U.S. high-level bilateral diplomacy related to PRM’s mandate, but these were mostly focused on Tibetan refugees, who are also stateless. Interviewees shared about a congressional delegation to Nepal, through which the issue of legal identity for women was raised. In discussions on using high-level diplomacy to advocate for nationality solutions for stateless populations, several informants emphasized that the sensitivity surrounding statelessness translated into a higher “spending of political capital” for Ambassadors and high-ranking FSOs. When “clear demand signals” are coming from Washington to lobby for solutions for stateless populations, Ambassadors and diplomats are more likely to raise the issue consistently even when there is a higher cost of political capital. When there are no clear demand signals to lobby for solutions, Ambassadors and diplomats must assess the political capital they are willing to spend against other priorities. The Dominican Republic is an example of more effective diplomacy, as interviewees cited that while the demand signals from Washington were not as strong in later years, there was sufficient advocacy within the Embassy that the Embassy Political Officers and Ambassador chose to continue to prioritize focusing on statelessness in high-level diplomacy. The focus of the diplomacy centered on supporting UNHCR’s legal assistance work for Dominicans of Haitian descent with existing nationality solutions and legal pathways towards nationality confirmation or naturalization. Informants shared that diplomacy focused on advocating for those without a nationality solution required a higher level of political capital than they were willing to spend. This led to less of a focus on this issue and a greater emphasis on supporting the process to confirm or naturalize Dominicans of Haitian descent considered at-risk of statelessness, as it was less controversial and real results could be seen. Bilateral working level. Working-level bilateral diplomacy is a routine part of the RefCoords job, requiring them to engage bilaterally with government counterparts. In the conversations held with RefCoords, they said they routinely offered diplomatic support to UNHCR. In Thailand, the RefCoord attends the Statelessness Working Group and is planning to meet with government counterparts to discuss statelessness in 2021, a good example of synergy between UNHCR and PRM at the country level. One RefCoord reported that UNHCR asked the U.S. to consider advocating with various states and regional bodies on protection issues, including statelessness. Although she felt it in her power to do this, she felt the need to tie advocacy on statelessness to existing country and regional strategies established by PRM. The RefCoord survey and FGD did note that they could use greater guidance from PRM Washington on the “tools available to them” to advocate with country governments. There was a perception that PRM Washington focused a lot on coordination on statelessness at the global level and not as strongly on country or regional strategies. In the Dominican Republic, there is good evidence that coordination between UNHCR and the Political Officer on working-level diplomacy bore fruit. UNHCR kept the Political Officer apprised of the number of cases submitted for review to the government. In turn, the Political Officer raised and followed up on these cases in the various interactions with the government at the working level. 5.1.5 Mainstreaming and coordination efforts in USG Within DOS. Within PRM, statelessness policy sits within PRP, which has the responsibility to coordinate the strategy on statelessness through other PRM offices, particularly the regional assistance offices and the Office of Multilateral Coordination and External Relations. The regional assistance offices monitor the regional portfolio and include statelessness in regional strategy decision documents. As one interviewee stated, “because Program Officers are going out there on field visits, it needs to be an issue they’re looking at as well.” Statelessness is a major topic of PRM communications and strategy in the Dominican Republic. PRM’s East Asia Regional Strategy has regional objectives related to statelessness and regularly mentions the stateless Rohingya population in Burma. The Strategy for South Asia (covering Nepal, India, and Sri Lanka) highlighted each year the Women’s Nationality Initiative country strategy for Nepal, which included diplomatic and multilateral engagement, building the capacity of local NGOs to advocate for change and a public awareness campaign.21 21 For more information see compilation of statelessness excerpts from Nepal PPRCs (FY14-FY21) 13