Dhaka, Bangladesh: Partnerships between the public and private sectors offer companies opportunities to engage in areas that are traditionally viewed as falling under a public mandate. These spheres include health care, transportation facilities, infrastructure, energy and waste management services. One reason why PPPs are used is because they enable projects to be realised which otherwise would not be affordable by the government using purely the state’s own resources.

This concept of building Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) has been established in several Silk Routes countries, yet linking these to reintegration goals is an area that remains largely untapped. In order to meet reintegration as well as economic goals, ICMPD has launched a specific project to this end on PPPs.

As an initial step in Bangladesh, ICMPD held a workshop on Public-Private Sector Partnership for Reintegration in Bangladesh with the European Return and Reintegration Network (ERRIN) as well as the Bangladeshi Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment (MEWOE) on 8th November. This was followed by a training on Reintegration Frameworks and Strategies on 9th November. 

Vienna, Austria: The author Dr Parag Khanna rightly highlights that heat, drought and rising sea levels are making some regions uninhabitable, and this is creating a “push factor” for migration. It is a phenomenon which is poorly understood and not always given the attention that it deserves. 18 million people were forced to leave their homes for this reason between 2015 and 2020 in just five countries in South Asia. 

Skopje, North Macedonia: Given the longstanding commitment to dialogue and cooperation held by the South East Europe (SEE) and the Silk Routes Region Working Groups, a joint meeting was arranged on 14th October 2021. Unfortunately due to COVID-19 related issues, the meeting was held virtually.