Since 2007, the GFMD has convened a number of meetings every year, culminating in a Summit Meeting hosted by the rotating GFMD Chair. Each meeting focuses on an overarching theme that reflects the national priorities of the Char-in-Office, as well as emerging issues for the international migration and development community. In this sense, each Chairmanship has its own distinctive and innovative elements, and the Forum is always evolving to keep pace with the changing needs of the global community. In general, the activities of the GFMD include the following:
GFMD preparatory process
GFMD preparatory process is made up of a number of meetings and activities over the course of each Chairmanship, including the preparatory meetings of the GFMD Supporting structures (the Troika, Steering Group, and Friends of the Forum), Roundtable Team Consultations, and GFMD Thematic Workshops.
Preparatory meetings inform the annual GFMD Summit and the overall international migration and development objectives by setting agendas, addressing practical and logistical elements of the forum, and discussing substantive matters concerning states and observers. The Roundtable Team Consultations are preparatory meetings led by 2-3 Government Teams that volunteer to co-chair a Roundtable session. These sessions provide a venue for the conceptualizing, drafting and finalizing of the Roundtable background papers, which stimulate debate around policy options and provide guiding questions for the roundtables which take place during each Summit meeting. Finally, the Thematic Workshops offer a dedicated space to discuss relevant issues in-depth, and an innovative approach to complement the traditional RT consultations.
GFMD Summit meetings
Each Summit Meeting is hosted by the Chair-in-Office in their home country. The core component of the Summit meeting is an inter-governmental meeting, open to all States Members and Observers of the UN. In general, participants in the Government Meeting are high-level policy makers or practitioners on the ground who engage in informal dialogue on the linkages between migration and development and how to tackle the challenges faced in these areas.
Over the years, the Summit meeting events have also expanded to provide opportunities for multi- stakeholder participation: