Leonhard den Hertog presents his research findings at the ICMPD Headquarters in Vienna

The funding instruments for EU external migration policies have changed rapidly and profoundly as a result of the ‘refugee crisis’. This has many consequences, not the least for international organisations that implement EU funded projects abroad, such as the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD – also an associate partner to TRANSMIC) headquartered in Vienna. This is one of the reasons why Leonhard den Hertog – a former postdoctoral fellow in the TRANSMIC project – conducted research interviews on this topic at the ICMPD in September 2016. On March 22nd 2017 he returned to the ICMPD to present his findings to a large number of staff in Vienna, as well as to several staff members in the ICMPD Brussels office through a video link.

Leonhard highlighted the incoherence of the funding landscape, the key dynamic of policy making through funding witnessed during the ‘refugee crisis’, and the deep involvement of international organisations in EU external migration funding. In his conclusions he underlined that financial accountability is a major challenge in this field, with a limited overview and monitoring of priority-setting and implementation. He also argued that some funding activities under new instruments set up as a response to the ‘refugee crisis’ lack compatibility with EU legal bases and rules regarding development cooperation and humanitarian aid. The ensuing discussions brought to the table new facts and insights, and proved to be of great relevance to the daily work of the ICMPD staff.