Migration plays a key role in the global development agenda. Yet, current evidence available to assess the interlinkages between migration and development is not sufficient. Now a major new global research consortium has been launched in order to improve policies that affect migrants, particularly cross-border and internal migrants in the developing regions. The Migrating out of Poverty Consortium will combine the research powers of migration research hubs around the world to study migration through a development lens. It will have an unwavering focus on reduction of poverty in all its forms, including lack of education, poor health and gender inequality, as well as income poverty.
The Consortium will support and encourage efforts to improve the quality of data on migration, with a particular focus on data that links migration and poverty. It will have a strong focus on policy, in particular on the policy choices of countries that directly affect the poor, especially women. The Consortium will draw on expertise from the fields of anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science, international relations and sociology.
The Migrating out of Poverty Consortium will be coordinated by the University of Sussex, and will comprise the Refugee & Migratory Movements Research Unit at Dhaka University, Bangladesh; the Centre for Migration Studies at the University of Ghana; the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore; African Migration and Development Policy Centre in Nairobi, Kenya and the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of Witswatersrand, South Africa. Each of these core centers will work with associate partner institutions in their respective regions.
A disclaimer: The Bank and the University of Sussex have reached an agreement that I will head this consortium (see press release).
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