Migrants along the trail can benefit immensely from help, and the Red Cross Red Crescent has a distinct value proposition through its fundamental principles, unique value of volunteers, global presence and access to communities. Moreover, together with their partners, National Societies bring a wealth of experience. This experience should continue to be nurtured and shared with sister National Societies to further enhance migrants’ resilience.

The 59 smart practices and 13 smart operational elements included in this report only represent a fraction of the wealth of experiences that National Societies and partners have. As this report highlights, there are opportunities to further share smart practices or to develop them.¹ As seen below, the report includes a wide array of smart practices, and will benefit from continued revisions and additions of smart practices, particularly in areas for which there are currently fewer examples.

• By step in the trail: long term stay (25), arrival (10), transition at borders (6), migrant camps (6), origin (5), return (4), across the trail (3)
• By dimension of resilience: human capital (34 per cent) and physical capital (29 per cent), social capital (15 per cent), financial capital (12 per cent), as well as regulatory and governance systems (10 per cent).
• By type of support: awareness raising (21), assistance (16), protection (16), advocacy ().
• By region: sub-Saharan Africa (6), the Americas (7), Asia-Pacific (8), Europe (28), and Middle East and North Africa (10).
• By principle: P1 – Focus on needs and vulnerabilities of migrants (59); P6 – Build partnerships for migrants (26); P3 – Support aspirations of migrants (21); P9 – Respond to displacement of populations (16); P4 – Recognize the rights of migrants (15); P7 – Work together along migratory trails (8); P5 Link assistance protection and humanitarian advocacy for migrants (6); P8 Assist migrants in return (4); and P2 – Include migrants in humanitarian programming (3).²

Working in the migration space has, however, some challenges. National Societies can benefit from increased coordination in the areas of advocacy; information sharing, knowledge sharing and learning; and through more cross-regional responses.

• Coordinated advocacy. In line with Principle 5, there is a need to continue to increasingly link assistance and protection with humanitarian advocacy for migrants.
• Information sharing, knowledge sharing and learning. In line with Principles 1 and 2, in order to understand and adequately address the needs and vulnerabilities of migrants and to support their aspirations, it is important to collect, share, and use relevant information, knowledge and learning when developing, implementing or refining initiatives that support migrants.
• Cross-regional responses. In line with Principle 7, there is a need to work along the migratory trails. The Movement is in a unique position to help bridge the gaps of assistance and protection for migrants along the trail. For example, migrants should have continued access to high quality support along the trail, know who to turn to at each stage, and know what type of support is available to them along the trail.

The IFRC is in a unique position to strengthen the coordination and drive the response at regional and global levels.

1. The Annex on how to use this reports provides some suggestions on how this report can be used to develop smart practices.
2. Responses that seek to alleviate migratory pressures on communities of origin were not included in the scope, as these should fall under initiatives that work with vulnerable populations through domestic responses.