Cross-Regional Perspectives on Gender and Migration in the Context of the GFMD Process

The 15th GFMD Summit, hosted by Colombia from 2–4 September 2025 in Riohacha, was held under the theme “Regular Migration, Labour Mobility and Human Rights: Pillars of Development and Well-Being of Societies.” The summit reinforced the Forum’s role as a bridge between national policies, regional dialogues, and global frameworks.

Recognizing the GFMD’s contributions to migration discourse—and its unique inclusivity compared to other more state-dominated processes—FES offices in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean launched a project to engage migration partners across their regions. Anchored in gender perspectives on migration and the GFMD process, the project commissioned a series of articles to explore opportunities and challenges in advancing gender-sensitive policy and decision-making at national, regional, and global levels.

From the African side, three articles were published on the FES Flight, Migration and Immigration portal.

• Dr. Tirsit Sahledingil, a migration scholar at Addis Ababa University, examined the challenges faced by Ethiopian women migrating to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. She underscored the need for bilateral agreements grounded in human rights principles to formalize migration pathways.
• Dr. Mamadou Goïta, Director of the Institut de Recherche et de Promotion des Alternatives en Développement (IRPAD) and the Pan African Network in Defense of Migrant Rights (PANiDMR), highlighted the GFMD’s role in fostering social movements in Africa that shape migration governance. He pointed to the African Non-State Actors Platform on Migration and Development and the Women in Migration Network as notable examples.
• A joint contribution from the African Non-State Actors Platform on Migration and Development and Bloque Latinoamericano sobre Migración explored cross-regional perspectives in the article “Left-behind: Gender in the Global Migration and Development Forum.” The authors stressed that while gender is formally acknowledged within the GFMD, its integration remains superficial and inconsistent. They called for institutional mechanisms to embed gender as a structural concern, grounded in grassroots voices and regional experiences from Africa and Latin America.

To deepen these reflections ahead of the summit, FES AMPC, in collaboration with FES Geneva and FES offices in the LAC region, hosted a webinar on 28 August 2025 titled “Gender Matters in Migration: Transregional Discussion Ahead of the GFMD Summit.” The event featured presentations from the contributing authors and included participation from Colombian government representatives and the GFMD Civil Society Mechanism.

Through these initiatives, FES AMPC reaffirms its commitment to work with state and non-state actors and to actively engage with the GFMD process, ensuring that gender perspectives remain central to migration governance debates.

To read other articles under this project and additional articles by FES on migration governance, please visit our FES Displacement, Migration and Integration (FMI) website using this link.