UN Country Network on Migration

United Nations Country Network on Migration (UNCNM) was established in Belarus is 2020 with the purpose of ensuring effective, timely and coordinated system-wide support to the Government of Belarus in the implementation, follow up and review of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM).

The UNCNM includes all members of the UN Country Team and can also convene extended meetings with the participation of other relevant stakeholders, including government, civil society, private sector, etc. 

Background

Globally, migrants represent approximately 3 per cent of the world’s population, but they produce more than 9 per cent of global GDP, some USD 3 trillion more than if they had stayed at home (IOM and McKinsey & Company 2018). Migration has always been directly linked with prosperity, innovation, and sustainable development in our globalized world.  With new pressures such as economic inequalities, conflict and climate change, migrations pressures have been growing rapidly around the world.  This requires international cooperation and improving migration governance to turn the challenge of migration flows into an opportunity for individuals, communities and economies of all countries. 

Governments have determined to make an important contribution to enhanced cooperation on international migration in all its dimensions, and on 19 December 2018, the UN General Assembly adopted the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), which rests on the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and amongst others the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

The GCM is a non-legally binding, cooperative framework and the compact builds on the commitments agreed by Member States in the New York Declaration for Migrants adopted in 2016 and it reaffirms the sovereign right of States to determine their own national migration policy, as well as their prerogative to govern migration within their jurisdiction, in conformity with international law. 

Belarus as a country of origin, transit and destination for migrants recognizes the need for well-managed migration and has played an active role in the adoption of GCM and further its implementation and follow-up. 
 
Following the GCM adoption, the UN Network on Migration  (UNMN) was established as a collaborative community of UN entities and partners coming together to ensure effective and coordinated system-wide support to Member States in implementation, follow up and review of the GCM. 

At the national level the UN Country Network on Migration (UNCNM) was established in Belarus in 2020 with the purpose of ensuring effective, timely and coordinated system-wide support to the Government of Belarus in the implementation, follow up and review of the GCM.

Voluntary National Reviews

The GCM puts forwards the procedure for the follow-up and review of the GCM implementation. The countries can provide their voluntary national reviews on both regional and global levels every four years. 

Belarus has participated in both VNRs, providing the review on the regional level (within UNECE) in 2020 and on the global level (within the first International Migration Review Forum) in 2022. Both times, the UNCNM supported the Government of Belarus is preparation and submission of the reviews. The are publicly available on the website https://migrationnetwork.un.org/.