Over the past 3 weeks, in close coordination with the Secretariat to the State Commission on Migration Issues of Georgia (SCMI), IOM has been holding intensive training courses for local government officials in the Kakheti and Imereti provinces on the nexus between migration and development.

These latest courses have handed the participants concrete tools of how to mainstream migration into local development policies by highlighting, for example, the contributions that Georgian returnees and members of the Georgian communities overseas can make to the socio-economic development of their home communities. A representative from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia was also present to pay attention to the position of the Georgian Diaspora abroad and how their ties to their home country can be enhanced for the benefit of all parties involved.

This round of training followed up on elementary training conducted for local government officials from the same two provinces in June 2018. In preparation, IOM and the SCMI had developed earmarked and detailed training material for the local government officials to use in subsequent peer education initiatives scheduled for the remainder of 2019.

This activity is part of the EU-funded project “Sustaining Border Management and Migration Governance in Georgia”, which is implemented by IOM and runs until November 2020.