Advancing Participation and Inclusion
Age, Gender and Diversity Accountability Report 2021
Children and youth from the Local Integration Center La Milagrosa in Colombia paint their dreams and hopes for the future in the mural Dreaming Together. © UNHCR/Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo
“The call for ‘nothing about us, without us’ is not merely a call to meaningfully engage with refugees, but to refrain from taking decisions without us and to allow us to contribute directly to solutions”
From the refugees’ statement at the High-level Officials Meeting, December 2021
What Were Major Achievements for AGD-related Work in 2021?
In 2021, UNHCR confirmed its commitment towards the AGD approach both internally across its operations, and externally by championing the AGD approach in the relationships with key stakeholders.
In the 10th year since the adoption of the first UNHCR Policy on AGD, and in line with the more recent 2018 AGD Policy, UNHCR continued to support the people with and for whom it works, and the organizations representing them, as partners and first responders. UNHCR has focused on the establishment of more effective and incisive partnership with organisations led by forcibly displaced and stateless persons, in the design and implementation of programmes, including through new financial tools to facilitate their engagement in providing specialised protection and assistance services to persons with specific needs within their communities. This has enabled UNHCR to ensure that interventions were more appropriate and relevant to the diverse needs and characteristics of the persons served and adapted to the ever-evolving operating environments.
A Burundian athlete who played for Burundi’s national basketball team practices near Mahama Refugee Camp in Rwanda. © UNHCR/Anthony Karumba
Key Achievements in 2021
UNHCR integrated the Washington Group questions on disability statistics into its registration system across all operations worldwide.
A total of 898 participatory assessments were carried out across regions, including through remote systems to overcome COVID-19 related restrictions.
89% of operations reached refugees, IDPs, stateless persons and host community members through information campaigns about COVID-19 pandemic risks.
65% of reporting operations have a multi-channel feedback and response systems designed based on consultations with communities.
UNHCR facilitated registration and issuance of individual documentation for men, women, girls and boys in 106 operations. Globally, almost 4 million new registrations were facilitated.
85% of reporting operations issued women with their own individual identity credentials.
UNHCR supported 81,000 stateless women, men, girls and boys who acquired a nationality or had it confirmed in 2021.
In the 46 countries using UNHCR’s cash management system CashAssist, 52% of cash recipients were female.
Continued efforts to engage women in livelihood and economic interventions resulted in about 54% female participation in those initiatives.
Through MADE51, 30 local social enterprise partners worked directly with refugee artisans in 23 countries – approximately 85% of whom were women.
UNHCR integrated the Washington Group questions on disability statistics into its registration system across all operations worldwide.
A total of 898 participatory assessments were carried out across regions, including through remote systems to overcome COVID-19 related restrictions.
89% of operations reached refugees, IDPs, stateless persons and host community members through information campaigns about COVID-19 pandemic risks.
65% of reporting operations have a multi-channel feedback and response systems designed based on consultations with communities.
UNHCR facilitated registartion and issuance of individual documentation for men, women, girls and boys in 106 operations. Globally, almost 4 million new registrations were facilitated.
85% of reporting operations issued women with their own individual identity credentials.
UNHCR supported 81,000 stateless women, men, girls and boys who acquired a nationality or had it confirmed in 2021.
In the 46 countries using UNHCR’s cash management system CashAssist, 52% of cash recipients were female.
Continued efforts to engage women in livelihood and economic interventions resulted in about 54% female participation in those initiatives.
Through MADE51, 30 local social enterprise partners worked directly with refugee artisans in 23 countries – approximately 85% of whom were women.
UNHCR staff in Pemba register internally displaced families evacuated from Palma in Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado following attacks by non-state armed groups in March 2021. © UNHCR /Martim Gray Pereira
AGD Inclusive Programming
In 2021 UNHCR continued to make progress in the collection and use of data disaggregated by age, gender and other diversity considerations. Efforts were made to enhance integration of AGD data across the management cycle, from registration, needs assessment and profiling, to planning and prioritization, access to programmes, and monitoring and evaluation. ProGres v4 is deployed to 117 UNHCR operations and sex and age are mandatory fields for all individual records in the system. In addition, operations using ProGres also collect more systematically data on diverse characteristics, including disabilities, and specific needs. Data disaggregation in UNHCR operations is used to inform programming and to provide tailor-made interventions, including in targeting assistance, in individual case management, and in identifying priority groups to benefit from specific programmes.
Helplines have been a critical tool in UNHCR’s accountability to affected people. In Jordan, this helpline is dedicated to healthcare for refugees in Amman, Jordan. © UNHCR/Mohammad Hawari
Accountability to Affected People
Strengthened partnerships with RLOs has enabled UNHCR to continue operating in the midst of very challenging environments and circumstances and to ensure interventions are responsive to the specific needs of people served. To maintain accessible and effective communication with the people with and for whom it works, UNHCR invested in creative alternative solutions and innovative new approaches together with refugees, including with a high reliance on remote methods of communication and extensive use of digital platforms. Helplines were critical to ensure a two-way communication and sharing information about key protection concerns. The use of social media also expanded significantly, and new regulations and guidance were put in place to prevent security and privacy risks and dismantle barriers.
Helplines have been a critical tool in UNHCR’s accountability to affected people. In Jordan, this helpline is dedicated to healthcare for refugees in Amman, Jordan. © UNHCR/Mohammad Hawari
A woman and her daughter were displaced from their home in the northern province of Takhar, to Kabul, Afghanistan, and receive support from UNHCR. © UNHCR/Andrew McConnell
Gender Equality
UNHCR operations continued to systematically engage women and girls in decision-making processes and structures in forced displacement contexts, including through networks of women and girls-led organizations. Capacity development interventions were targeted to the individual, collective and organizational capacities of women and girls in decision-making, management and leadership.
74% of UNHCR operations reported that gender-based violence services were available to survivors in the context of COVID-19, including through expanded mobile and remote services and updated referral pathways.
A UNHCR staff member assists displaced families waiting to receive cash assistance in Kabul, Afghanistan. © UNHCR /Andrew McConnell
2021 Challenges
UNHCR worked in a context of global challenges, notably the continuous COVID-19 pandemic, the increasing effects of climate change and natural disasters, and protracted and emerging conflicts, which combined to create unique conditions of complexity and uncertainty.
Forcibly displaced and stateless persons continue to be among the hardest hit by these global challenges and have been put under pressure. The enduring pandemic in 2021 has further aggravated economic insecurity and hampered access to health and protection services.
Fear of infection, confinement and isolation measures, stigma, discrimination, loss of livelihoods and uncertainty about the future have enhanced protection risks for all, and particularly for women, children, and those living with disabilities. Higher reliance on remote methods of communication and interaction posed a new series of challenges in relation to data security and privacy risks, and barriers to access and use in relation to age, gender and literacy levels.
A Syrian refugee living in Za’atari Camp in Jordan inspects the robot she has built in the Innovation Lab run by UNHCR. © UNHCR /Shawkat Alharfoush
What next?
In 2021, UNHCR has made outstanding progress. However, some important work remains to be done to ensure implementation of the AGD Policy to its full extent. The following considerations are aimed to guide future actions:
- Build upon existing initiatives, and continue to reinforce a more integrated and intersectional approach to working with people of all ages, genders, and other diverse characteristics.
- Further embrace the localization agenda and continue to consult, support, and invest in the capacity of grassroot organisations, particularly organizations of forcibly displaced and stateless people, including those that are led by women, persons with disabilities, youth, older people and LGBTIQ+ persons.
- Continue to promote and support the identification, development and exchange of promising practices in the implementation of the AGD approach across regions and areas of UNHCR and partners’ interventions.
- Strengthen the existing accountability system related to the AGD Policy through the inclusion of specific responsibilities at regional and country office levels, as part of a sharpened and more targeted monitoring and reporting system.
- Continue to emphasize the importance of monitoring and evaluation of AGD at all levels and invest in the annual AGD accountability reporting process to showcase the work of UNHCR across operations.
- Continue leveraging new technologies and creative approaches, to incorporate non-traditional sources of information for analysis and reporting on AGD, including big data sources such as social media, and media outlets, as well as qualitative surveys and reports, recordings, and photographic evidence.
- Build on UNHCR’s experience over the last decade of implementing and promoting the AGD approach through its AGD Policy to encourage the UN system and other stakeholders to adopt similar approaches and policy instruments.
A Syrian refugee living in Za’atari Camp in Jordan inspects the robot she has built in the Innovation Lab run by UNHCR. © UNHCR /Shawkat Alharfoush
