The Government of Indonesia with the support of IOM is currently conducting the development of the Migration Governance Indicators (MGI) at the national and local levels. Together with Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IOM conducted a local MGI assessment kick-off Meeting in Semarang on Thursday, 31st August 2023. The assessment will be conducted in the Central Java Province as the selected province. The kick-off meeting was attended by 68 representatives from 38 relevant government institutions at the provincial and local levels. 

At the opening session, Ary Aprianto, Coordinator of the functions for International Organizations of Developing Countries, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said, “For Indonesia, the Global Compact for Migration includes various initiatives and cooperation to strengthen the protection and services of Indonesian citizens abroad, including Indonesian Migrant Workers. This commitment to protecting Indonesian citizens is the underlying basis for the ministries and institutions at the central level to agree on the preparation of the MGI, together with IOM Indonesia.”  

The Director of Synchronization of Local Government Affairs IV, Ministry of Home Affairs, Zanariah, also highlighted “The Directorate General Secretary of Regional Development has requested to support the local MGI development process, and the Provincial Secretary is requested to appoint a local authority to be the facilitator coordinating the collection of responses for the indicators to identify the accomplishments and challenges of migration in the Central Java Province.” She also added that migration will have positive impacts if the process is in line with the proper regulations and laws of the origin and destination countries. 

Zena van Bemmel-Faulkner of IOM also expressed her hope that the government stakeholders will have better information to formulate and implement evidence-based policies on and related to migration and to harness the development benefits of human mobility for Indonesian migrants and their communities, while ensuring their protection throughout the migration cycles. 

The assessment consists of 76 indicators across 6 domains of migration governance which emphasized local government involvement and ownership with three key MGI attributes: (1) voluntary; (2) consultative; and (3) sensitive to local specificities.