International Organization for Migration

From Solar Cooking

Established in 1951, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is the leading inter-governmental organization in the field of migration and works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners.

With 122 member states, a further 18 states holding observer status and offices in over 100 countries, IOM is dedicated to promoting humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all. It does so by providing services and advice to governments and migrants.

IOM works to help ensure the orderly and humane management of migration, to promote international cooperation on migration issues, to assist in the search for practical solutions to migration problems and to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants in need, including refugees and internally displaced people.

The IOM Constitution recognizes the link between migration and economic, social and cultural development, as well as to the right of freedom of movement.

IOM works in the four broad areas of migration management:

• Migration and development
• Facilitating migration
• Regulating migration
• Forced migration.

IOM activities that cut across these areas include the promotion of international migration law, policy debate and guidance, protection of migrants' rights, migration health and the gender dimension of migration.

[edit] News and recent developments

• December 2007: A solar cooker is a device which changes direct sunlight into heat energy to cook food. Numerous attempts have been made in the past to disseminate solar cookers in Darfur and throughout Sudan. However the practical implementation of successful use of solar cookers in Sudan has not always produced the desired results. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has conducted a survey to attempt to resolve the numerous problems encountered with previous solar cooker projects and to produce viable solutions by developing a new prototype, which is more suitable to the Sudanese environment and culture. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in collaboration with UNICEF, are implementing partners for UNIDO’s pilot phase of the project in South and North Darfur. The pre-pilot phase comes after the successful testing of the solar cooker with women’s groups in Khartoum. The pre-pilot phase in South and North Darfur will take place in December 2007 and January 2008 respectively. IOM’s main role is the selection of the sites where the project can be piloted, the monitoring of the use of the solar cookers and the evaluation of the first dissemination by mid-January, in cooperation with UNIDO. A three to four day training session by a Sudanese technical expert on the use of solar cookers is currently being organized for 10 women in South Darfur. It is expected that by mid-January 2008 the trained women will be able to successfully use the solar cookers. IOM and UNICEF expect to implement this project on a larger scale during 2008 where 500 women will be trained in the use of the solar cooker. The pre-pilot phase of this project was initially planned to be implemented in villages where returns have been assessed positively by IOM’s Verification and Monitoring Unit (VMU) within in the frame of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between IOM, the United Nations (UN) and the Government of Sudan (GoS) in 2004; protecting IDPs from forced returns or relocations. However, due to current security constraints access to rural areas outside Nyala, selection of the sites have had to bee re-assessed for the pre-pilot phase. IOM is now in the process of identifying a new target community in close collaboration with UNICEF and UNIDO. In the long-term, IOM expects one of the key results of this project to be a reduction in Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) women and girls are confronted while out looking for fire wood. [Source: Media:IOM_Sudan_newsletter_1107_en.pdf‎]

[edit] Contact

For further information, please contact:

Simona Opitz
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Amarat, Street 47, Block 11, House 18
Khartoum
Sudan

Tel: +249 183 570801/2/3/4 (Ext 250)
mobile + 249 (0)912339700

sopitz@iom.int
http://www.iom.int