UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, will continue to fulfil its humanitarian mandate of providing protection and solutions to forcibly displaced and stateless people globally, even as it pursues new approaches to bridge a widening gap in aid funding, mitigate the impact of climate change and respond to emerging challenges, UN High Commissioner Filippo Grandi said on Friday.
In his closing statement at UNHCR’s annual Executive Committee (ExCom) meeting in Geneva, Grandi told government representatives that UNHCR would continue to respond to emergencies such as the ongoing conflict in Lebanon – where, in the course of the week-long meeting, thousands more have fled airstrikes – and protracted crises such as in Yemen, Myanmar, the Sahel, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan.
“Rest assured that whenever you are confronted with crises of forced displacement, whenever you need support and advice to strengthen your asylum capacities or your legal frameworks, or whenever you celebrate the return of your people after they have been in exile, UNHCR will be by your side,” Grandi said.
But he also highlighted the shifts in approach required by governments, UN agencies, development actors and other partners in order to guarantee adequate support for refugees, displaced people, and host countries and communities. Sustainable aid requires refugee inclusion – and increased investment – in host countries’ health, education and employment sectors, he said.
“I want to make this very clear: the sustainable aid model which we aim to achieve, based on inclusion and self-reliance, absolutely cannot work without continued financial support from donors,” the High Commissioner said. “Host countries repeatedly emphasized that point this week.”
Lasting benefits
His comments followed exchanges with governments and other partners earlier in the week at a side event on sustainable aid. Participants shared examples of existing approaches in countries in Africa and Latin America based on inclusion that help refugees and local communities in the short term and also promise lasting benefits once refugees are able to return home.
At the event, Xavier Devictor, an Adviser to the World Bank who leads work on development in situations of forced displacement, said that with refugee situations lasting an average of 13 years, it was prudent to put in place responses that – unlike humanitarian aid alone – can be sustained over time.
In his closing speech, Grandi also referenced discussions on new “route-based” approaches to managing mixed flows of refugees and migrants in many regions of the world, which was the subject of another side event on Thursday. Participants heard how these mixed flows increasingly expose people on the move to grave dangers and place increased pressure on asylum systems in countries of destination.
Various route-based initiatives among states, UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) were discussed to better support people on the move and reduce the number of dangerous journeys. These include supporting asylum capacity, providing more protection services where they are most needed, and finding other solutions along such routes, including work, refugee resettlement or voluntary return for those not needing international protection.
Many states signalled their support for such initiatives while stressing that implementing solutions, better data-gathering and monitoring will require greater financial support.
Chronic underfunding
On Tuesday, there was a side event on the conflict in Sudan, where more than 11.3 million people have been forcibly displaced in the past 18 months, including nearly 3 million refugees fleeing to other countries in the region. Delegates heard that Chad, which hosts the highest number of Sudanese refugees, had received a surge of more than 25,000 new arrivals in the first week of October – more than in the whole of September.
Amid chronic underfunding of the refugee response for Sudan – currently amounting to less than a third of total needs for 2024 – participants underscored the need to increase development funding and other long-term investments in Chad and other host countries in line with the sustainable aid model.
This year’s ExCom meeting also included the official launch of a new Global Alliance to End Statelessness, building on the success of UNHCR’s decade-long #IBelong campaign, during which more than half a million people have received a nationality. Grandi announced on Friday that a dozen more members had joined the Alliance during ExCom, with more announcing plans to sign up.
Having reiterated his appeal for meaningful ceasefires in the Middle East and in other areas under conflict, the High Commissioner concluded by quoting former Syrian refugee Jin Davod, one of the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award regional winners honoured on Monday, who said in her acceptance speech: “Nobody chooses to be a refugee, but you can choose whether to help refugees.”
Grandi said: “We must indeed continue to choose not only to help refugees but also to listen to them and to empower them so they can cease to be refugees. Thank you for making this choice with us.”
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).