SEA/RC69/17: Migration and Health

Abstract

One in every seven people living in the world today is either an international or an internal migrant during the time of both war and peace. Over the past years, Governing Bodies of WHO and several global consultations had addressed the issues related to migration and health at various forums. The recent refugee crises on an unprecedented scale globally have posed serious questions on the limitations of the global and national health frameworks to address the issue and re-energized discussions on this topic. The attached Working Paper highlights the background and chronologies of global and regional meetings, problem statement and key challenges, scope, guiding principles, the South-East Asia regional perspective and the way forward. This Working Paper was presented to the High-Level Preparatory Meeting for its review and recommendations. The recommendations made by the HLP meeting for consideration by the Sixty-ninth Session of the Regional Committee are: Actions by Member States (‎1)‎ Organize country-level preparatory workshops to have consolidated and firm practical actions ready for focused discussions at the Second Global Consultation on Migration and Health in Colombo on 25–27 October 2016. (‎2)‎ Consider the six action points proposed as the way forward. These are: (‎i)‎ making health systems adoptive, (‎ii)‎ addressing threats of newly emerging communicable diseases, (‎iii)‎ maintaining targeted programmes for elimination of communicable disease with time-bound targets, (‎iv)‎ ensuring systematic data collection for evidence-based scenarios for planning and advocacy, (‎v)‎ maintaining robust partnerships between different UN agencies and other international organizations to ensure division of labour, and (‎vi)‎ sharing of good experiences and best practices from countries. Actions by WHO (‎1)‎ Provide technical assistance and play a coordinating role in developing a comprehensive regional strategic framework on migration and health. (‎2)‎ Coordinate and ensure a working and robust partnership forum in the SEA Region and a roadmap for the division of labour among partners as well as WHO technical departments/units in SEARO and WHO headquarters. (‎3)‎ Support Member States to better prepare for the forthcoming global events (‎UN General Assembly on 19 September 2016 and the Second Global Consultation in Colombo on 25–27 October 2016)‎. This Working Paper and the HLP Meeting recommendations are submitted to the Sixty-ninth Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia for its consideration and decision.