remittance service providers remain liquid in these times and also considering the ease of regulatory pressures and challenges. So with this initiative, this policy initiative at global levels, Switzerland and its partners are hoping to contribute to awareness and also action being taken of this one but important part of migrants contributions to sustainable development goals that are severely affected by the crisis. And so in this spirit, this session will address, among others, like the remittances, also questions about alternative work and entrepreneurship opportunities, reskilling and transnational elements of migrant workers. So in the next two hours, we will try to address some of the following questions, thanks to our panelists and then also comments from the floor, questions like, we know that migrants have great potential to help reinvigorate and fuel social and economic development during and in the aftermath of the crisis. So how are migrant skills and contributions considered in preparing to respond to the pandemic in different policies taken around the world? And also in an ideal post-COVID world, which policies would you like to see implemented to improve the economic situation and skill recognition of migrants? What actions can post-transit and origin countries take to promote financial literacy and safer remittances of migrants during and after COVID? And what is the role of the diaspora in educating members for greater financial literacy? In which ways do you see migrants having the greatest impact on the achievement of the SDGs in the post-COVID world? I now would like to turn to our distinguished panelists and would like to invite them to share their views but also discuss challenges and best practices and including skills in the response and recovery efforts as well as perspectives on promoting migrant agency and encouraging migrant contribution to the SDGs. I will briefly introduce the panelists before I pass them the floor for about 10 minutes. And I really ask you to keep the time considering the delays that we're already facing. I already noted that unfortunately, the minister of Ethiopia is not with us anymore. And I understand that we will give the floor to Ms. Polina Tamesi, the UN resident coordinator in Cambodia first because of the time difference. Also now that we have to take into account because of the delay. And then just also to tell everyone where we are located around the world, I understand that most of us are joining online, most of the panel, except for the last speaker from WHO who is in the room. So without further ado, I would like to turn my attention to the resident coordinator in Cambodia. It's my great pleasure to introduce you, Ms. Polina Tamesi. She holds more than 20 years of experience in development cooperation, policy development, advocacy, and management both within the UN system and with other international organizations. In previous assignments, Ms. Tamesi served as Asia regional democratic governance practice leader and practice manager and in anti-corruption policy. Ms. Tamesi, we greatly appreciate you joining us, especially so late, even later than expected. And you have the floor for your comments. Thank you very much. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to be part of the international dialogue on migration coming to you from the UN in Cambodia. As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the world as we know it. And in no other time in our generation's history, have we all equally experienced the impact of restrictions on human mobility... Sorry, have we all equally experienced the impact of restrictions on human mobility and subsuming individual freedoms for the sake of public good? And no other group has been adversely affected by restrictions on human mobility as the migrant community. It is in this sense that I share three messages on enhancing migrants' agency and contributions to the achievement of SDGs. Message one. Cambodia is a young and highly mobile population. Migration is an important economic lifeline and a factor driving social mobility for families. The productive capacity and remittances they generate need to be nurtured and protected in an enabling environment that allows them to meet their basic needs, create savings, assets and opportunities for their families, communities and sending and host countries. 60% of Cambodians are under the age of 35 and they are highly mobile in search for economic opportunities. And they want to be part of the prosperity resulting from two decades of 7% GDP growth in Cambodia. Over the last two decades, internal and cross-border migration has been one of the most significant drivers for transforming Cambodian society. On average, Cambodian migrants send back $200 to $215 a month in remittances, which is a critical lifeline for millions of households helping families raise living standards above subsistence. From a macroeconomic perspective, remittances is a major source of foreign exchange in Cambodia. Total remittances have grown from $444 million in 2010 to $1.6 billion in 2019. Each numbers alone already point to significant contributions that migrants make to the economy. And migrant workers remittances can spur economic development for migrants sending communities. However, a lot depends on the migrants workers' access to the transfer channels that are affordable and safe. It also depends on recipients' households capacities and opportunities to use the money for productive investment. And more importantly, remittances need to be channeled to a supportive macroeconomic and business environment with good governance systems in place conducive to optimizing this fund for productive investments. For some of the key actions, improved financial inclusion and literacy, some of those that you've already highlighted, bringing the up-bank into the formal banking system, reforming legal and regulatory frameworks to increase transparency and competition in the remittance market, and deploying digital technology for more effective and faster payment systems. Message two, public perception, being recognized and having a voice matters. When migrants are bad news as a part of the economy and society with their rights within the United Nations, it's the first step to giving them agency. When mobility is part of the fabric of an interconnected world, we create an enabling environment for migrants to be counted as contributors. How do we make this happen? One, facilitate their ability to access opportunities in a safe, orderly and regular manner. And two, ensure that they have legal, health and social protection required to be secure, productive and fulfilling lives. On the first point, one way to ensure safe, orderly, regular migration is through bilateral agreement. The MOU between Cambodia and Thailand, for example, aims to formalize the status of Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand. The involvement of private recruitment agencies and employers in this agreement is crucial and contributes to reducing irregular migration as well as strengthening social protection of migrant workers. Another way is through international cooperation via the Global Compact, which enables governments to promote safe, orderly and regular migration to effective practices in national migration governance. It also enhances international migration policy by addressing some of the gaps in the way states cooperate with one another. On the second point, the pandemic has shown us that the best way to prevent people from sliding back into poverty is through access to health and social protection. The US efforts in Cambodia support the government to ensure that migrants abroad are formalized with a taking of benefits from former labor markets and social protection systems in the destination country. We continue working with the Cambodian government to increase protection of migrants for the full cycle of migration. For example, in reducing payments of migration services, complex procedures and red tape. It also means key migration with uncertain policy areas to support recognition of their social and economic contribution and bring migration into the national and social development plan, as well as help set up more integrated social protection mechanism. Message three, even without the pandemic crisis, migrants remain one of the most vulnerable groups and at high risk of being left behind. If we don't target their needs, tailored measures are required to create economic opportunities for migrants as part of building back better from the pandemic. One example, Thailand hosts 1.2 million Cambodian migrant workers, the largest among the top three destination countries for Cambodia. When Thailand began to place the borders in March, more than 115,000 Cambodian migrant workers returned home. The mass return had significant repercussion. Their return to Cambodia with no jobs meant that their families could easily slide back into poverty. Without support for alternate places of income or livelihoods, returning migrants are unable to reintegrate into their communities and forced to re-migrate increasing risk in illegal recruitment, human trafficking and COVID transmission. In this case, some of the priority response actions that we took were on health and protection, as well as on livelihoods and expanding employment opportunities. At the policy level, we ensured that migrants are considered in the policy response in social economic recovery strategy to the pandemic. And at the programmatic level, we ensure that the poor migrant refugees are included in the IDFOR system. This is the cash transfer mechanism to obtain emergency assistance. Other efforts included reskilling and upskilling, improving their access to employment services and supporting migrant small, medium-sized enterprises as well as expanding support services. To conclude, may I emphasize that these priority and practical actions are necessary to enhance migrant's ability in the SDG achievement. The first, ramp up efforts to formalize migrant workers' indefinite employment. Second, include migration in the government's social economic recovery plan. Third, provide social protection to the returning migrants and livelihood support. Enforced, to re-emphasize what you started off with in your opening, Madame Moderator, support IOM's global call to action and remittances in crisis, how to keep them flowing. With these measures, we can take the necessary steps to turn the crisis into an opportunity. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Tamesi from Cambodia for your very relevant points. And I'm for highlighting with the case of Cambodia the relevance of remittances in recovery and keeping them flowing. Also, the question of public perception and how migrants are being included in recovery, social protection, health protection as an important point and also addressing vulnerabilities upon return of migrants and creating economic opportunities, reintegration opportunities and also including them in emergency measures like cash transfers. So thank you very much for these stimulating points on how to increase migrants' agencies during and after the pandemic. And with this, I would like to turn to our second speaker, her Excellency, Biorica Dumbraveanu. I hope I pronounced your name correctly. She's Minister of Health, Labor and Social Protection from the Republic of Moldova. I would like to thank you for yielding your first speaking place to Miss Tamesi because of the time difference. And just as a quick introduction before I give you the floor, her Excellency has served in diverse offices of the Moldovan government over the past 18 years, including advisor to the President of the Republic of Moldova in the field of social development as the Secretary of State for Social Assistance, Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection and also as the Deputy Minister of Labor, Social Protection and Family. She also served many years as the head of Family Protection and Child Rights Policy Director in the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family of Moldova. I am very honored to welcome you to this session. Excellency, and you have the floor to make your statement. International migration is a phenomenon that affects the population worldwide and it involves almost all countries throughout the world. Some countries of origin and others are of destination. Republic of Moldova is not an exception and as a developing country, we've been affected by the phenomenon of migration. In this context, we welcome the IDM as a very suitable platform for migration policy. On this occasion, I'd like to thank the IOM for organizing this event and also for our longstanding cooperation. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the whole world, having negative effects not only on the health of the population, but also on social welfare, which is why migration and protection of migrants is becoming an important topic on the agenda of world countries, giving the fact that migration has grown throughout the pandemic. With the outbreak of the pandemic, migrants have become very vulnerable, encountering problems such as job losses, lack of resources, loss of housing and difficulties with mobility. In the Republic of Moldova, the indicative number of migrants is approximately 800,000 individuals. They currently reside in more than 45 countries throughout the world and in terms of migrants who left for employment, the number is some 325,000. The main destination countries are Russian Federation, Italy, Israel and Greece. Therefore, based on the existing migration profile, the Republic of Moldova took all necessary measures in order to incorporate an integrated approach on labour migration management in line with the objectives in the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development Goals. The efforts of the Republic of Moldova are concentrated on supporting migrants in distress and ensuring their protection, undertaking reintegration measures and harnessing the potential of migrants and diaspora. The measures aim to prevent Moldovan nationals abroad from finding themselves in distress and ensuring their reintegration in the country as well as attracting and transferring human capital through their work experiences, new skills and knowledge and entrepreneurial ideas that we can assimilate back in the country of origin. In this sense, we involved the diaspora by attracting Moldovans who left for studies to return to the country and contribute to its development. At the moment, there are some 6000 Moldovans studying abroad based on the treaties that Republic of Moldova has concluded with other states. On social dialogue in the area of social security with destination states of Moldovan citizens, I would like to highlight that we are currently discussing and negotiating with the Russian Federation, Spain and the Hellenic Republic so that in the near future, we can sign treaties on the subject. However, in the context of nationals returning to the country, the pension rights acquired in the territory of destination countries can be capitalized. So far, the Republic of Moldova has signed 14 social security agreements, 13 of which have been successfully implemented. In the meantime, it is intended to provide economic support to members of the diaspora through developing and implementing various economic empowerment programs, such as PariOnePlusOne, Diaspora Engagement Hub, DAROnePlusThree and these programs aim at supporting people from diaspora to implement projects in the country to improve infrastructure in rural and urban areas, to harness human potential and contribute to knowledge transfer. They'll be used with the aim of contributing to the overall development. It's important to mention that in the context of the pandemic, when a large part of our fellow citizens returned to the Republic, we adopted additional measures to support them because they didn't work in the country. They were not entitled to unemployment benefits in case of job loss. We provided benefits through the amount of 2,775 lei per month to overcome the difficult situation. Their access to social services for returned citizens has also been increased. We believe the skills and material resources of Moldovan migrants who are forced to repatriate because of COVID-19 need to be valued as major contributions for the development of the home country through the setting up of appropriate policies, programs and conditions. This year we have developed with the support of IOM a mechanism for validation and certification of informal skills migrants gained abroad. Diaspora has already mobilized itself in providing COVID-19 response by delivering support for vulnerable groups in Moldova and within the Diaspora. Their contributions through knowledge and skills transfer, entrepreneurship and innovation, trade and investment will prepare the ground for a swifter socioeconomic recovery after the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. We value the data and analysis drawn from important IOM led instruments such as the migration governance indicators, UN migration network, extended migration profiles, DTM surveys, and now we need to act addressing mobility driven COVID-19 development impacts on the Republic of Moldova and in contributing to an early recovery by the impacted groups. I am convinced that this 20th and 20th edition of the IDM will greatly foster cooperation, partnerships and networks for future practical and relevant action in these challenging times. Thank you. Your Excellency, thank you very much for exploring with us the case of Moldova and how the government of Moldova is very actively integrating migrants and its Diaspora in the response to the pandemic and also recovery plans, both supporting migrants abroad in distress but also seeing to their effective reintegration for those who are returning and also the investments in transferring the skills, the human capital of your migrants abroad for the response and recovery in this crisis. Thank you very much for sharing your views and experience in your specific country. And I would now like to turn to our next speaker, who is Mr. Felipe Munoz, Chief of Migration Units at the Inter-American Development Bank. He has previously served as the advisor of the President of Colombia for the Colombian-Venezuelan border and he has served on the Inter-American Development Banks Board of Directors. I'd like to welcome you to today's discussion on the agency and contribution of migrants and we're keen on hearing your perspectives on the subject. You have the floor, Mr. Munoz. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Eta. I'd like to thank the IOM and in particular, Mr. Vitorino, the Director General and all of the team at the IOM in the Latin American Caribbean region for the support that they provide us with the migration process. I work at the migration division of the Inter-American Development Bank and it shows the commitment that we have under our recently signed MOU. For those who are not familiar with the in the Inter-American Development Bank, we are a major source of loans and financing in the region for Latin America. The subject of migration is one that affects the region of Latin America. It's been more focused in other regions, but in recent years we have seen a massive growth of migration, migration within the region, just to mention that with the latest figures from the United Nations, we've had 5.4 million Venezuelans who have had to leave their country and of them more than 80% are located in the region in addition to migratory flows within Central America, the Caribbean region and throughout the region. So this forced migration can lead to failure in achieving various sustainable development goals be they on poverty, on eliminating hunger and so forth and that's why we have been adding the subject of migration to the social part of the bank to ensure that we can help with managing the migratory process. I'd like to talk about some of the challenges we face and some of the potential within the recovery from the pandemic. As you know, more than 50% of employment in Latin America and the Caribbean is informal in nature and this percentage is that almost 70% of all migrants that are interregion within the region are working in the informal sector. As you know, COVID-19 particularly affected these sectors, the services sector, the sectors of tourism and assistance and this is where the migrants were concentrated. So the unemployment rate within the migrant population is even higher than within the local population and we can see this within the bid. And that is why we wanted to work with countries to improve this and to integrate work with the integration processes. We're looking at identification processes, assisting employment agencies in matching supply and demand and helping the workers so that it can be seen what opportunities there are for migrants and to help in giving value to the certificates and qualifications brought from other countries. And so we want to in this way reduce work and reduce the barriers that exist for migrants. But why is it so important to integrate migrants? Well, it's because in most of the countries intra-regional migrants are often a population with high levels of education such as those from Venezuela but also from a productive age and younger and in many cases the labor force is not one which is competing with the local market. And so we need to expand migration and document it and ensure that we make the best of the processes that the bank may be involved in so that we can ensure there's a predication and that we strengthen systems in order to improve information within the employment systems in the region. So how do we as a bank do this? We have a migration unit within the social division and we provide non-refundable resources to the countries and so that these can be made accessible with the production of papers, regional dialogues and sharing with organizations such as the IOM, the United Nations Agency so that we can share best practices. And so to conclude, I would like to thank many of the donors, Miss Etta, since you are there. I'd like to thank Switzerland, the European Union, the United States amongst many because they're providing us resources that we can then leverage and create better synergies and support to governments and the communities through the process. The Inter-American Bank as a source of financing has placed migration at the center of its agenda, a cross-cutting issue so that we not only cover migrants but we include them in all public policy for development so that we do not lose what was gained in working towards the sustainable development goals. Thank you very much. Señor Muñoz, muchas gracias. Thank you very much, Mr. Muñoz. I'd like to thank you for bringing our attention, particularly to the issue of employment and how it's important to make sure that the different branches of a government are talking to each other when it comes to employment, that it's not only important to include migrants or to cover inclusion from a social side but also from day one, actually think about how migrants can be included in the different employable sectors in employment policies and really from the outset, mainstreaming or integrating responses for migrants, including them in different policy areas relevant to the achievement of the SDGs and particularly in the employment sector where migrants can make a difference but also recognizing that the pandemic has affected many of the sectors where migrants are active and that it's all the more important now for the different agencies within governments to speak to each other and identify how the inclusion of migrants can be maintained and be addressed. So thank you very much and I already have the pleasure to announce the last speaker on the panel and then I would turn it back to the moderator who's in the room for comments and questions but now last but not least, I would like to turn to Mr. Bugu Kamara. He is present in Geneva. My understanding is correct and he is COVID-19 support pillar manager for the World Health Organization. Dr. Kamara is a specialist on infectious diseases and he is part of the five Mauritanian diaspora doctors mobilized through IOM and the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa to fight COVID-19 in Mauritania. He works in the service of the NUMOLOGY for the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Grosse for having to switch to French now. This threw me off a bit and his research focuses on infectious diseases, respiratory medicine and pulmonology while working with patients with cystic fibrosis. So this is going to be a very interesting perspective that he is going to lend to the discussion very hands-on and we are keen to learn from your very specific experience in this crisis and how your work relates to migrant agency contribution, understanding that you yourself are one of those people who are supporting the response and recovery in this pandemic. So thank you very much for being with us and the floor is all yours. Bonjour. Good afternoon. So I'm going to speak French. It's much easier for me. First of all, I'd like to thank the IOM and all the organisers who have ensured that I can participate today to speak about my experience as a member of a diaspora and to help and by helping the fight against COVID-19 which has affected the whole world and countries such as mine. What I'm going to say is maybe a little different to the previous speakers because I'm a clinician in the field and I've been working in France for 20 years. Up until June, I was based in Grenoble where I was responsible for the centre for infectious diseases. I decided in June to return to Mauritania. I was accompanied by five other members of the diaspora and they are still back there and we were encouraged to do so through a programme between the EU and the IOM. So to come back to the subject of the diaspora, what we need to remember is that there's always a continuous flow between members of the diaspora and their countries of origin and these flows can be more or less urgent and for us in our specific situation, we lived through the first crisis of the pandemic in France and in particular in Grenoble where I was and given the depth of the co-morbidities and the pandemic, it was really unprecedented in terms of coronaviruses and we really wondered what would happen at home where the health resources are not always there and countries which are not really structured in terms of their health systems. So the first idea was to set up a contact with our countries of origin and we did this through WhatsApp groups or we had various meetings in our case with the Minister for Health, Zoom meetings where we started anticipating what equipment and resources would be needed and so we shared the protocols for care which were already available in the countries where we were living our adoptive countries, France in my case. So these concerns which was always there made us come to the countries through this program in order to be able to share the experience that we had been through so that we could move ahead to the next steps and avoid mistakes that had been made and to be able to share with our countries. So this commitment from the diaspora was spontaneous and it was really facilitated by the IOM and I think it ensured that we could have even more fruitful outcomes because of the human resources but also the technical contributions that we could make to our countries of origin. In terms of the COVID response in Mauritania, it was managed by the Ministry of Health but with a great deal of support from various partners in particular the United Nations system which are organized itself under the address of the World Health Organization who employ us. So the World Health Organization is in charge of certain pillars such as the management of cases and that's what I'm dealing with within the system. So we're really involved in particular in the field with clinical activities and clinical services. We were involved with healthcare coordination activities with the Ministry and activities for coordinating the mobilization of funds with the technical and financial partners are all linked to the WHO. So we first of all looked at setting up a database because we had to prove what seemed obvious through figures so that we could convince those who needed to change their opinion and to look at this drama of the pandemic to working towards improving the healthcare system. So I'd like to speak very briefly about this audit of deaths that we had to carry out because the results are stunning until the 31st of August, 2020, we had exactly 159 deaths. So we were able to look at the number of deaths and we could see that the deaths generally followed 24 hours after hospitalization and we could see that in the field there was a great deal of lack of confidence in the healthcare system or mistrust. And so we were able to see how many people benefited from oral tracheal treatment or invasive ventilation and there we were able to see that only 20% of patients had oral tracheal interventions and we could see that we could intubate patients but in Europe that happens maybe because the equipment's there but we found that there was a lack of necessarily equipment and that's applied to invasive ventilation also and it was really only used in about 40% of cases. Now in terms of the involvement of the diaspora we carried out a stock taking of all the structures that were hosting COVID patients including in the capital where we had two that could take COVID patients and also in the regions. We were able to look at all the diagnostic algorithms and tools and we acted as consultants and made sure we were available for the health ministry above all. So overall, what I can really draw from this experience which was extremely enriching for us those of us living abroad thinking we don't do much for our country well this was an opportunity to do something and to contribute to our country to dealing with this burden. So it was really an advantage. It was the main benefit for me. Now this program promoted by the IOM is very important because it's above all concentrates on involving the ministry of health because in the field we can sometimes be considered a little bit like NGO is what the WHO it's the IOM and so forth. But no, we were Mauritanians, fellow citizens who came and made sure we were available for the WHO. Well, they were there backing us in terms of technical issues and logistics but we were Mauritanians coming back and fighting the pandemic in our country because that sort of changed the fact that sometimes it was a little bit difficult where people said well he works for the WHO or whatever but I think it's a good idea to encourage this type of project and to carry them out and continue carrying them out in the future and above all it's important to involve the ministry of health. So I've tried to give you a quick summary because I was told I had been three and seven minutes because otherwise I could talk all day about this but if you have questions on a practical level or you'd like to discuss how you and want to know more then I'd be more than happy to talk about it. Thank you. Thank you very much Mr. Kamara Thank you very much Mr. Kamara for having shared your experience. It's really very impressive. Excellent. Closing of our panelist part of this current section with an actual experience of a member of DIAFRA who was able through this program led by the IOM and supported by the EU to return to the country of origin and support the response to COVID. This is very impressive and thank you for your service to your country and in this pandemic people like you are the ones that are truly making a difference in this crisis and I think it's very honorable what you did and what you achieved and very impressive to hear from you. Thanks for sharing your story and now I would turn back to my sort of co-moderator in the room in Geneva who will navigate through questions and comments from the floor. If we do have questions to some of the panelists maybe we can hear a few and then go back to them otherwise we'll just hear statements and then once we're through the list we can close this session but Mr. Co-moderator over to you to steer us through the interactive part of the session. Thank you. Many thanks Bettina. I think we have a very interesting panel free and so far we have totally of seven people that actually request the floor after the panel free. On my list they have the first UN MGCRI then Ireland, then Adept, then Bangladesh, then Ecuador, Myanmar and Niger. First I'd like to give the floor to UN MGCRI please, the floor is yours. Do you have it? I just got an invitation to UN MGCRI is not ready then I'd like to Ireland to give the floor to Ireland. Please, go ahead please. We cannot hear you. Can you try one more time? Then we can go for another. No, we cannot hear you. You're still silent. Okay, then let's go in the room. I would like them to give the floor. Is the adept ready here in the room? Seems not. Then we have Bangladesh on the list. Thank you Mr. Moderator. Let me also thank the distinguished panelists for their very insightful presentations. Migrants are an engine of development in many developing countries. Migrants contribution is explicitly tangible in the socioeconomic progress in countries of origin as well as of destination. Around 74% of migrants are of working age despite comprising only about 3.5% of the global population, migrants contribute to about 10% of global GDP. In recent years, remittances to low and middle income countries except for China exceeded foreign direct investment flows. Hence, as countries embark on the journey to implement the SDGs, migrants can play a vital role in supporting the countries to reach these goals. Yet, migrants irrespective of their status have been among the most vulnerable in the face of COVID-19 pandemic. They have been at health risks while socioeconomic impacts on them also remain acute. With an estimated 20% drop of global remittances alone in 2020, the lifelines of millions of families in developing countries are already at stake. This has the potential to push many of the migrants' families into poverty. Hence, the efforts of the developing countries like Bangladesh to achieve the SDGs have been facing formidable challenges. However, these challenges are not insurmountable. Tackling them to ensure that our efforts to implement the SDGs are not jeopardised would require collective efforts globally. To this end, Bangladesh underscores the following steps. First, a 360-degree approach as stipulated in the global compact on safe, orderly and regular migration needs to be mainstreamed in all migrants and migration-related actions at the national, regional and global levels. Second, a holistic and development-oriented migration governance which the GCM had introduced needs to be reinforced for the full implementation of SDG 10.7. Third, migrants' significant potential needs to be utilised in tackling this global health and economic crisis. Fourth, the COVID-19 may potentially transform the nature of future work. Third, migrants must not be excluded from the decent and productive jobs in the post-pandemic time. Fifth, countries of origin, in particular the developing countries must be appropriately supported for sustainable reintegration of the returning migrants in their economy by creating livelihood provisions. I thank you, sir. Thank you, Bangladesh. Now I will check one more time. Do we have no sound with Ireland just a picture with no sound? It seems that we do have still issue with Ireland. Then I would like to give the floor to Adept. Please. Adept thanks the IOM for organising this great event in these challenging times. And I thank all the speakers this afternoon and in the morning sessions for all the concrete solutions that were presented which were needed to protect the migrants and their contributions in the sustainable development goals as provided in the agenda 23rd. Adept observes with great interest the efforts of the international community and UN member states to continue to engage and support the efforts and contributions of migrants and diasporas in their hosts and home countries. Adept has a poorly taken note from presentations and comments made in the sessions that migrants and diasporas are no longer seen in the house that only remit money for household affairs in countries of origin. It is with interest that we note the recognition of diaspora contributions elsewhere in the social, technical and development of SMEs both in hosts and countries of origin thus recognising the diaspora as agent and stakeholder in the development process. With these recommendations we do hereby first invite the diaspora community to remain steadfast in building their capacity and forging a united front to maximise their impact and make their voice hard in the development scene. Secondly, we also call on the countries of origin to continue to develop friendly policies capable to support and guarantee the safety of diaspora investments and entrepreneurship. Thirdly, the host countries are also encouraged to continue to engage, stimulate and maximise their support towards the empowerment of migrants and diaspora communities building their capacity to boost their technical and socio-economic contributions in both hosts and countries of origin irrespective of difficulties that might appear in the process. Indeed, no one is safe under everybody is safe. Thank you. Thank you, Adept. And I would like to give floor to UNMGCY, please. Online. Hello. Thank you, moderator, for the floor and the panellists for such an intriguing discussion. My name is Emilia Takouvi and I'm a young woman from Greece. I am talking with a youth representative on behalf of the United Nations major group for children and youth. My professional capacity relates to asylum procedures in Greece. With all today, I will be drawing from my particular experience in youth policies and youth programmes focused on non-formal education for the past about seven years. I have worked on numerous non-formal education projects in Greece such as the European Union on non-formal education schemes and also Mexico, the Caribbean, Turkey, Norway and many other countries. And I have been part of the permission of the youth policies at global events including United Nations global declaration or the background commitment and have interacted with youth communities in more than 80 countries in the world, most of which are coming from a conflict affected or crisis affected in non-formal education. I'm talking about and what is the potential to help young people and migrants become agents of change in their communities. I have worked on projects that promote the exchange of good practices between youth workers for instance to work with media tools and digital tools to conflict transformation and peace building in conflict affected communities or to include socially marginalised groups in larger prone areas so as to both integrate and generate income or projects that support youth with drag addictions to work in sectors like tourism and rural youth to build their own social enterprises. This is very effective as it creates young agents and gives them the tools to become agile, to become agile and socially innovative in times of change and crisis going well beyond capacity building, training and risk killing and quantifiable elements of development as an ocean as a whole. When talking about how to promote migrants ability to describe and navigate through their indispensable potential as agents of change, non-formal education plays a multi-dimension role. Through its experiential nature it is unique and it's contribution to building competences for youth to become critical thinkers, entrepreneurs, humanitarians and world citizens and in promoting values for social cohesion and resilience for post-crisis recovery and redevelopment where soft skills and agility are vital. Non-formal education shall be recognised for being an open source for communities in situations of crisis and be included in migration and development policies as a process and as an end goal. It can set the ground for structured reflective dialogue on mainstreaming youth migrants in the post-2015 development agenda as it translates in local realities and dynamics. I'd like to share a couple of success factors to ensure this is effective. First, pay attention to heterogeneity of migrants and ensure that they are not targeted or vulnerable for this, not overlook intersectionality and parallel identities but that the process is inclusive of host communities too. This will aid social integration and create allies and synergies but will also reassure active representation from ideation to implementation stages. Second, invest, utilise and partner with already existing programmes and frameworks as they are already affecting the expected response of place and can constitute a fruitful ground for the multiplication of non-formal implications across and between youth and migrant communities. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, then we will try for the third time the cronium from Ireland. Can we now hear you? Is it working now? I hope so. Can you hear me? Thank you very much and greetings everyone from Limerick and Ireland. Thank you for your patience with this technology but it's great that we're able to connect. I'd like to say that migrants have an essential role to play in contributing to the STGs. That's very clear and indeed it was underpinned in the explicit and the very important link between the New York Declaration in 2016 which Ireland co-facilitated and the global compact for migration with the 2030 agenda. Ireland is a country that has increasingly become as you may know a destination for migrants but we have a long, long history as a country of origin and because of this I think Ireland understands the necessity of integration how this helps countries of origin and destination. Over and over today we're seeing how the COVID-19 context makes this even more important. A number of measures in Ireland I'd like to mention in that regard we have ensured access to healthcare and social supports for people regardless of their legal status. We are ensuring that policy responses taking during the pandemic have been inclusive of migrants, of ensuring that their agency is in any policy. We are granting automatic renewal of immigration permissions to ensure that people are not falling out of status during this time through no fault of their own and we're also ensuring equality of access to social welfare payments and other social supports so as to provide income security and not to ask questions which might debar people from benefiting. So by ensuring that the needs of migrants are met we are not only affirming to them that they are valued members of our society we're also ensuring that when this crisis is over and let us remember in the current difficult circumstances that this crisis will pass. That migrants will be in the best possible position to take advantage of the opportunities that become available and the advantage of those opportunities they will be in the best possible position should be our aim to contribute to sustainable development in their countries of origin and destination. Mr. J. Ireland also places a lot of emphasis on engagement with and support to and also benefiting from the large Irish diaspora overseas. We have a minister for the diaspora we have a government diaspora policy and we'll be very happy to share with others the ways and means that we have harnessed the benefits that these strong connections bring to all. To finish Mr. German with one question we heard Mr. Cameron's earlier intervention and reminded us of the partnership between Ireland's health sector and the government of Sudan to strengthen the health professional training and development in the context of health worker mobility. This has facilitated the effective involvement of the Sudanese medical diaspora in Ireland to support their own countries health system including through education and training and that's even more important now than it ever has been. I'd just like to find out the WHO Global Code of Practice on the international recruitment of health personnel as an important instrument in this regard. So thank you Mr. Cameron for outlining the work you've been doing in Mauritania and the supports that were received from the European Union and the IOM perhaps you could tell us a bit more about what supports were there and as part of which scheme did that fantastic initiative take place. Thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Cronin. Next to my list is Ecuador. Gracias Señor Moderna. Thank you Chair. I want to thank the panelists for their valuable contributions. Doubtless we need to recognize the work of migrants during the pandemic in essential services such as health, education food and agriculture among others. For Ecuador migration has always been considered as a positive it contributes to sustainable development through its economic social and cultural contributions in countries of arrival as well as country of origin that benefit both firm remittances as well as the transfer of knowledge and entrepreneurship. Ecuador has carried out many measures to promote inclusion of migrants. For example we have released credit lines by banks to facilitate access to financing we also have an accelerated regularization process so that over 100,000 Venezuelans have been able to use basic services this has also contributed greatly to their socioeconomic integration we've also worked to recognize secondary and tertiary degrees as well as their competencies on a part with those of other countries. Nevertheless, COVID-19 has had a negative impact and has generated many challenges such as loss of life and this has also affected the implementation of agenda 2030 and the sustainable development indicators. This pandemic has emphasized that the poor management of migratory flows degrades work conditions human rights violations and worsens discrimination for these reasons. We think that it's absolutely vital to work to create medium and long term policies that focus not only on short term emergencies but also allow to improve governance in a broader way. Similarly the pandemic also represents an opportunity to move forward consolidating the sustainable development goals. We should redouble our efforts to mitigate COVID effects on remittances and we need to understand that remittances are an essential financial services and by 2030 to reduce the less than 3% the cost of these transactions. Ecuador has carried out activities with chambers of commerce and private banks to make remittance transfers more easy and economical. Last but not least I want to congratulate the Inter-American Development Bank for the efforts deployed in the context of the current pandemic through their program that's based on capacity building in the context of migration. Ecuador is fully aware that capacity building, especially at an institutional level as well as civil servants that deal with migration as well as those in other entities that provide services to migrants is absolutely essential to be able to strengthen national responses and have a better management of migratory flows. With all that in mind I would like to ask what additional tools could be implemented to help states in the inclusion of migrants in their national programs, especially when it comes to socio-economic recovery. That's the first question. And the second is what initiatives have you foreseen to work closely with national authorities to strengthen the capacities of states when it comes to opening entrepreneurial opportunities for migrants and their communities. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next on my list is Myanmar, this online after that he had Nigeria after France and Algeria and he exhausted my list. If someone else would like to take the floor please notify me. Thank you. Now I would like to make a link with Myanmar. Did you have them online? The impact of COVID-19 on the economy and livelihood of migrant workers who are prolonged and heart-hitting is very expected. As the pandemic is showing at this time of crisis migrant workers are facing with more difficulties. Each and every government ensure to include migrants in their economic recovery plan. Myanmar shares concern of difficulties migrant workers face. Thus we encourage those who are stranded to return. Myanmar has made very afford to bring back all the citizens and to provide assistance to all returnees at the quarantine centers and go back to their homes in safety. The government has arranged supplies for the Myanmar citizens who want to return to Myanmar in COVID-19. The government is keeping a record of the skills of returnees and creating job opportunities for them by initiating intensive projects in the construction centers as well as gas for work schemes in rural development. We have been working with IOM in our response to COVID-19. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the IOM for its assistance. According to IMF lower economy is expected to shrink by 4.4 percent since no one knows how much the pandemic was lower economy. Every country has to be prepared to face the economic slowdown or even economic downturn. Even the developed economies are hit by the pandemic the least developed countries are no exceptions. Therefore priorities should be given to migrants from the least developed countries in a standing assistance. This is a time for maximum cooperation. This unprecedented global challenge requires global cooperation that delivers actions in response to the challenges of migrants who can contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals. Thank you sir. Thank you. Next on my list is Niger. Please floor is yours. Thank you. First of all I want to reiterate my congratulations to the IOM for organizing this important event which is a great opportunity to reflect and analyze on current migratory issues. I also want to congratulate the panelists for their presentations that have provided us with a wealth of information. Mr. Moderator, as you know full well the contribution of migrants represents an important source of revenue for many countries and this allows them to benefit from their diaspora. For countries such as Niger we need to look at the funds provided by the diaspora and not have exact figures on this regard because they are family based however they contribute in a great way to the quality of life of many people in a very broad way. To better bear in mind migration in all its perspectives and bearing in mind the global pact on migration Niger has developed a national policy and an action plan to facilitate migration and human movement in a responsible and regulated way. The strategic access of our work is focused on benefiting from the potential of migrants. We want measures that can benefit the diaspora as well as Niger itself. This can be done through restructuring of their activity we have created an investment fund for the diaspora centers that work closely with local banks and partner banks to help them with their activities, reviewed our investment legislation to provide them with ease of access and we also have a service that compiles statistics on the diaspora with correspondence abroad. Despite all this Mr. Chairman and despite all the efforts made to really set up sustainable development goals will be challenged because of the current COVID crisis. Its consequences affect all areas of activity in all states and this worsens the vulnerability of all our populations which is why my delegation considers that it is absolutely essential to strengthen measures aimed at protecting migrants and to inscribe and include their activities in all development initiatives. Thank you. Merci. Now next on our list is France. Merci. Thank you chair. It was not my intention to take the floor however I do want to say that I was very much impressed by this panel and the panelists and I just wanted to react quickly to what Dr. Kamra said which was truly admirable as he described and had expressed the work between the monetarian minister of health and the WHO and the work of the diaspora. I had a question to ask him I imagine that he's been able to do so but has he been able to set up ties with the hospital center in Grenoble in the context of capacity building? That's my question we also see that that's an example for both countries of origin and host countries that needs to be highlighted in our policies both in the medium and the long run we need to look at the contributions that diaspora communities bring to all our countries and I also wanted to say that my delegation supports completely what Ecuador has said that we need to better include migrants and the diaspora in recovery plans. Thank you. Merci. Next on our list of Julia please. Merci. Thank you. We want to thank all the panelists for the emphasis they provided on the sustainable development goals and how migrants can contribute to them both in countries of origin as well as host countries we believe that the current context needs to be seized as an opportunity to reinvigorate the international community so that they can behave individually and collectively towards the 2030 horizon. We'd like to re-emphasize the importance of universal health care which would represent an absolutely essential component if we are going to reach goal three of that agenda in other words good health and well-being for all. Thus it is that we encourage working work between WHO and the IOM and other stakeholders so as to promote a global concerted approach to reduce the multi-dimensional challenge that the crisis of the COVID phase represents. This can only be done with proper implementation of resolution 73.1 which addresses universal access to all products and health services in a safe and effective way to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The scope of this resolution is also valid for the future of COVID-19 which should also be accessible to all without any discrimination whatsoever. We want to seize this opportunity to encourage donors to redouble their support for IOM with flexible contributions so that the organization can carry out effective measures in that direction. Thank you. Thank you. Now you would like to return back the moderation to Bettina as I actually had several questions for the moderators for Mr. Munoz but also for Kamera here in the room. Bettina, please take over the moderation as of now. Thank you very much. I understand that there were a few questions especially addressed to Dr. Kamera. Maybe we start with that package of questions and then turn to the next. There was a question by France just now asking about your ties with the hospital in Grenoble during your service to your country in the COVID-19 crisis and how your experience and your relations to the hospital where you were employed in France helped you in performing your duty in your home country. And then the other question was about the clarification under which scheme exactly supported by IOM and also WHO if I understood correctly this program actually took place where you were supported to assist your home country if you could address those questions I would be grateful. Thank you. You have the floor, Mr. Kamara. Yes, hello again. Thank you for all your questions. So let me take them in the order they came. Ireland asked about the IOM support to the return program for the DASPRA. Generally the return suggested is a three months renewable period. It's true that in the context of Mauritania only I have been able to do three months others have returned earlier after a month or a month and a half because it is very difficult to free oneself up for such a long period when you're involved in clinical practice and simply carrying out care it's very hard so normally three months that can be renewed I think that the program would like about 20 people to return we've looked at different medical profiles, nurses also and recently we've even had the profile of a head of hospital services at a high level in Mauritania and this contribution was very well received. It's a real challenge for us when it comes to restructuring our activity. That is the major challenge. It's such a challenge that for example sometimes they're not even sure about the sort of equipment that is available in shops so this is the sort of work that we've been able to go and set up. We've set up for example management softwares that looked at stocks and so forth. Regarding the issue of remuneration I think that was the hard of the matter these are amounts that have nothing to do with the wages that are normally received in Europe which is a symbolic amount but an amount which allows us to live in the country of origin which are countries in the south where the expenses are not the same and they allow for a reasonable life so I think the IOM will be able to explain this in greater detail and I don't think there's anything to hide here probably The practitioners all came from Europe mostly all of them from France I think that I answered the question now regarding the question from France yes the links between Grenoble and the Ministry of Health we can imagine but the Ministry of Health really tends to focus on emergencies they don't have any long term planning really they have a huge structural problem which is why I wanted to express that they were very much interested in the arrival of the head of medical service that helped with planning we haven't been able to liaise properly with ministries but we've done so with WHO for example we had special consultants come in from Spain 8 consultants actually they're all ER specialists but at the end not all of them could come in because Covid kicked in and so I often well I received a lot of information but fortunately in Grenoble also they had closed restaurants and bars so they could mobilize themselves either so I really want to thank the IOM for this initiative because I think that if they hadn't given us this little financial push I wouldn't have been able to come because just like many others just like many of you I have family children that go to school and so forth I have to cover their expenses and go up and leave and go even if you have the will and the support of your country we need that extra assistance unfortunately our country has not been able to participate more heavily but what I really want to emphasize very much with IOM I said when we have a program such as this and we need to involve the country we need country ownership even if it's only with a symbolic amount it's helpful when we wanted to look at some goals it was very hard to gather the data we could collate them bring them together and WHO provided a data manager that created an app to manage the data but before that we didn't have access to the data because it was considered to be an NGO and WHO but in the end we managed to move forward and whenever I was on vacation in Mauritania and I would talk to colleagues I would use this opportunity we recovered data that was ultimately shared and nothing bad happened everything went smoothly but I'm still looking to be able to compile all the data from all hospitalized patients so we need to make sure that this program is financed by the IOM with the WHO's logistical support which hosts us but host countries also need to take ownership they need to participate even if it's only symbolically so that the bucket not stop with WHO with the IOM but also with the country that is all I had to say I think I managed to cover all your questions thank you very much thank you very much I often notice a few questions from the government of Ecuador and I do apologize that I did not really record them in full maybe I could ask the speaker from Ecuador to repeat the question and also the questions are actually addressed too so I could then direct them to an appropriate speaker on the panel thank you Betina the questions were for Mr. Felipe Muñoz and they are the following the first is what additional tools will be implemented by the bank to ensure that there's inclusion of migrants in national socio-economic recovery plans and the second what initiatives have been planned for working directly with national authorities to build capacity for the opportunities for entrepreneurship by migrants in their countries thank you thank you madam for your clarifications over to you Mr. Muñoz for the responses thank you okay thank you thank you very much to the representative from Ecuador for the questions first of all I'd like to say is we've been working with Ecuador and seven other countries in the region in order to ensure that those countries through loans with the bank will have beneficiaries included that are migrants so that the receiving communities can obtain this fund which was authorized by the governors of the bank that is to say the countries that are members of the bank and with Ecuador in particular we've been working on a project for social protection developed by the government of Ecuador in order to be able to ensure that part of this social protection network includes migrants in the future we are going to maintain and strengthen dialogue with the government of Ecuador through our representative in the Ecuador office with ministries of economy and foreign affairs to ensure that we support them in the processes that they have in the post pandemic period so that we can provide them with tools and to provide them with best cases from the region and from elsewhere in the world to help them in working on the integration process we will work with the representative to we'll get in touch with the representative and I'll put forward the link of the inter-american bank development bank so that others can find out more information about our work, thank you thank you very much for the responses provided I would like to ask my co-moderator whether there might be any more requests for the floor at this point as I do not see whether there is anyone who would like to speak no, the list is exhausted then you can just wrap up, thank you great, thank you thank you very much so I'll make a quick a brief attempt of formulating a few takeaways, salient points that I personally took from this very interesting and enriching session that may provide some food for thought for all of us in the international community focusing our engagement on migrants on how we need to ramp up redirect, adapt our responses in order to do justice to migrants agency and contribution to sustainable development especially in the context of this crisis and beyond so I gather that from all the speakers and inputs also statements from the floor there has been a resounding acknowledgement of the wealth and diversity of migrants and contributions to the sustainable development goals just to name a few examples the workforce provided by many migrants around the world but also remittances and there not only the financial contributions migrants make but also the human capital the skills that are transferred and one point in case was the very impressive case of Dr. Kamara who supported his home country in strengthening the response to the global pandemic directly being involved in responses at hospital level but also with the Ministry of Health for sustainable improvements to the health system but we all know and recognize that the contributions that migrants make around the world on a daily basis they are heavily affected by the crisis and there is a risk that many of these contributions may drain out or may not translate into the effect that are direly needed in the situation because there are obstacles and barriers to their contributions so agency and contributions of migrants to the response of the crisis in dealing with the crisis with the various contributions they make it doesn't come for free and not without support from different stakeholders in the international community so to sustain and increase the agency of migrants to continue enabling their contributions during and after the crisis to the sustainable development goals really requires a collective approach by the international community basically with a two-pronged approach so I gather from many of the inputs that first we need to ensure that migrants around the world need to be protected and included in emergency responses this refers to legal health and also social protection in countries of origin as well as of course also in countries of destination if they stay in their destination countries if they do return to their home countries those protections need to be in place in the countries of origin and so it's important to include migrants in response plans also provide livelihood support especially also to workers in the informal sector or irregular migrants enabling everyone the health care and livelihood support that they require to for their daily needs so this is important as a first step without this basic support and inclusion of migrants among all the other all the other groups in societies that are affected by the crisis basically in accordance with the principle of leaving no one behind this is the first step that needs to be achieved in order to then promote and multiply the agency and contributions of migrants and there we've heard about different aspects like financial inclusion and financial literacy of migrants so enhancing the development impact of remittances and while remittances are sent on a regular basis their impact can be supported and increased by different measures and this crisis has shown how how many of the challenges that were there before the crisis have been exacerbated like access due to limited mobility in lockdowns and this elevating importance of digital solutions and whilst many of these solutions but gaps still exist financial literacy is all the more important to make sure that migrants are aware of the different instruments know how to use them and trust their effectiveness in transferring their funds to their loved ones at home so increasing financial inclusion and coming up with innovative approaches to enhance migrants financial empowerment is of importance and an important lesson of the crisis where different stakeholders need to come together another point in case with the employability making sure that skills and labour market needs are adequately matched and that processes procedures are in place for adequate fair and ethical recruitment and there we've heard about the importance of bilateral agreements and this is also true for social protection and so be it upon return or upon potential re-migration or for migrants that stay in their countries of destination matching skills and labour market needs is of high importance and I think to that we've also heard about the importance of skills recognition and not only formal credentials but actually also validating informal skills which can be of essence in recovery in countries of origin and destination of this crisis so my conclusions here are that the challenges are also the opportunities of increasing migrants' agency to enable their development contributions and particularly their contributions to achieving various development sustainable development goals these challenges and opportunities are not new but they have been in a way exacerbated by the crisis and the spotlight has been put on them and enhanced or in a way increased the relevance of different approaches that have to be taken collectively by the international community in addressing those and multiplying the very positive effects on sustainable development by migrants around the world so with this I would like to thank all the panellists for their insightful presentations views shared and also for the enriching interactive discussion afterwards the many ideas, experiences best practices provided and let's hope that with this food for thought we can develop innovative solid approaches that can increase migrants' agency so thanks to everyone for contributing to this interesting session and with this close not only this session but I understand also the first day of IOM's international dialogue on migration 2020 with an interesting outlook for a second day tomorrow so thank you for staying with us beyond the original schedule and have a good evening or rest of the day wherever you're located thank you very much for your attention thank you Bettina thank you all, we had a very ritual panels today and all presentations or panellist speeches that you heard today will be available and also the recommendations that we received today but also if you could come up to your mind in the next seven days you are free to send them and actually to propose recommendations we should have out of the IDM 2020, thank you and see you tomorrow at 10am thank you


A Nigerian youth have been charged not to give up in the face of current economic hardships facing the country. A real estate expert and youth ambassador Babatunde Ademo gave the charge, while delivering lecture on reputation management, the experience in real estate during the monthly business meeting of Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, NIPR. According to state chapter in a book called The State Capital, he expressed the concern that the nation's youth appeared to have reached a junction where they no longer see or say anything good about their country. We can see youths that graduate from Uyghurs who without employment, without any basic use of livelihoods, they'll be looking for shortcuts to success, you know, and that's why we are here. You know, there are still opportunities in Nigeria for an as-is Nigeria youth to build the solid foundation. And that's why I'm here as well, to show an Nigerian youth that it is not over yet. It is not over for them, the state. I want to call on an average Nigerian youth to be passive here, to be patient, you understand, and build the solid foundation for good. Very quickly, there we go. He described poor reputation management as a major force driving the foreign director of investment apathy and brain drain among youth. They urge the nation to re-list the developers and its handlers to pay attention to the country's reputation, especially its perception by Nigerians abroad. Consistency, government policy, you know, there are some situations whereby you have your fee or fee on the land, and the government may not give a position to that land, you know, not tell you to come and do your certification or the validation of CFS. Just for you to go through the number of people that you have went through before. You know, that is too harsh for any business or to survive. Because you know, if you are not a real estate entrepreneur, then you do documentation. And you see people that have done this. Instead of you to encourage them with infrastructure, you are still making things difficult for them. So don't worry about this, you can do anything, you know.


Following welcome to the session. In this session we discussed the following question that says in the Boolean algebra consisting of the set B and the operations sum product and complement show that x into y plus x plus y complement the whole into y, the whole complement is equal to 1 where these x and y are the elements of the set B. Let's proceed with the solution now. We are supposed to prove x into y plus x plus y complement the whole into y, the whole complement is equal to 1 and these x and y are the elements of the set B. So, we consider x into y plus y complement the whole into y, the whole complement. Now if we have this Boolean algebra then by the D Morgan's law we have a into b the whole complement is equal to a complement plus b complement. This is the D Morgan's law. So, applying the D Morgan's law in this expression that is a into b the whole complement is equal to a complement plus b complement we get this is equal to x into y plus y complement the whole complement plus y complement the whole. This is using the D Morgan's law. Now we have another D Morgan's law which is a plus b the whole complement is equal to a complement into b complement. Now applying this C Morgan's law for this expression we would get this equal to x into y plus x complement into y complement the whole complement plus the term y complement remains as it is. This is again by the D Morgan's law. Now this would be further equal to x into y plus x complement into y complement the whole complement would be y plus y complement the whole. So, here we have used that a complement the whole complement is equal to a. Now we know that the sum operation is associative so we have a plus b plus c the whole would be equal to a plus b the whole plus c. This is the associative law. Now using the associative law here we get this is equal to x into y plus x complement into y the whole plus y complement. This is using the associative law. Now further the product operation is commutative so we have a into b is equal to b into a this is the commutative law. So applying this commutative law for these two terms separately we have this is equal to y into x plus y into x complement the whole plus y complement. This is by the commutative law. Now we have a distributive law where we have a into b plus c the whole is equal to a into b plus a into c. This is the distributive law. Now using this distributive law for this expression we have this is equal to y into x plus x complement the whole plus y complement remains as it is. So this is using the distributive law. For an element a which belongs to the set b we have its inverse a complement such that a plus a complement is equal to 1 and this is same as a complement plus a and this 1 is the identity element for the operation of the product. So using this we have x plus x complement is 1 so this is equal to y into 1 plus y complement. This is because a plus a complement is equal to 1. Also we have an identity element 1 for the operation of the product such that a into 1 is equal to a which is same as 1 into a. So this y into 1 would be equal to y plus y complement remains as it is. This is because we have a into 1 is equal to a. Now we already know that a plus a complement is 1 so y plus y complement would be equal to 1 thus we now have into y plus y complement the whole into y the whole complement is equal to 1. This is what we were supposed to prove so hence proved the question hope you understood the solution of this question.


Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala states in the Holy Quran Bismillah Al Rahman Al Raheem Oh you who believe fasting has been prescribed upon you Just as it has been prescribed on those before you So that you may achieve piety There is no month in the Muslim world more special than the month of Ramadan The month of mercy the month of compassion The month in which the gates of mercy are open to us and the Almighty God showers us With His Rahmah with His forgiveness with His compassion Just hearing the word Ramadan opens your heart It generates a feeling of peace in your heart A feeling of serenity tranquility Hearing the month of Ramadan the word itself gives you hope It reminds you of forgiveness that in this holy month Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will forgive our sins In fact as one hadith states One of the meanings of Ramadan Is that it devours your sins Just like fire devours wood The month of Ramadan devours our sins It purifies us from our sins It's a beautiful month in which you see people are very excited They are eager to be the guests of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in this holy month You get flooded with messages text messages, WhatsApp messages from all over the world People congratulating you Sharing their excitement about this holy month In fact there are some people you have probably not heard from for six months for a year But when it comes to the night of Ramadan you'll get a message from them Congratulating you on this month It's truly a special occasion It's a special gift that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given this ummah The month of Ramadan offers many benefits One very important benefit that the month of Ramadan offers to us Is that it gives us a break from our daily routine For many people You find that they need a break from their daily life From their daily routine Why is it that people love vacations? Don't we all love to vacation? Why? Of course you have fun obviously You do a lot of activities when you go on a vacation But one primary reason is because it gives you a break From your daily routine That's why millions of Americans Canadians in every country Around the world You find people looking forward to that vacation They'll work hard six months And they have that vacation in their sight Waiting day by day for the time to come So they can go travel and enjoy their vacation That's because a vacation offers you a break From your daily routine Because having a daily routine sometimes becomes stressful You feel like you're a robot So you take that break What does that break do to you? It energizes you It refreshes you That's why we all love it Because it's so refreshing Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in the month of Ramadan Gives you an amazing vacation At all levels if you really look at it Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala first of all gives you a break physically We're addicted to all these foods around us Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gives you a break Give your digestive system a break Be mindful of what you eat So physically We see that the month of Ramadan gives us a break From our daily routine of having those three meals And then those three snacks in between It presents you a break That in itself is healthy The holy month of Ramadan is also a social vacation for many people You meet people in the month of Ramadan You don't see really throughout the year You see them very rarely But in the month of Ramadan Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given us this opportunity To meet friends To meet family members To socialize This in itself refreshes our minds and souls Spiritually it's also a vacation for us In this holy month We take some time to reconnect with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Believe me there are many people throughout the year They're disconnected from their Lord From their Creator Especially from the Holy Quran There are people who will only read the Quran In the month of Ramadan That gives you an opportunity to spiritually elevate yourself Now the fourth type of break or opportunity That the holy month of Ramadan presents Is one that is extremely important The holy month of Ramadan Offers us an opportunity, a moral Ethical opportunity To develop our moral character And to work on our habits To develop good habits And to get rid of bad habits This is something that we can achieve in the month of Ramadan It's the perfect time For us to work on our character To work on our moral standards On our personality traits There is no time More conducive More appropriate More effective To work on your personality traits Than the month of Ramadan And that's the beauty of the religion of Islam You see that in the religion of Islam Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gives us A schedule That really allows you to break from a daily routine So you can always refresh yourself You always energize yourself Even simple matters like the timings of prayer The timings of our Salah shift right Every few days you notice a 10 minute shift A 15 minute shift And the winter for instance You have Maghrib at around 5 p.m And then every few days you notice A significant shift A 15 minute shift A 30 minute shift Now the question is why Why would Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala do that Why can't He keep the times of Salah consistent Shouldn't they be consistent Doesn't it make sense For the timings of prayer to be consistent Why do you go through these shifts throughout the year There are many benefits to that But one benefit brothers and sisters Is to help you break from that daily routine Believers who are mindful of their Salah Are those who organize their schedule Around the timings of Salah How many of us do that When the next year is coming up And you're creating your schedule You're organizing your plans Do you think of the timings of Salah That's the last thing we think of right But those people who have a special relationship with God And they're so mindful of their Salah actually When they're creating their schedule They look at the times of Salah What am I doing at the times of Salah Do I make some time for my prayer You know if you just do that How you will interact with your prayer You'll take prayer so much more seriously You will find prayer An exciting daily act As opposed to a burden that you have to get out of your way Make time for Salah Now the interesting thing about the timings of prayer Is that they constantly shift Now that could create a challenge You have to keep readjusting your schedule right That's actually a plus When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is having these times of prayer change The Almighty God is inviting you every few days Evaluate your schedule Evaluate your priorities Because now that let's say prayer After it was at 5pm in the winter It becomes 5.30 Now you have an extra 30 minutes before prayer What should you do What can you squeeze in Now you have to think of your priorities It seems that every single day Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling the human being Reflect on your schedule Are you using your time wisely What are your priorities And the times of prayer Are an invitation A daily invitation for us to rethink our priorities Are you doing that which is right Or you're just stuck with a bad schedule Because there are some people who develop a schedule for themselves And then they get stuck with it throughout the whole year And it's a bad schedule It's not a productive one Even the times of salah brothers and sisters Invite you to rethink your schedule Is this schedule working for you Make adjustments What's important If something is important give it priority If it's not Scrap it from your schedule The times of salah by having them shift and change They teach us time management And that's from the beautiful system of the religion of Islam You know many people especially these days They really think they're busy I remember a few months ago I was at a retreat And this one this young man He shared his experience with time management He said I considered myself to be very very busy I really thought I did not have the time to think I did not have a single minute of free time Until I heard a speech on time management And this is what I did At the retreat we gave them some practical steps To effectively manage their time those youth And then we met them two three weeks later To check on their progress So two three weeks later when we met with him He said after carefully examining my schedule I actually started to track what I would do How did I spend my time I would make a list of all the activities that I would do And how much time they would take He said I thought I was the busiest person on earth I really didn't have time to scratch my head But upon examining my schedule And actually writing it down on paper And keeping track of what I do I realized that I have five hours of free time every day Five hours of free time that I was wasting I honestly wasn't doing anything You know that extra free time that you have in between programs It's in between work, errands to run, other activities He said five hours every single day I was wasting but I was not aware of that The times of Salah When you become mindful of them And this is why it's so recommended to pray right on time Some people say why? What's this obsession with praying right on time When I can pray between the heart and sunset let's say What's that obsession? Praying on time brothers and sisters teaches you to manage your time properly It teaches you to evaluate your schedule To organize your schedule every single day And to always evaluate your priorities And this is from the Rahmah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So we see even with the times of prayer Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us an opportunity to break from our daily routine


The correlation between concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater and reported laboratory confirmed COVID-19 incidences has changed since May 2022 due to changes in test availability and test-seeking behavior. The parameters describing this relationship are different than those observed prior to May 2022. Assuming SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding remains relatively stable among those infected with the virus as different variants emerge, wastewater concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 RNA can still be used to estimate COVID-19 cases by using the historical relationship between SARS-CoV-2 RNA and COVID-19 case data. This article was authored by Alexandria B. Bone, Marlene K. Wolfe, Bradley White and others.