By Linda Oucho
We started the day with such an interesting choice
of workgroup sessions that it was difficult to select which one to attend. There
are representatives from organisations across the globe who have come with an
agenda and aim to share their ideas on the issues concerning migration and/or
development, several of whom initiated mind opening discussions. There are so
many people to talk to that I find it difficult to locate the other core partners from
the Migrating out of Poverty Consortium but I am certain our paths will cross at some
point.
Today's breakout sessions continue yesterday's
discussions with the hope of reaching a consensus on what should be presented
to the government session on the following day. Throughout the breaks I roam
around the stalls to see the recent literature or information from organisations
that deal with areas within our remit. The usual suspects - the International
Labour Organisation and the International Migration Organisation - are
prominent, but there is also a separate table where information from a range of
organisations across the globe is available. In addition, I talked with
organisations located all over Africa about the African Migration and
Development Policy Centre's (AMADPOC) activities, including the Migrating out
of Poverty programme. The people I spoke to seem to be keenly interested in our
research findings.
The Mauritians are a very warm and welcoming nation and have
an interesting way of entertaining their guests. The event was closed by Mr
Ali Mansoor with a telling tale about the two boys who tried to trick the wise
man by hiding a bird behind their backs and asking the wise man to guess what
one of them was hiding. Expecting him to know the answer, they decided to ask whether
the bird was alive or dead. Realizing the trick, the wise man stated "the
answer to your question is in your hands", reminding us that we all hold
the answers to the migration question.
Dr Linda Oucho is Director of the Research
and Data Hub at the African Migration Development and Policy Centre (AMADPOC), a
core partner within the Migrating out of Poverty consortium. She
participated in the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) Civil Society Days 2012 with the support of the Migrating out of Poverty Research Programme Consortium.
