The Strengthening Protection Capacity Project (SPCP) develops tools and strategies to strengthen the capacity of states to receive and protect refugees. This includes improving refugees' access to fundamental rights, enhancing refugees' means of self reliance and expanding opportunities for durable solutions.

The SPCP is designed to facilitate national responses to protection problems through a process of protection assessment, dialogue and joint planning in states hosting refugees. This includes:

UNHCR piloted SPCP initiatives in Kenya, Tanzania, Benin and Burkina Faso from 2004-2006. These experiences have led to a commitment by UNHCR to apply the SPCP methodology more systematically in its field operations. The SPCP "Protection Gaps: Framework" assessment tool has been distributed to all UNHCR field offices to promote more comprehensive approaches to assessing the realisation of refugee rights. A similar inter-agency tool to assess the protection situation of internally displaced people (IDPs) is being developed.

In 2007 UNHCR is implementing SPCP country initatives in Kenya, Tanzania, Thailand and Zambia. In the second half of 2007, a regional initiative in the South Caucasus will – for the first time – extend the SPCP process to IDPs, as well as to refugees in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

For more information on SPCP country initiatives and the SPCP "Protection Gaps: Framework" tool, please consult the links on the right of the page.