The Fair was successful in achieving its main purpose, which was to further some of the JMDI’s key objectives, including raising awareness of the concept of Migration and Development, of current good practice in the field and of the role of civil society organizations.
The Virtual Fair achieved this by bringing the themes of the discussions in Athens at the GFMD Civil Society Days to a wider audience in the form of video interviews with participants, showcasing good practices led by civil society in the area of Migration and Development to a global audience, highlighting the role of small-scale actors.
All the Fair exhibits are still online, so if you have not yet visited, or have already been, we encourage you to visit the Fair to review the features, including the project exhibition, video interviews and daily blog:
1. Good Practice Exhibit
The Fair featured a ‘virtual exhibition’ of 60 Migration and Development-related initiatives led by civil society organizations (CSOs) and local authorities from around the world. The exhibition enabled visitors to explore details of each project, including achievements, lessons learned and a photo gallery. Showcasing these projects raised their profile among government representatives and other donors who visited the Virtual Fair and the JMDI booth in Athens, further highlighting the role of Civil Society and awareness of these individual initiatives.
The projects exhibited were selected by the JMDI team following a call for projects launched on the Community of Practice in September 2009. Over 100 groups responded to the Call and posted details of their work on the new Migration and Development ‘Knowledge Exchange’ website, adding a wealth of information on the work of CSOs around the world to the JMDI’s new online project database.
2. M4D TV: Video Interviews
The JMDI team recorded 16 video interviews with
both policy makers and civil society representatives immediately
prior to and during the Virtual Fair/GFMD Civil Society Days.
Interviewees included CSO delegates as well as the IOM
Director-General William Lacy-Swing, Human Development Report
Director, Jeni Klugman, SRSG Peter Sutherland and the European
Commission’s Jean-Louis De Brouwer. Interviews focus on their
organization’s work in Migration and Development and the role of
CSOs and diaspora groups.
3. Daily Blog from Athens
Two daily blogs were one of the main features of the Virtual Fair, giving a ‘real time’ progress update to visitors on the discussions in Athens. On behalf of the JMDI team, Cécile Riallant maintained one blog, providing a daily update on the discussion the GFMD Civil Society Days. The JMDI also invited Andrew Samuel from the Sri Lankan NGO Community Development Services to attend the CSDs as a representative of the M4D Community of Practice (CoP). He was selected for having submitted the ‘top’ selected initiative in the Project Exhibition
Andrew provided a window on the conference to the other 1,156 members of the CoP by filming a video interview (pictured above) and maintaining a daily blog summarizing the discussions from an NGO perspective. In addition, Summary reports provided by the organizers of the CSDs, the Onassis foundation, were also posted on the Virtual Fair site at the end of each day.
Other features of the Virtual Fair which visitors could explore included a Migration and Development Quiz on the findings of the Human Development Report, backround information on
the Global Forum on Migration and Development, including an online discussion of the background papers to the Roundtable discussions and Migration and Development-related documents and other resources.
Visit the Fair online at:
www.migration4development.org/virtualfair
