Alamty – The United Nations Migration Agency (IOM) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Kazakhstan have kicked-off their joint project on the migration, environment and climate change nexus with a high-level training series from 8 to 10 December. Representatives of local and national authorities took the opportunity to learn about the impact of climate change and environment on migration in Kazakhstan. The trainings are organized in partnership with the Academy of Public Administration under the President of Kazakhstan. 

The events are part of the joint project ‘Mainstreaming evidence-based Migration and Climate Change Policies into the Development Agenda of Kazakhstan’ with a special focus on water security. The project is intended to devise proper climate change and migration policies and solutions and further integrate the nexus into the national development agenda of Kazakhstan. This will allow for a smoother implementation of the activities to address the migration, environment and climate change nexus that have been envisaged in the Concept of Migration Policy of Kazakhstan for 2022-2026 and develop the respective Mid-term Action Plan.

Zeynal Hajiyev, Sub-Regional Coordinator for Central Asia, Chief of IOM Missions to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan: “Our joint IOM-UNDP initiative will serve as an opportunity to learn from experiences of national stakeholders and act together to address human mobility-related challenges and opportunities in the context of climate change and environmental degradation in Kazakhstan.”

Yakup Beris, UNDP Resident Representative in Kazakhstan: “The training series can be seen as a successful first milestone to raise awareness of government representatives about the nexus between migration, environment and climate change in the region. We stand ready to support our national partners in addressing the multidimensional nature of human mobility and climate change by bringing UNDP’s specific expertise and knowledge on local development to the table”.

This initiative is fully aligned with UNDP-IOM strategic partnership in the framework of previous joint efforts to address migration, climate change and development topics in the country including undertaking the vulnerabilities assessment in Central Asia and the Rapid Assessment of the Opportunities for Decent Employment for Youth Facing Long-term Exclusion from the Labour Markets in Selected Regions of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.