5.1.7 The #IBelong Campaign Perspectives on the #IBelong Campaign to end statelessness. There are mixed results from six years of implementation of the #IBelong Campaign, but most informants agree that it increased discussions on statelessness and raised awareness, particularly at the global level (see Box 20). Informants spoke of, “having put statelessness back on the map,” “increased the cooperation with human rights” and creating “better links with development and conflict.” Box 20: #IBelong Succeeds in Awareness "I think it's absolutely uncontroversial to say that the kind of the global visibility that the statelessness issue has now, is just at another level when compared to what the visibility was in 2014. It is not only because of the #IBelong Campaign, but it is largely because of the #IBelong Campaign. And I think it's really important to acknowledge that." Feedback from informants, including high level UNHCR staff, was that the #IBelong Campaign was overly ambitious in its goal to end statelessness within 10 years. A vast majority (84 percent) of informants who commented on the #IBelong Campaign indicated that it required changes in strategy or structure to turn awareness-raising into action. UNHCR plans to focus more attention on advocacy at the regional- and national-level between now and the end of the campaign. Informants rated certain activities organized as part of the #IBelong Campaign, such as giving the Nansen Refugee Award to a stateless activist in 2019, as highly effective. Stakeholders from UN agencies spoke about increased coordination and mainstreaming in global reports. One UN staff member said, “It has led to the UN Secretary General’s developing global guidance on statelessness which I now use to develop my talking points.” Statelessness has been mentioned in key global declarations, such as the 2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants and the 2018 Global Compact on Refugees. However, multiple informants stressed that statelessness is barely mentioned within the Global Compact on Refugees and expressed concerns that it will get lost within the Global Compact structure. The strongest critics of the #IBelong Campaign and GAP are UNHCR Box 21: Moving beyond Legal staff, which is likely because CSOs and UN partners are less aware of Guidance “I think the hard part is really the #IBelong Campaign and GAP. The collective view from within reorienting the work gradually UNHCR is that there is a lack of understanding of what statelessness [beyond legal guidance] or creating programming costs, which has made it difficult to project budgets, and more enabling spaces beyond their a lack of sufficient funding for statelessness activities. [statelessness staff’s] own comfort zone. They are comfortable with According to several informants, the way UNHCR communicates on international standards, frameworks, statelessness is legalistic, which is one way of approaching the issue international fora, etc.” but not comprehensive, as highlighted by one individual in Box 21. However, they are also directed toward governments and thus focus heavily on legal reform and procedural changes. The impression from some informants is that there needs to be a shift toward civil society and a focus on movement building, public awareness raising,24 addressing systemic racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination, the empowerment of stateless persons and other ways of making progress on statelessness. Box 22: UNHCR Cannot Do It Alone “It's really unfair to expect UNHCR to be able to do all of this. It goes far beyond their mandate…A significant part of [the issue] is very much centered within UNHCR's mandate and UNHCR's expertise, but significant parts are outside of that. Expecting UNHCR to drive things forward with others playing supporting roles -- I don't think it's realistic.” Many agreed that multilateral coordination was difficult but saw it as critical for working with governments, like Nepal or the Dominican Republic, where statelessness raises sensitive issues of national identity. UNHCR alone cannot address this complex issue. Informants felt that coordination on statelessness is important to making progress; however, there is not enough coordination between UN agencies working jointly on statelessness (see Box 22). 24 To raise awareness, the #IBelong Campaign has employed high-profile celebrities through the UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Program. For example, see the keynote event between actress Cate Blanchett and stateless activist Maha Mamo at the High-Level Segment: https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/5dd3b0647.pdf. The effectiveness of the use of the Goodwill Ambassador program by the #IBelong Campaign was not looked at by this evaluation. 17