Women, Migration and Development: Investing in the future

On the 17th and 18th of July 2014, the International Conference on Women, Migration and Development: Investing In The Future was convened by CARE
International and hosted at the Overseas Development Institute in London. The objectives of the conference were to: 1) highlight the challenges faced by vulnerable migrant workers, especially women, 2) advocate, based on CARE and others’ experiences, for strategies, policy and practical responses which need to be taken to protect migrant workers’ well-being, particularly with respect to safe mobility and access to healthcare, 3) recognize women migrants’ contribution as economic actors and advocate for policies and planning processes that ensure their protection, 4) advocate for recognition of the role of migration as a key development enabler in the post-2015 development agenda. CARE and ODI presented the findings from their five year EMPHASIS (Enhancing Mobile Populations’ Access to HIV and AIDS Services, Information and Support) programme in South Asia. EMPHASIS, a project which started as a HIV and health intervention, was successful in surfacing and addressing other aspects such as safety and dignity of migrants, economic empowerment, financial inclusion and safe remittances, access to education for migrants’ children, and women’s empowerment. The conference was a response to the call at the May 2014 Stockholm Global Forum for Migration and Development both for civil society/government cooperation around regional systemic approaches to migration and for urgently needed programmatic data and evidence on migration. EMPHASIS is considered among very few projects globally which comprehensively cover the migration experience from source, through transit, to destination countries. The EMPHASIS Learning Series report, which provides a comprehensive overview of
the EMPHASIS programme, was launched during the conference. [5 Pages]