UNHCR commitments at the World Humanitarian Summit

The first World Humanitarian Summit on 23-24 May 2016 in Istanbul convened 9000 participants from 173 Member States, including 55 Heads of State and Government, hundreds of private sector representatives, and thousands of people from civil society and nongovernmental organizations, in Istanbul, Turkey.

The following are UNHCR commitments at the World Humanitarian Summit [2016]:

UPHOLD THE NORMS THAT SAFEGUARD HUMANITY

Centrality of protection

• UNHCR commits to drive inter-agency efforts to place protection at the centre of humanitarian action and ensure that the needs and capacities of people in crisis guide our collective actions to enhance protection and find solutions.
• UNHCR commits to a predictable engagement in situations of internal displacement, subject to resources being made available by the international community. Statelessness
• UNHCR commits to championing an end to statelessness by 2024 (the #IBelong Campaign).
• UNHCR commits to supporting States in their efforts to end statelessness, including by providing technical advice and assistance to facilitate accession to the statelessness conventions and the reform of nationality laws to ensure consistency with international standards designed to prevent and reduce statelessness.

LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND: A COMMITMENT TO ADDRESS FORCED DISPLACEMENT

Upholding refugee law

• UNHCR commits to continue to fulfil its core task of ensuring international protection and assistance and seeking permanent solutions for refugees and other persons of its concern, working in close cooperation with States, relevant organizations and other actors.
• UNHCR commits to ensure respect for international refugee law and protection principles through its supervisory responsibility in relation to relevant international instruments, including through leading and contributing to the progressive development of international, regional and national refugee law and to more effective implementation of legal standards in practice.

Humanitarian-development nexus

• UNHCR commits to further developing its dialogue and cooperation with Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to facilitate their active engagement in situations of forced displacement where their technical and financial comparative advantages can contribute to improved socio-economic outcomes for refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and affected host communities.
• UNHCR commits to reinforcing the Solutions Alliance as a central platform for collaborative action in support of solutions to conflict-induced displacement and to do so by engaging in relevant national groups.
• UNHCR commits to a sustained partnership with entities that wish to work collaboratively in situations of forced displacement based on the Wilton Park Principles: working through national and local systems; supporting host communities and building social cohesion; enabling economic participation and growth; providing impactful and innovative financing and improving the data and evidence base.
• UNHCR commits to pursuing the institutional changes needed to facilitate multiyear protection and solutions strategies and programming in partnership with humanitarian and development actors, as well as to building a robust capacity to engage effectively with development actors.
• UNHCR commits to support efforts that enable economic participation of forcibly displaced persons and access to finance, in collaboration with partners, thereby contributing to their self-reliance, preparedness for solutions and also to poverty reduction and economic growth.

Data and evidence

• UNHCR commits to strengthening its analytical framework and data collection systems to provide data and information, subject to a robust and effective framework for data privacy, in a standardized, structured manner so that it is actionable by others and by UNHCR, informs protection and programme decisions, measures impact and tracks interventions.
• UNHCR commits to working with development organizations, research institutions, and other partners to leverage their expertise in strengthening existing data collection efforts and to build the evidence base of the economic impact of refugees on host economies through active engagement in new studies.

Education

• UNHCR will emphasize the goals of the 2030 Agenda and specifically SDG4 to achieve the inclusion of forcibly displaced persons in national education systems and plans, with a focus on leveraging partnerships and resources for inclusive, equitable and quality education.
• UNHCR will continue to support Education Cannot Wait – A Fund for Education in Emergencies and the Global Partnership for Education to support sustainable and inclusive education programmes in long-standing forced displacement crises, which face significant funding constraints after the initial emergency phase.

Disability

• UNHCR will contribute to the development and implementation of global guidelines on inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action.
• UNHCR will strengthen partnership with organizations of persons with disabilities.

WOMEN AND GIRLS: CATALYSING ACTION TO ACHIEVE GENDER EQUALITY

Gender equality

• UNHCR commits to ensuring equal (50 per cent) and meaningful participation of women and adolescent girls in all decision-making processes and structures in forced displacement contexts by 2020.

Sexual and gender-based violence

• UNHCR commits to providing capacity building and/or other support to 10 civil society and/or Member State partners to accelerate their ability to sign on to the Call to Action by 2017.
• UNHCR commits to fully implementing the IASC GBV Guidelines by 2018.

Public Health

• UNHCR commits to continue and tailor to crisis settings our support to the implementation of the targets for the 2030 Agenda on maternal, newborn and adolescent health to ensure safe delivery, emergency obstetric, ante natal and post-natal services in crisis settings, improved access to information, voluntary family planning, and basic items for safe delivery and sanitary supplies, necessary medical and psychological services for SGBV survivors as well as improved capacity of health systems and workers with immediate effect.
• UNHCR commits to implementing comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services as soon as possible after an emergency, by 2017.

CHANGING PEOPLE’S LIVES: FROM DELIVERING AID TO ENDING NEED

Emergency preparedness

• UNHCR commits to facilitating faster, more efficient and accountable emergency response that is founded upon collaborative analysis and supports local and national actors and communities, through the prioritization of emergency preparedness actions.

Urban

• UNHCR commits to the Policy Commitments under the Urban Crisis Charter developed by the Global Alliance for Urban Crisis. UNHCR will advocate for the principles outlined in the Charter and aim to transform them into action. UNHCR will also contribute to the Action Plan of the Global Alliance in collaboration with partners.

Health

• UNHCR commits to enabling equitable and sustainable access to adequate health services for refugees by:
  * Advocating for the removal of mandatory disease screening and testing due to status; this includes HIV testing for refugees and asylum-seekers.
  * Working in a multi-sectoral fashion with partners during the contingency and response phases to ensure an integrated response to the provision of assistance to refugees so as to reduce dependency and improve sustainability, as well as to improve the capacity of national health systems. UNHCR will advocate for refugees and other displaced persons to be included in national social protection mechanisms.
  * Advocating with other UN agencies and other organizations for the creation of a health travel passport that allows for continuity of care for refugees and other displaced persons, whenever feasible, while always ensuring medical confidentiality and protection concerns.

Innovation

• UNHCR commits to support the Global Humanitarian Lab (GHL) to promote bottom-up innovation and increase collaboration across the humanitarian sector and partners in order to incubate, make and accelerate innovation to meet and reduce humanitarian needs, in particular those of forcibly displaced persons.
• UNHCR supports the Global Alliance for Humanitarian Innovation (GAHI) to accelerate transformative improvements for humanitarian action by enabling and creating a shared space for the development, use, and scaling-up of innovative tools, approaches, and partnerships, for the global community to more effectively meet humanitarian needs.

FINANCING: INVESTING IN HUMANITY

Cash-based programming

• UNHCR commits to scale up cash assistance where appropriate, with the aim to double the amount of funds programmed for cash-based interventions in aid delivery by the end of 2020. UNHCR has developed and will continue to enhance its internal capacity and evidence base to identify the best delivery models with maximum costs effectiveness and impact, while mitigating the risks and ensuring coordination with other actors.

Empowering national and local humanitarian action

• UNHCR commits to expand its investment in institutional capacity building of national partners, and to support effective emergency preparedness and response by engaging proactively with first responders at the local level as leaders and equal partners and fostering their participation in the coordination mechanisms.
• UNHCR commits to minimize the links in the humanitarian funding chain and transfer at least 25 per cent of its programme expenditures to the national first responders by the end of 2020.

Greater efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability

• UNHCR subscribes to the collective commitments under the Grand Bargain, including inter alia:
  * To publish open data allowing traceability of donors’ funding throughout the transaction chain;
  * To use technology and innovation, including digital platforms, green technology and biometrics to reduce the costs of delivering assistance;
  * To undertake coordinated joint needs assessment and continue sharing evidence-based needs assessment data;
  * To continue to strengthen the engagement with and accountability to the communities affected by crises;
  * To harmonize and simplify reporting requirements by the end of 2018.
• UNHCR has undergone through a decade of reforms to reduce the share of management costs and to maximize the proportion of humanitarian funding for direct assistance to beneficiaries. UNHCR commits to further reduce the costs of procurement and logistics by 10 per cent by the end of 2020 through the use of shared services with partner agencies.
• UNHCR commits to expand the use of biometrics for refugee registration to a total of 75 country operations in order to enhance the protection of refugees by maintaining their key identity features and to strengthen the integrity of aid delivery.

UNHCR commitments at the World Humanitarian Summit