DHC talking points and briefing notes: Stanford event brief

Keynote speech

Good afternoon, it is an immense honor to speak here at Stanford University, a world-renowned institution at the forefront of innovation, research, and impact.

To be here today, engaging with the Stanford Immigration Policy Lab and the Stanford King Center for Global Development, is both a privilege and an exciting opportunity for collaboration.

These centers have long been leaders in advancing our understanding of immigration policy and global development. We are also at a critical juncture where technology has the power to bridge gaps, create opportunities, and drive the inclusion of the most vulnerable populations into a global digital society.

Digital Inclusion:

In the past decade, we’ve seen firsthand how access to digital tools and services can transform lives.

For refugees, being digitally connected is no longer a luxury—it is a lifeline. It enables them to access education, communicate with loved ones, find work, and engage with essential services. Yet, we know that digital inequality persists.

Many displaced people are still left behind due to lack of access, affordability, or the skills required to navigate this digital world.

UNHCR’s Digital Transformation Strategy aims to address these gaps, ensuring equitable access to technology, digital skills, and services for all the communities we serve. The future we envision is one where every refugee and stateless person has the opportunity to fully participate in the digital economy and society, whether it’s through education, employment, or the safe exercise of their rights online.

This transformation is not just about integrating digital tools into our daily operations. It’s about fundamentally changing the way we serve and engage with the people in need. UNHCR is committed to using digital services to strengthen protection, enhance accountability, and increase the self-reliance of refugees.

The development of digital platforms—like the Digital Gateway, which provides a one-stop-shop for refugee services—exemplifies this shift. Refugees can now access critical services in a secure, efficient, and personalized way, minimizing the barriers that have historically impeded their access. Furthermore, Digital Protection is a crosscutting area for our digital transformation strategy, and speaks to our core mandate as a protection agency.

Digital Inclusion: A Vision for Global Connectivity: At the heart of UNHCR’s digital inclusion strategy lies the Connectivity for Refugees initiative, which embodies a powerful vision: to ensure that every refugee, regardless of where they are, has access to the digital world.

Digital connectivity is no longer a luxury—it is an essential tool for survival, resilience, and growth. It allows refugees to stay connected with their families, access life-saving information, pursue education, and participate in the digital economy.

Yet, the reality is that millions of displaced people still face barriers to digital inclusion. They are excluded by limited infrastructure, high costs, and the absence of digital literacy. The Connectivity for Refugees initiative, launched in collaboration with private and public sector partners, aims to overcome these barriers and close the digital divide. We are working to ensure that refugees in camps, rural areas, and urban environments have affordable, reliable, and secure internet access.

Our vision is a future where every displaced person is connected, where digital tools empower them to access services, contribute to their communities, and rebuild their lives with dignity.

As we look to the future, artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven technologies are playing a pivotal role in transforming how UNHCR operates. With the scale of refugee crises growing, AI helps us anticipate needs, optimize resource allocation, and respond to emergencies more swiftly.

AI tools enhance refugee registration, streamline service delivery, and help us design more effective cash-based assistance programs.

Furthermore, data analytics empowers us to make better-informed decisions. We can now analyze trends in displacement, predict population movements, and fine-tune our strategies in real-time. This ensures that every action we take is rooted in evidence, transparency, and accountability, allowing us to serve those in need with greater precision.

This is where Stanford’s expertise can be invaluable. With your leading-edge research in AI, data science, and policy, there are exciting opportunities to collaborate on how these technologies can address the most pressing humanitarian challenges. The work being done at the Stanford Immigration Policy Lab—using evidence to shape migration and refugee policies—aligns perfectly with our goals of using data to transform our responses and design better systems for refugee protection.

The UNHCR Innovation team has become a driving force behind empowering refugee communities to develop and implement solutions to their own challenges. Through innovation funds, we are enabling localized projects that tackle issues from improving digital literacy to building new technological solutions. These funds allow refugee-led and community-based organizations to co-create, ensuring that innovations are grounded in the real needs of the people they serve.

This approach to innovation reflects the values of Stanford University—fostering creativity, empowering individuals, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. By working together, we can accelerate localized innovations that transform how services are delivered in refugee settings.

The Stanford King Center for Global Development plays a critical role here. Its mission to address poverty and inequality aligns with UNHCR’s goal of ensuring that no one, especially refugees, is left behind in the digital age. We believe that innovation is not just a tool for efficiency, but a way to empower individuals and create sustainable, localized solutions.

Our efforts are aligned with the broader goals of the UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, particularly the UN Digital Compact. This initiative sets the framework for ensuring that digital spaces are safe, inclusive, and respectful of human rights. The Global Digital Compact presents opportunities to provide displaced people with equitable access to connectivity, digital technologies, and skills, enabling them to access information, education and employment opportunities, and to participate more fully in their host societies, ultimately promoting their self-reliance and integration. Equally importantly, it also calls for collaboration across all sectors – including States and the private sector – to ensure that human rights are protected online as well as offline. So that vulnerable communities such as the forcibly displaced and stateless can navigate safely without fear of online activity that can put them at risk of offline harm.

Digital transformation is a global issue, and it requires strong cooperation across sectors—governments, private companies, civil society, and international organizations. The UN Digital Compact provides the guiding principles to create inclusive digital environments where all people, including the displaced, can thrive. We can’t do this alone. Research plays an indispensable role in driving innovation, and it is institutions like Stanford that fuel the knowledge and evidence necessary for meaningful change. Your Immigration Policy Lab is already producing critical research that influences policy on displacement and migration, and we look forward to deepening our partnership to expand the scope of this work to ensure that refugees are part of the digital future.

Finally, I cannot emphasize enough what an honor it is to speak at Stanford University. This institution has been at the forefront of global innovation, and the work being done here is shaping the future—not just in technology, but in how we approach global challenges like displacement and inequality.

We are privileged to have the opportunity to work with Stanford, to harness the expertise of your faculty, students, and researchers, and to collaborate on innovative solutions that address the complex challenges faced by refugees and displaced people worldwide. Together, we can ensure that innovation and technology are not just tools, but pathways to dignity, inclusion, and empowerment for the world’s most vulnerable populations.

In closing, UNHCR’s journey in digital transformation, innovation, and data-driven solutions is only just beginning. The potential for technology to empower refugees is immense, but it requires strong partnerships to unlock. I call on all of you—Stanford’s faculty, researchers, students, and partners—to join us in creating a future where no one is left behind in the digital age.

Together, we can ensure that technology becomes a force for good, transforming lives and providing refugees with the tools they need to rebuild and thrive.