Introducing the Global Skill Partnership Portal

Too many migration pathways are extractive; taking the best and brightest talent from low-income countries and moving them to high-income countries. This can exacerbate worker shortages and lead to concerns about “brain drain.”

In a bid to address this, almost ten years ago, CGD Fellow Michael Clemens created the Global Skill Partnership model. It was envisioned as a new kind of migration partnership, one where high-income countries invest in building the global stock of talent within a particular sector prior to migration. Some of the trainees move (those on the “away” track) and some stay (those on the “home” track). All have increased skills and earning potential, promoting economic growth on both sides.

Since that time, we’ve been working with different countries to pilot the model. From Germany to Australia to Belgium, Kosovo to the Pacific Islands to Morocco, we’ve learned a lot about what to do and what not to do when increasing legal migration. Many of these partnerships have been a success, and are now scaling up, with many more trainees.

But it was very hard for interested countries to access relevant and comprehensive information about how to implement the model in practice. Who to partner with, what sectors to work in, and how to design, fund, and evaluate the partnership. Until now.

CGD is excited to announce the launch of a new web home for the Global Skill Partnership model: cgdev.org/bettermigration. The portal provides detailed and practical information for countries seeking to use migration to help businesses find workers, help people find jobs, and help economies grow.

Please take the time to explore the portal, share it, and let us know what you think. We want it to be a useful resource for any countries interested in using managed migration partnerships to benefit everyone, and we can only do that by providing the information that you need.