Live from the diplomatic hub of Geneva, Switzerland – this broadcast will bring you to the Crossroads of Migration Policy and Climate Action!  This event is being hosted by Docsity - further details on how to participate can be found via the registation link below.



Background:  Human Migration and Climate Change are two of the most defining issues of our time. While people have always moved to adapt to a changing environment, our awareness and understanding of the environmental drivers of migration have grown significantly over the past few decades.  The adverse impacts of climate change are increasingly leading to human mobility worldwide, with significant implications for policy-makers in government, NGO and humanitarian organizations, and even for international companies.

Over the past years the focus of the migration and climate change community of practice has been on raising awareness about the realities of the environmental migration phenomenon. Now the main objective is to accelerate climate action and innovative policy solutions across migration, environment, humanitarian and development sectors.

This event will take a threefold approach that would highlight the significance of the topic and the timeliness of the new Master program:
•    Insights related to the forthcoming COP26: what is at stake in terms of human mobility in the forthcoming climate negotiations
•    the urgency for university students and young professionals to be informed, engaged and prepared to make a difference:  through research, education, advocacy and activism
•    the need for education programs to fit professional needs:  fluidity of the approach of this Program that connects research (data/evidence) with professional life and the added value of studying in “International Geneva”

SPEAKERS

Dina IONESCO
Dina led the efforts towards the establishment of this first ever migration and climate change specialized structure in the United Nations (UN) and directed the Migration, Environment and Climate Change (MECC) Division at the UN Migration Agency (IOM) from 2015 to 2021.   She will join Webster University Geneva in 2022 as one of the two faculty  leading the new M.A. in Migration, Climate Change and the Environment in Fall 2022, amongst a broader group of faculty and practitioner-instructors.

Dina's work contributed to the groundbreaking recognition of migrants’ rights in the Paris Agreement in 2015, and to the significant acknowledgement of climate change issues in the Global Compact on Migration, in 2018. She developed and directed numerous programs, projects, and publications, impacting policy makers, communities, and migrants and is the co-author of the first Atlas of Environmental Migration.

Dina has 25 years of international work experience, with a focus on international policies and is passionate about the human rights of migrants, the protection of nature and education. She was awarded the ‘Inspirational woman working to protect the environment’ distinction, as part of the 2016 International Women’s Day, at the initiative of UN Environment, the Geneva Environment Network, and the Swiss Confederation.

Julia BLOCHER 
Julia M. Blocher is a Doctoral Researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research (PIK) and President of the International Youth Federation (IYF), an international non-profit youth empowerment organizations network.
In addition to advocating for climate action and youth empowerment, Ms. Blocher has published research on the interaction of social, political, and environmental factors in human migration in the context of climate change. She has conducted field studies on climate-related human mobility in the Pacific small island states and in the East and Horn of Africa for PIK, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and for the Hugo Observatory (University of Liège), including a number of projects supported by the European Commission. Prior to joining PIK, Ms. Blocher was a Project Manager at the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research in New York (UNU-CPR), a think tank within the UN system. 

Ms. Blocher has lectured at Addis Ababa University, MCI Innsbruck, TEDx, Sciences Po Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité, and University of Geneva. She previously worked for the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC-NRC) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She holds a Master 2 from Sciences Po Paris and Bachelor's degree with distinctions from Johns Hopkins University. She speaks English and French as well as some Italian, Spanish, German, and Swahili.

Martina CASTIGLIONI 
Martina Castiglioni recently joined the International Office of Migration (UN-Migration) as a Policy and Programme Assistant, where she had already gained professional experience as an intern.  Martina holds a Bachelor in in International Relations with an Emphasis in Migration and Refugee Studies from Webster University Geneva, and a Master of Science in Disasters, Adaptation and Development from King’s College London.

As a former President of the Webster Humanitarian Association (a student-led NGO in Geneva), she led collaborations to organize a variety of fundraising events, including events in support of the UNRWA and local NGOs in Zimbabwe and Bosnia-Herzegovina, initiatives to facilitate the integration of refugees in Geneva, roundtable discussions, and other projects supporting human rights.  Martina's volunteer experiences include the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights, at the Red Cross in Geneva and at Human Rights Watch, to name a few.