Jakarta, Indonesia – The International Organization for Migration (IOM), in collaboration with Statistics Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik - BPS), organized a workshop to develop a blueprint and a road map document for One International Migration Data (Satu Data Migrasi Internasional - SDMI) on Monday, 24 July 2023. The blueprint and road map contains a work plan to achieve five years outcomes from 2024-2029 in integrating various international migration data sources. Through this blueprint and road map, IOM and BPS aimed to build a mutual agreement between ministries and institutions in setting the definition, division of roles and standard of SDMI in alignment with One Data System for Indonesia (Satu Data Indonesia – SDI) and National Statistic System (Sistem Statistik Nasional - SSN).

Migration has been shaping the world we live in today. International migration challenges become more complex as more people migrate from one country to another for various reasons. Migration data has become more relevant and significant to address those challenges and maximize the impacts of migration towards development. Therefore, improving data quality, multi-stakeholder coordination, and system integration are essential to achieve better migration governance and data management.

“During the consultation processes with the different actors, we have been re-affirmed on the urgent needs to make SDMI as an effective tool to support the government’s efforts in implementing effective and well-managed migration policies. SDMI is more than just compiling numbers, but it also expected to enhance the coordination and collaboration among the relevant ministries to, one of them, strengthen the protection of Indonesian migrants overseas. The effectiveness of service in one institution will depend on the migration data exchanges from other institutions. The exchange will also support the planning in each institution,” stated Joshua Hart, IOM Indonesia’s Senior Programme Coordinator.

BPS has developed and introduced SDMI since 2019 through several coordination meetings and identified various ministries and institutions producing data for this data integration project. A series of consultation visits to key ministries and institutions and regional government were held between 3-12 July 2023 to get deeper insight from each institution.

“SDMI is expected to provide a comprehensive overview of the international migration phenomenon. I hope the SDMI road map can be a solid foundation to develop evidence-based policy, create effective intervention programmes , and strengthen multi-stakeholders' coordination. An institution cannot address international migration issues alone. A synergy among government and non-government stakeholders is crucial to achieve a meaningful result," Ali Said, Director of Population and Manpower Statistics at BPS, explained.

The activity brought together ministries and institutions to discuss further the scope of SDMI, distribution of roles and responsibilities of ministries and institutions, coordination mechanism for data forum, protection of personal data, data interoperability support system, and publication of SDMI based on mutual agreement.

The activity was supported by the US Department of State’s Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) through Asia Regional Migration Program (Asia RMP) implemented by IOM in 12 countries, including Indonesia.