The contribution made by IOM’s Vienna Regional Office to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals set out by the UN’s 2030 Agenda was affirmed this week with the news that it has topped an organization-wide table.

To mark five years of the SDGs the United Nations invited hundreds of Governments, UN entities, and stakeholders from all sectors to share inspiring breakthroughs and success stories that are showing results and impacts, which can also be replicated and scaled up.

Ten of IOM’s selected projects made the list: four of these were from Southeastern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the region covered by this office.

Commenting on the landmark accomplishment, Regional Director Renate Held said “this is a massive vote of confidence in everything we do. It reflects talent, dedication, a deep understanding of the 2030 Agenda and an ability to marry high-quality migration programming with the strategic vision of our interlocutors. It proves that migration is not only a contributor but an inspiring accelerator to the 2030 Agenda.”

The four projects selected to feature in the prestigious UN selection were:

Albania’s National Strategy on Migration and Action Plan 2019-2022; the Armenian diaspora support to the COVID-19 Response; a Pre-Employment support programme for Syrians under temporary protection and their host communities in Turkey; and “Let’s Grow This Business”, an IOM Turkey programme aimed at supporting and strengthening small and medium enterprises.

The United Nations commented “Many inspiring breakthroughs and success stories are showing results and impacts all over the world, and several good practices can be replicated and scaled up to address existing gaps and constraints. Bringing this global expertise to scale will be critical to support recovery efforts from the COVID-19 pandemic and to accelerate progress towards the Decade of Action to deliver the SDGs.”