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Media Advisory
May 23, 2007
Contact: Colleen Coffey
202-266-1910
ccoffey@migrationpolicy.org

Director of the First Global Forum on Migration and Development
Task Force to Give a Preview at MPI

From July 9-11, the government of Belgium will host the Global Forum on Migration and Development, the first in what is expected to be an annual series of meetings led and organized by states. The governmental discussions at the Global Forum will mark the start of a new global process designed to enhance the positive impact of migration on development (and vice versa) by adopting a more consistent policy approach, identifying new instruments and best practices, exchanging know-how and experience about innovative tactics and methods, and establishing cooperative links between the various actors involved.

Ambassador Régine De Clercq has been charged with organizing the Global Forum, and has been a force behind it from the earliest discussions of the concept. As Executive Director of the Task Force that is organizing the Forum, she has been consulting with participating states on the format and agenda for this ground-breaking event. At an event hosted by the Migration Policy Institute this Friday, she will give a preview of the forum and her expectations for international cooperation on migration going forward.

WHO:	Ambassador Régine De Clercq, Executive Director of the Global Forum on Migration and Development Task Force Moderator: Kathleen Newland, Director of the Program on Migrants, Migration and Development, and Refugee Policy, Migration Policy Institute
WHEN:	Friday, May 25, 2007, 8:30 to 10:00 am
WHAT:	Briefing on “The First Global Forum on Migration and Development: The Challenges and Opportunities of Creating a New Global Process”
WHERE:	MPI Conference Room, 1400 16th Street, NW, Suite 300
RSVP:	Lisa Dixon at 202-266-1929 or ldixon@migrationpolicy.org

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