Created by mayors for mayors, we are guided by a Leadership Board of global city leaders, including the mayors of Amman, Bristol, Dhaka North, Freetown, Kampala, Milan, Montevideo, Montréal, and Zürich, but work with a coalition of more than 200 cities worldwide. Distinct from other city networks that have strict membership requirements, the MMC is an open resource for mayors from cities of all sizes, geographies, and income levels.
“The Mayors Migration Council was founded by mayors for mayors as a direct response to these two challenges—to help mayors get a seat at the global policy table as equal decision-making partners and to unlock financial and other resources so mayors can accelerate and scale local solutions. Together, these actions will turn the Global Compacts from aspiration to reality and make a tangible difference in the lives of urban migrants, displaced people, and receiving communities.”
VITTORIA ZANUSO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MAYORS MIGRATION COUNCIL
VISION
As a non-membership organization, the MMC engages with all cities that can benefit from our services and support. We take a flexible approach that allows all cities to participate in our coalition and offer programme activities that match their needs and capacities. As a principle, we strive to ensure that our work amplifies the voices and experiences of the Global South and secondary cities.
For the MMC, success is ultimately a transformed national, regional, and international governance system that reflects and addresses local realities and improves conditions for migrants and refugees.
PRINCIPAL OBJECTIVES
The Mayors Migration Council is a mayor-led coalition that accelerates ambitious global action on migration and displacement to create a world where urban migrants, displaced people, and receiving communities can thrive. To fulfill our mission, we help mayors and the cities they lead:
- Influence policy decisions on migration and displacement at the national and international level.
- Unlock financial and technical resources to implement local solutions for migrants and displaced people.
- Raise awareness on city leadership among global audiences.
- Generate and share evidence on urban migration and displacement.
- Build a coalition of local and global champions.
The MMC created the Global Cities Fund to respond to the unmet needs of cities as they support migrants, refugees, and internally displaced people during pressing global challenges. Developed in partnership with the UN Migration Agency, the UN Refugee Agency, the UN Human Settlement Programme, and United Cities and Local Governments, the Fund builds precedents of fiscal feasibility in city governments within low- and middle-income countries that are often disregarded by donors with low risk tolerance, despite being at the frontlines of these challenges.
KEY PROJECTS
The Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees (GCF) is the MMC’s response to the unmet needs of cities as they support migrants, refugees, and internally displaced people in the face of pressing challenges. By directly funding cities to implement programs of their own design, the GCF builds precedents of fiscal feasibility in city governments that often disregard donors with low risk tolerance.
The GCF is led in partnership with six Strategic Partners: C40 Cities, Metropolis, IOM, UCLG, UN-Habitat, UNHCR. Beginning in 2021 with a $1,000,000 seed investment to support five cities, in less than two years the GCF has become an $8,000,000 fund supported by five donors with 28 city grantees. These cities directly support thousands of migrants and refugees across three thematic chapters: Inclusive Climate Action, Inclusive Pandemic Response, and Children and Caregivers.
With the support of our Strategic Partners and our key donors — the Bernard van Leer Foundation, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the IKEA Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and the Robert Bosch Stiftung — the GCF has exceeded our goal to raise funding for 22 cities by the end of 2022 and nearly 80% of past grantees continue to advance their projects through external or internally generated financial resources.
Get Involved:
As a Mayor
Join our coalition by adding your pledge to the Call to Local Action for Migrants and Refugees and learn more about the Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees.
As a Partner
Express interest in becoming an institutional donor or strategic partner by emailing us.
Executive Director: Vittoria Zanuso
Director of Policy and Advocacy: Maggie Powers
Director of City Practice: Samer Saliba
Mayors Migration Council at the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors,
240 Kent Ave.
Brooklyn, New York 11249
United States of America