APROPOS Team
Photo: Prachi Metawala for ©UCLG-CGLU
Earlier this year, our team was entrusted with the design and facilitation of a two-day strategic workshop for Mayors Mechanism: a partnership co-steered by United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), Mayors Migration Council, and the UN International Organization for Migration.
The organizations convened to think about how to bolster the impact of their important work amplifying the voices of local governments in international discussions and decision-making tables on the topic of migration.
The exercise has been a meaningful reminder for our team regarding the critical importance of nurturing collaboration spaces for coalitions of organizations with different missions and priorities, to come together and collectively mobilize to achieve change.
Our APROPOS team guided the consortium through the emergence and unpacking of difficult conversations, the identification of immediate, attainable next steps and assisted the participants as they embarked on an exploration of their partnership architecture, five years after its foundation.
Witnessing the group's renewed enthusiasm and sense of empowerment at the end of the two days inspires us to keep putting in the work to study and design dialogue and collaboration spaces of service to the people and organizations who strive for societal and political change.
In our eyes, this short journey with Mayors Mechanism highlights the profound and tangible impact that structured collaboration and strategic thinking spaces can have on fostering optimism and galvanising momentum.
We are grateful to have been a part of this journey and wish the consortium at Mayors Mechanism the best of success.
About Mayors Mechanism
The Mayors Mechanism was established in 2018 to formally link local and regional governments (LRGs) to the state-led Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), alongside civil society, the private sector and youth.
In 2021, the partnership scaled to also follow the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migation (GCM) and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR).The Mechanism creates opportunities for LRGs to influence State-led discussions and establishes a platform to interact with States, the United Nations, civil society and the private sector.
The Mayors Mechanism brings LRG expertise to State-led discussions; advocates for improved policy coherence on migration and forced displacement issues; maximises opportunities for innovative and direct partnerships with LRGs.
Find out more here.