The IOM Mission in Ukraine supported the 5^th Kyiv International Model United Nations. High school upperclassmen, talented young people from the universities of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, as well as from abroad, participated in this interactive event by stepping into the shoes of diplomats, debating international crises, negotiating complicated global issues and drafting and adopting resolutions. This year's General Assembly session theme was migration policy.

"We as the IOM Mission in Ukraine are very pleased to see that the subject of your discussions is migration, one of the mega-trends globally in the 21^st century", noted IOM Ukraine's Chief of Mission Manfred Profazi, opening the UN Model session on behalf of the UN Country Team. With more than 230 million international migrants worldwide, more people than ever are living abroad. However, the share of migrants in the world's population remains stable at about 3 per cent.

Manfred Profazi reminded the audience that this year the second-ever United Nations High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development presented a critical opportunity for the international community to improve the alignment of migration and development policies. The UN's post-2015 Development discussion is similarly considering migration as an enabler of development for the first time.

IOM Ukraine's experts are also taking part in the Kyiv Model UN's simulation sessions of the General Assembly and Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, highlighting current challenges and best practices in migration policies and counter-trafficking.