Evaluation of IRCC’s Memberships in International Migration Forums and Organizations

Research and Evaluation Branch
November 2021
Project reference number: E3-2020

Executive Summary

The purpose of this evaluation was to assess the relevance, benefits and influence of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) memberships in international migration forums and organizations. This evaluation was conducted in fulfillment under the Financial Administration Act and the 2016 Treasury Board Policy and Directive on Results to evaluate ongoing grants and contributions with five-year average actual expenditures of less than $5 million per year. The evaluation was guided by the draft expected outcomes of these memberships and covered the period since the last evaluation in 2013 to 2021.

Brief overview of MIFO

IRCC engages in international migration forums and organizations to reinforce Canada’s collaboration with international stakeholders and partners, advance Canada’s priorities, and share Canadian best practices. IRCC funds memberships in the following international migration forums and organizations on behalf of the Government of Canada:

• Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD)
• Intergovernmental Consultations on Migration, Asylum and Refugees (IGC)
• Regional Conference on Migration (RCM)
• Transatlantic Council on Migration – Migration Policy Institute (TCM/MPI)
• International Organization for Migration (IOM)

All but one of IRCC’s memberships in international migration forums and organizations are funded through the International Migration Capacity Building Program (IMCBP), a grant program that seeks to advance migration policy development and research to further advance Canada’s goals of promoting international protection and managed migration. The IOM membership is administered through the Assessed Contribution to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Conclusions and recommendations

The evaluation found that there was a perceived need for IRCC to fund Canada’s membership in international migration forums and organizations, and overall, the international migration forums and organizations provide a good value for money. While benefits varied at the individual forum or organization level, Canada has contributed to international positions through its membership in the international forums and organizations.

The evaluation also found that while the information and knowledge gained from participating in international migration forums and organizations is generally of use to Canada and to IRCC, the evaluation found room for improvement in communicating information gained from the various memberships in international migration forums and organizations, to ensure that all potential parties can benefit from the knowledge gained. In addition, the evaluation found that there is room to improve the collection of outcomes and the dissemination of forum and organization information. While grant arrangements for each international migration forum and organization highlight the objective of Canada’s memberships, the Department does not have a performance measurement strategy to report on the outcomes of the memberships overall.

In response to the evaluation findings and in support of continued improvement of MIFO, this report concludes by proposing two recommendations for the program area to consider.

Recommendation 1: IRCC should develop a performance measurement framework for the international memberships to reconfirm their expected outcomes and develop corresponding indicators and measurement tools.

Recommendation 2: In support of strengthening the dissemination of results of the participation in the international organizations and forums, IRCC should:

1. Implement a central repository of information accessible to all IRCC employees; and
2. create and implement a communication strategy to share and promote information.