Thank you for giving us the floor, moderator.

This is a civil society collective message. We are connected and have organized in this process and throughout Migration Week: we are unified in our diversity to ensure the Global Compact fosters real change for migrants and their families.

Message from Executive Director

Let’s be inclusive to be successful

Inclusivity is a cornerstone of effective and principled humanitarian action.

We have met in Geneva today, for our regular twice-yearly discussion of the major humanitarian challenges facing the world. Yemen was first and foremost in our talks. We are alarmed at the dramatic deterioration in the situation over recent months. Millions of lives are now at serious risk.

Civil society space is increasingly a key issue for humanitarian organisations. Independent research carried out for ICVA in the summer of 2018 sought to identify civil society needs in this area and help define the potential role of ICVA in helping and supporting its membership to navigate, protect and expand civil society space.

Excellencies;

Distinguished delegates,

Fellow NGO and UNHCR Colleagues,

Born from World War II, UNHCR was given its first task of shining a light of hope on the hopeless. Putting people first’, UNHCR contributed to a new world arising out of global migration, defining decades of multiculturalism to come.

This year, we’ve returned to that original mandate of Putting People First.