February 16, 2022 – Over the past five years, UNHCR’s engagement in humanitarian-development cooperation has increased with a positive effect on refugees and host communities. To continue to build on the success, UNHCR needs to further adapt its work and strengthen investments in this area, says a report released by UNHCR’s Evaluation Service.
The report found that UNHCR has been successful in building partnerships with development actors and helping them to adopt a focus on forced displacement. UNHCR has also been successful in advising governments to put policies in place that improve the socio-economic situation of displaced people and gathering critical data on forced displacements.
For example, based on this cooperation, in Jordan, the Jordanian Government agreed to issue 200,000 work permits to Syrian refugees, primarily in the agriculture and construction sectors. This led refugees with work permits to have 62 USD more in terms of monthly income than those without, to be 30% less likely to accept a risky, illegal or degrading job, and to be 10% less likely to have to buy food on credit.
Because of promising results like these, UNHCR should continue to invest in these efforts to better connect humanitarian and development actors.
The report recommends UNHCR to increase its efforts on better including refugees in national systems like health care or the labor market, redouble its efforts to provide data and protection expertise to development actors and continue to strengthen cooperation in areas where additional opportunities exist, like partnering on internal displacement, or engaging with the UN development system.
“In protracted crisis settings, working to reduce humanitarian needs while laying the foundation for long-term development is a complex and challenging undertaking that demands a multi-stakeholder approach focused on solutions”, said Lori Bell, the Head of the Evaluation Service at UNHCR. “As our evaluation shows, much valuable work has already been done in this area by UNHCR, with positive results for the people we serve. It is essential that we further build on this success and continue to invest and adapt in order to deepen our engagement with development partners for the benefit of people we serve.”
About the Evaluation Service:
UNHCR’s Evaluation Service, independent of the management function and reporting directly to the High Commissioner, provides evaluative evidence so that UNHCR can obtain an impartial reflection on its performance and results, generate lessons and find ways to improve.
To learn more: unhcr.org/evaluation-service
Report’s Executive Summary can be found here.
Media Contact: Assel Paju [email protected]