Six Things for Amy Pope to Consider as She Takes Office

In a global environment characterised by escalating threats and crises, and with numbers of international migrants rising steadily for over five decades, leading the International Organization for Migration ( IOM - UN Migration ) is a herculean undertaking. Global developments over the past decade have given greater prominence to IOM’s migration mandate positioning the organisation as the lead United Nations agency for migration and significant provider in humanitarian crises, including in situations of internal displacement.

On the first of this month, Ms Amy Pope began her 5-year appointment as the Director General (DG) of IOM, in charge of fulfilling the agency’s mandate of “promoting humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all.” Pope brings with her extensive experience with a long career in international migration affairs having worked under the Biden administration in US homeland and transborder security managing migration surges, trafficking in persons, epidemic response, and community climate-crises preparation. ?

As Pope assumes the role of IOM DG, she inherits an IOM that is agile, entrepreneurial and responsive, with a capacity to deliver effectively around the world, including in the most challenging of contexts.

With its operational strengths highly valued by its funders and member states, the organisation’s budget has grown from around USD 1 billion in 2010 to USD 2.99 billion in 2022, with most of its funding in the form of short-term project finance. These earmarked, voluntary contributions totalling USD 2.72 billion in 2022 (IOM, 2023) represent 97% of the organisation’s total funding.

As a Network that has conducted 100+ assessments of nearly 40 different multilateral organisations in the past 20 years — in line with the Network’s 2023 priorities — MOPAN members commissioned the assessment of IOM. ?MOPAN published the findings from this 2023 assessment after the launch event, yesterday, in Geneva. The assessment lauded the organisation for its core strengths and improvements since its last assessment in 2018 (under previous Director General, Antonio Vitorino (2018-23)) and identified key areas of attention for the organisation to be best positioned to address the inevitable increase in migration flow fuelled by climate change and concurrent global crises.

As she settles into her new role as head of IOM, Ms Pope has a difficult in-tray. Some insights — drawing from the MOPAN assessment — on six major issues facing IOM as Pope settles in as Director General:

1. Structural reforms: Finalise, operationalise and consolidate the rollout of structural reforms and key business processes. The ambitious programme of headquarters and systems reforms - already well underway — needs to also be pushed down to regional offices, and country offices need to be properly resourced so that they can deliver on IOM’s strategic priorities.?
2. Address funding constraints & under-resourcing: The organisation’s financial framework, with its heavy reliance on earmarked funding, remains the primary constraint for organisational development. Under-resourcing of IOM’s central functions — including important oversight mechanisms, legal functions and human resources — is standing in the way of the organisation becoming even more effective.
3. Advocate for global co-operation on migration: IOM needs to continue to provide the right resources to deliver its critical global leadership role as the UN’s migration agency.? As a critical part of this work, IOM’s offices around the world also need the right resources to support policy and advocacy work where it matters most – on the ground.
4. Prioritise climate: Climate migration will clearly be a major issue to address going forward. IOM needs a systematic approach to this key issue, both globally and in country.
5. Reinforce IOM’s role as a humanitarian actor & co-ordinator: IOM’s fast-growing role as a humanitarian actor is highly valued by funders and partners, including the organisation’s important role in promoting co-ordination and system-wide responses. This leadership role now needs to be reinforced with an approach to working with local actors, an IOM protection strategy, and working out how to improve IOM’s accountability to people affected by crises.
6. Fight sexual misconduct: Continue ongoing efforts to prevent sexual misconduct across the organisation and more consistently across country offices.

For further MOPAN findings on IOM, visit: bit.ly/MOPAN_IOM

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