DHC welcome remarks – Working with organizations led by forcibly displaced and stateless women and girls

Your excellencies, distinguished guests, welcome to our high‑level session on “Working with organizations led by forcibly displaced and stateless women and girls.” Allow me first to thank the Governments of Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom for co‑convening this important event as co‑leads of the Gender Equality and Protection from GBV multi‑stakeholder pledge.

It is a privilege to welcome representatives of women‑led organizations who are making a tremendous difference in the lives of so many forcibly displaced and stateless people. I would also like to extend a warm word of thanks to our moderator, Adhieu Achuil. Through her organization, MonyQadow, she has shown how women‑led organizations can empower refugee women to access their rights, pursue education, and build livelihoods. Our session today also benefits from the presence of many other leaders who have travelled long distances to join the NGO Consultations and this linked event. Their daily work demonstrates extraordinary courage and resilience, and we are grateful for their insights and expertise.

We are further honoured by the presence of Ambassadors and distinguished officials from the Governments of Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as other valued partners from both the public and private sectors. Your participation today reflects a deep commitment to localization, gender equality, and meaningful participation.

Over the past three days, during the Global Consultations with NGOs, we have engaged in in‑depth discussions with partners on gender equality, inclusion, and solutions. These conversations culminated in recommendations that we wholeheartedly endorse. They call upon us to leverage the expertise and leadership of organizations led by forcibly displaced and stateless women and girls in all their diversity, by scaling up flexible and long‑term funding, creating equal partnerships, and fostering collective advocacy across the humanitarian, peace and development nexus. They remind us of the importance of ensuring that forcibly displaced women and girls sit at the table as equal partners in all humanitarian efforts. They urge us to jointly advocate for multi‑year funding, and for the prioritization of support to life‑saving GBV prevention and response. They ask us to strengthen partnerships with the private sector and with women‑led organizations, including those led by persons with disabilities and LGBTIQ+ people. Our gathering here today is already a step toward turning these recommendations into practice.

UNHCR has long worked with displaced communities to identify protection gaps, implement awareness‑raising initiatives, and establish accountability mechanisms that reinforce our commitment to “do no harm.” Listening to the voices of women and girls, in all their diversity, is a particularly essential part of this approach. Women‑led organizations are on the frontlines of humanitarian emergencies, delivering life‑saving assistance, and their expertise is absolutely key. As UNHCR, we stand ready to amplify their voices in venues like this one, where policies and priorities are shaped with governments and other supporters.

Nowhere is the importance of local actors more evident than in efforts to prevent and respond to gender‑based violence. Today, some 60 million women and girls are forcibly displaced or stateless. Evidence shows that at least one in five will face sexual violence during displacement – an underestimate, given the pervasive under‑reporting. More broadly, one in three women globally experience gender‑based violence in their lifetimes. UNHCR has sustained or increased funding to GBV programmes through the end of 2023, but doing so is becoming increasingly difficult in the face of rising needs and strained budgets. In Sudan, for example, the regional response plan is only ten percent funded – just twelve percent of the GBV requirements have been met.

The multi‑stakeholder pledge for Gender Equality and Protection from GBV, launched at the 2023 Global Refugee Forum and co‑led by Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, Chile, the Action Network on Forced Displacement and the 2023 Gender Refugee Experts, reflects a collective recognition that life‑saving GBV programmes require sustained support. To date, 113 pledges have been mobilized under this initiative. Among the financial commitments, 9.3 million US dollars in additional funding has been directed to refugee‑ and women‑led organizations, thanks to the support of Germany, the UK, and Sweden.

Ultimately, however, the answer to the multitude of crises we face today is peace – an end to conflicts that tear communities apart. And in finding those solutions, women and girls must be at the centre. Today is an opportunity to listen directly to women who have endured displacement and statelessness, and who, despite these challenges, have persevered in creating systems of support for their communities. For all of us present, it is also an opportunity to reflect and to commit to actions that will better support their work.

I want to thank you for your commitment to these goals, and for your participation today. With that, it is my honour to now invite the Ambassadors of Germany and Australia to deliver their opening remarks.