Samoa ready to host labour mobility annual meeting

28 Oct 2022

The sixth Pacific Annual Labour Mobility Meeting (PLMAM) will be hosted by the Government of the Independent State of Samoa and will be held at the Taumeasina Island Resort in Apia on 7-10 November 2022.

The PLMAM is provided under the PACER Plus Arrangement on Labour Mobility (ALM) as a mechanism to advance regional labour mobility cooperation. It has been an annual event since 2017, upon the signing of the PACER Plus Agreement and the Arrangement. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the PLMAM in 2020 and resolved to a virtual PLMAM in 2021. The 2022 PLMAM will be the first in-person meeting since 2019 and will attract more than 100 participants from around the region to discuss regional labour mobility priorities.

The theme of the 2022 PLMAM is "Reinvigorating Labour Mobility Cooperation for Development" and is an opportunity for Pacific labour mobility stakeholders to re-engage, reset and re-commit to advancing effective regional cooperation. This level of cooperation is particularly important as the development impact of labour mobility are mostly contingent on the policies and conditions in both labour receiving and sending countries. Improved cooperation is therefore crucial to ensuring that an enabling labour mobility environment is created to support sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development for the Pacific.

The 2022 PLMAM is anticipated to generate stimulating inclusive dialogues on current labour mobility issues and priorities. More importantly, it is anticipated to identify regional solutions and concrete actions for 2023/24.

The PLMAM is funded by the Governments of Australia and New Zealand and is facilitated by the PACER Plus Implementation Unit which exists as the Labour Mobility Secretariat that supports the implementation of the PACER Plus Arrangement on Labour Mobility.