The Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI) aims to support migration and development actors actors to effectively harness the potential of migration for development. The programme is implemented by UNDP and five agencies - IOM, ILO, UNHCR, UNFPA and UN Women - contribute to the programme with their institutional knowledge, expertise and extensive networks to ensure its success.

Since 2008, the JMDI has sought to provide policy-makers and practitioners with evidence-based recommendations in the field of migration and development, based on the practical experiences drawn from small scale actors having received financial and technical support through the JMDI.

The JMDI is a EC/SDC financed program working on two levels. In eight pilot countries, projects are implemented at local level on migration and development in order to gain knowledge and experience. At global level, these experiences are fed into the global policy dialogue on migration and development, knowledge tools are created, and knowledge-exchange is promoted.

The Initiative stresses the importance of local realities and works in partnership with local stakeholders in line with the essential local-to-local dimension of the migration and development nexus. The most successful and sustainable migration and development interventions identified by the JMDI are those with strong anchorage with the local governments in countries of origin and destination. This linkage is all the more important as the drivers and impact of migration are often most strongly felt at the local level, be it in terms of effects on the local labour market, the size and demographic of the local population, or the need for public service provision. This is why provinces and local authorities are strategic levels of governments to be involved, making consultations and agreement with sub-national levels of governments particularly important for the civil society.