There were 50 participants representing 11 countries participated in the Peer to Peer (P2P) Learning in Pullman Hotel in Ciawi – Bogor conducted last 16-20 September 2019. The theme of the P2P was: A World on the Move: Enriching Migration Cycle for the Benefit of All. The training was organized by the Global Academy on Migration and Development in partnership with Atikha, a non-government organization implementing migration and development initiatives based in the Philippines and the GIZ, an international development cooperation agency based in Germany. The peer to peer is sharing and learning from other migration experts.
The P2P learning used a different way of working employing dialogue in the discussion. The Dialogue Associates, a consultancy group from UK specializing in professional dialogue were engaged as moderators together with the members of the Global Academy. The dialogue process was very much appreciated by the participants. Most of them mentioned, “ It is just day 1 but I think I am going to learn a lot from this training. It is very different”. Tetez delos Santos mentioned, “This P2P learning is different and I like it very much. I had participated in P2P Learning before but like other conferences, it was purely one-sided learning with the speaker sharing all the information. This is really P2P because aside from sharing our experience we also gained a lot of insights that can improve our work.”
The participants were very happy with the outcome of the P2P learning. They have gained valuable insights that will help them pursue their work. “ I thought that I knew a lot about migration already. But I gained a lot of information in this training that I will start using as soon as I get back to Mexico” shared Mayor Jose Alonzo Arellano, Mayor of Florencia del Benito Zacatecas Mexico.
One of the reasons for the success of P2P was the choice of participants. All of the participants were program implementers who are experts in their field and they come from national government agencies to local government units. There were also participants for civil society organizations, academe and the private sector from destination countries as well as origin countries. The P2P had provided learnings from various perspectives and the participants realized the need to support, coordinate and complement each others’ efforts.
Another reason for the success of the P2P was the relevance of the thematic discussions on development oriented and gender responsive reintegration and diaspora engagement. The current situation, gaps and challenges and best practices of these themes were discussed from pre-departure, on-site to return phase. All of the participants realized that each of them are playing roles in the various interventions in different stages of migration from origin or destination country.
There were many recommendations and partnerships forged after the training such as:
- Participating in global
field school of the Global Academy on:
- Mobilizing migrant resources for development in Mexico to learn about developing matching funds;
- Mainstreaming Migration in Local Governance in the Philippines.
- Training of trainers in setting up one-stop migration resource centers and empowering migrants and families on financial literacy and reintegration counselling.
- Organizing Multi-stakeholder Dialogue involving their superiors which they fondly called B2B or boss to boss dialogue to be able to push for their advocacies in implementing comprehensive migration policy on the part of Indonesia.
- Data base management which are to be gathered at the village level.
- Strengthening and mainstreaming migrant workers education program from pre-departure on-side and return phase.
The Peer to Peer is just the beginning of the engagement of the partners and more activities were planned to assist in the implementation of initiatives on reintegration and diaspora engagement. The Global Academy has committed to assist to ensure that their recommendations would be implemented and the partnerships forged will materialize.