UP - CIFAL PHL leads multisectoral dialogues on human mobility and climate action through an international conference

29 September 2021 - The University of the Philippines - Centre International de Formation des Autorités et Leaders or the International Center for Authorities and Leaders Philippines (UP-CIFAL Philippines), together with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), hosts the International Conference on Human Mobility and Climate Action on 18-20 October 2021.

The 2020 World Migration Report stated that millions of people globally move “in anticipation or as a response to environmental stresses.” Climate factors and their complex interaction with various drivers of migration including economic, political, cultural and demographic factors shape the intention and decision-making process of whether or not to move.

With the growing urgency of the situation, the international conference provides a venue for discourse on how leaders, communities, and agencies could respond to the complex challenges of human mobility-climate change nexus and explore possible ways forward with timely, scientific, and rights-based adaptive responses in its core.

The Conference brings in more than 30 local and international experts on human mobility, climate change, environmental migration, disaster risk reduction, urban planning and development, and human rights and social protection. It converges on the three of four thematic areas of the CIFAL Global Network (CGN) to create empirical and systematic strategies to address the dynamic causality of migration and climate change:

• Urban Governance: The conference will explore socio-economic factors that intersect with settlement, housing, equity, and social justice among climate migrants.
• Social Inclusion: Grounded in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and human rights-based approaches, the conference will traverse the existing human rights framework for environmental migrants moving within territories and cross-border.
• Environmental Sustainability: The conference will gather best practices for climate adaptation, mitigation, and resilience-building as response to climate change.

The Conference is in partnership with CIFAL Jeju, CIFAL Newcastle, CIFAL Shanghai, International Organization for Migration (IOM), Centre for Neighbourhood Studies (CeNS), and UP Resilience Institute (UPRI). This three-day event is free and open to the public.