Cécile Riallant is a migration and development expert with 20 years of experience in this line of work. She is currently managing the UN Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI), a global inter-agency programme led by UNDP focused on reinforcing the role and positioning of local authorities and cities in linking migration and development.

She joined the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 2000, after three years of working as a researcher. She has managed for IOM numerous programmes and projects in the field of migration with geographical scope in the Great Lakes (Africa), North Africa, Afghanistan, the Balkans and Europe. From 2005 to 2008, she was Deputy Chief of Mission of the IOM Mission in Indonesia, working to support populations internally displaced by the 2004 tsunami in North Sumatra.

She is a member of the Editorial Board of Migration Policy Practice, of the International Steering Committee of Metropolis, of the International Steering Committee of the civil society component of the Global Forum on Migration and Development and a contributor to the 2015 World Migration Report on Migrants and Cities and the OECD report Perspectives on Global Development 2017. She holds a Bachelor degree in Political Science from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Science Po), a Master of Science in European Studies from the University of Strasbourg and a Master of Science in Social Policies from the London School of Economics.