MODERATOR
Nicholas Bishop, Head of Climate Resilience and Security, IOM
Dr Pablo Rojas Coppari, IOM/Maynooth University
Dr Benjamin Schraven, IDOS/CMARN
Dr Aondowase Targba, FUG/CMARN
PANELISTS
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
6:00am-7:30am EST
Session 7.1
Advancing Applied Migration Research through Collaboration: The International Organization for Migration’s Climate Change and Migration Data Programme and the Climate Mobility Africa Research Network.
Abstract
This panel explores how applied migration research, regional collaboration, and capacity development can strengthen institutional responses to climate-related mobility. Organized within the framework of the Climate Change and Migration Data (CCMD) Programme, under which the International Organization for Migration (IOM) collaborates with the Climate Mobility Africa Research Network (CMARN), the session contributes to the broader aims of the three-day symposium—to advance knowledge, networks, and advocacy critical to building institutional capacity for supporting climate migrants. It brings together perspectives from international organizations, research networks, and universities engaged in bridging evidence, policy, and practice.
The first presentation highlights IOM’s contribution to applied migration research, including on climate mobility, and through the CCMD Programme, emphasizing efforts to support early career and emerging researchers in the Global South. It illustrates how collaborative research, mentoring, and partnerships such as those with CMARN can enhance data quality, research ethics, and the practical use of evidence in migration governance.
The following presentation then offers a continental perspective on climate mobility, presenting insights from regional data initiatives and cooperation frameworks that aim to harmonize evidence and policy responses across.
Finally, the last presentation provides African perspectives on climate mobility, discussing how empirical findings from national and regional studies inform evolving policy and practice in contexts of vulnerability and adaptation.
Together, these presentations demonstrate how interdisciplinary and interregional collaboration—anchored in applied research and capacity strengthening—can foster more inclusive, evidence-based, and context-sensitive approaches to supporting climate migrants. The panel underscores the importance of linking research capacity with policy dialogue to ensure that knowledge production contributes directly to institutional readiness and resilience in the face of climate-induced mobility.
Bios
Dr Pablo Rojas Coppari
Dr. Pablo Rojas Coppari is a Senior Research Officer with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), where he leads the organization’s Research Unit. He leads the provision of research technical assistance at a global level, quality assurance of research outputs, and institutional research capacity-building initiatives.
With over 15 years of experience spanning academia, civil society, government administration, and international organizations, Pablo specializes in migration and asylum policy, governance, and applied research, with expertise in economic integration, labour rights, and the intersections of migration with gender and development.
He holds a MA in International Development from the University of Lille, France as well as a PhD in Sociology from Maynooth University, Ireland, where his research examined how government policy shapes labour market precarity for migrants in Ireland.
His previous work roles include serving as Third Secretary in the Irish Diplomatic Service, as Senior Policy & Research Officer at the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, and as Migration Adviser at OSCE/ODIHR, where he led the organization’s migration programme.
Dr Benjamin Schraven
Dr. Aondowase Targba is a Reader/Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the Federal University Gusau, Nigeria. He holds a PhD in Sociology (Demography) at Benue State University, Makurdi, Nigeria. He has additional training in disaster management research. His major research interests include climate mobility and forced migration. He served as a co-researcher of an NRF project as well as a consultant on projects supported by Open Societies Africa, the European Union, UK Aid, and UNICEF in Nigeria on security and civil-military relations, community engagement, socio-political inclusion, and child protection. Dr Targba is a fellow of the 2024 Climate Mobility Africa Academy, Kenya, and currently a mentor of the Displaced Scholars Peer Mentoring Program: Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW, Australia. He was selected as one of the expert reviewers for the IPCC special report on Climate Change and Cities. He is a member of the Steering Group for Climate Mobility Africa Research Network.
Dr Aondowase Targba
Dr Benjamin Schraven is a Consultant and Senior Associate Fellow of the German Institute for Development and Sustainability (IDOS). He holds a PhD in development studies from the University of Bonn (Germany). His research and consultancy work focuses mainly on human mobility in the context of climate change with a special focus on the African continent. Dr Schraven has been conducting commissioned studies and consultancy work on the climate-mobility-nexus for the European Union, the World Bank, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and several other agencies. He has been active as a Guest Lecturer at the University of Ghana several times.
Nicholas Bishop
Nicholas Bishop is IOM’s Head of Climate Resilience and Security. His role is focused on inter-agency coordination, IOM country office technical support inclusive of programme design and implementation, and policy engagement in over 80 countries.
Nick’s extensive experience in humanitarian emergency response and DRR spans numerous crises, including deployments as Emergency Coordinator for the Ukraine crisis, and as Emergency Response Lead in Afghanistan. He has worked with IOM in Thailand, Sierra Leone, the Western Balkans, Turkey, Lebanon, Mozambique, and Libya, consistently focusing on humanitarian emergency response coordination, contingency planning, intervention strategies, and programming implementation.
Nick has written extensively for a variety of online publications on migration and current affairs. He holds an LLB in Law and an M.A. in International Relations from Osaka University.