Pacific Climate Change Migration and Human Security Programme (PCCMHS)

Climate change and Migration : Improving migrant labour rights and working towards climate preparedness through dialogue and South-South and triangular cooperation

Towards a Solution

The Pacific Climate Change Migration and Human Security Programme (PCCMHS) seeks to

1. \enhance the knowledge, awareness and expertise of senior government officials and social partners on key labour migration policy areas including fair recruitment, decent working conditions, inclusive labour mobility, development impact and partnerships;
2. \ to ensure that participants are equipped with sufficient know-how to advocate for the rights of migrant workers, and to work to facilitate safe, regular and inclusive labour migration options where relevant;
3. to enable participants to share experiences and ideas with peer officials from Pacific countries dealing with labour migration governance issues in the Pacific relating to climate change;
4. to increase South-South and triangular cooperation in the Pacific.

Since September 2020, Government Officials from around the Pacific region started a series of virtual policy discussions to examine how climate change and disasters will affect mobility trends in the Pacific Islands. The regional policy dialogue is facilitated by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), as part of the joint-UN agency programme on Pacific Climate Change Migration and Human Security (PCCMHS) programme.

The South-South and triangular cooperation initiative supports the SDGs, Regional cooperation, Technical cooperation visits for sharing experiences through Peer-to-peer learning. These exchanges explore and offer opportunities to share good practices in relation to labour migration governance. The initiative facilitates regional cooperation by involving all 11 ILO Pacific Member States. Additionally, technical cooperation visits for sharing experiences between participating countries in the pacific favour the South-South and triangular cooperation approach 

The initiative recognizes the adverse impacts of climate change compound existing challenges in Small Island Developing States and have placed additional burdens on their national budgets and their efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals. Through the training, the participating countries will ensure social development and strengthen partnership in the region.

After conducting the reviews, results will be shared with relevant civil society organisations (CSO), employer and worker organisation representatives. Furthermore, consultations will be organised with receiving states (Australia, New Zealand) and social partners to share results of studies on SWS and to promote compliance with international labour and human rights standards, including ratification of core migrant worker conventions. As such, these reviews will likely influence frameworks and institutional responses to the SWS.

Through the collaboration, Vanuatu’s Seasonal Employment Act will be reviewed and re-written to ensure protection of seasonal workers and adjust frameworks and institutional mechanisms that protect the labour rights of seasonal migrant workers from the country.

Having access to the findings in this review will ensure that employers’ and workers’ organisations and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) representing women, persons with disabilities and other marginalised groups have increased information and more frequent opportunities to promote safe labour migration and increased inclusivity.

Migration and climate change affect most of the countries especially in the pacific, thus this initiative can be replicated in countries across the region.