With UN partners, there is the view that, as the mandated agency, UNHCR should not only take the lead on statelessness, but also do the majority of the work. An important finding based on the Evaluation Team’s analysis from interviews is that the #IBelong Campaign has been a catalyst for change within UNHCR. Some of these changes include: ➢ The need to move toward a more “campaign” or “advocacy” model, requiring stronger engagement with governments and civil society as highlighted by the informant in Box 23. ➢ Placing greater emphasis on global coordination, such through the Global Compact on Refugee structure25, based on shared responsibility, funding, and expertise (such as UNICEF working on birth registration, UN Women working on gender discrimination in the law, UNFPA working on national population censuses and IOM on migration). ➢ The need for seed funding for specific projects. ➢ The need to move from doing statelessness training as a one-off activity to an approach where learning is more integrated into the work on a day-to-day basis. ➢ The need to make the UNHCR Bureaus more accountable on statelessness and make sure statelessness is not lost during regionalization. ➢ The need to strategically engage with the U.S. and other donor countries for diplomatic support, as in the Dominican Republic. ➢ The continued need to raise public awareness on statelessness and to highlight statelessness activists at the regional and country level. Box 24: Linking with Diplomacy “Ideally, we could link the Under Secretary of Political Affairs and the US Ambassador to push these issues in each of the countries where it is coming up, or in his or her discussions with other ambassadors at a national level…[We need to] take it from a global issue [to a national issue], for which I think we have dedicated insufficient attention. We need to get very targeted on the main 78 countries [where statelessness is an issue].” Box 23: Advocacy Initiatives Limited “There has been more of a focus [on broad statelessness advocacy], largely due to resources of the #IBelong Campaign for the global-level [advocacy strategy] rather than a country-level strategy… When it comes down to Campaign activities that are more around advocacy, changing the perspective of decision-makers, building political will, that's a different [kind of advocacy] and there isn't a great deal of experience with this [at UNHCR] …It's quite different than either fundraising campaigns, for which we have quite good capacity and understanding of how to do that. The #IBelong Campaign has helped UNHCR better understand how to equip itself to fulfill its statelessness mandate and how to engage better with partners. Interviews with senior UNHCR leadership recognized the need for much more strategic diplomatic coordination with the U.S. The lack of progress on Action 1, especially, puts a sharp focus on the need for more robust, strategic, and bilateral high-level diplomacy to effect change, especially in contexts where political will is lacking, as suggested by one UNHCR staff in an interview (see Box 24). Perspectives on the High-Level Segment. Among the countries reviewed for this evaluation, only Thailand participated in the HLS and made pledges. Although both the Dominican Republic and Nepal sent delegations, neither made any pledges. Statelessness is a highly sensitive issue in both countries and the Dominican Republic has consistently emphasized that there are no stateless persons in the country. The attendance of both countries was notable. Feedback from a PRM staff member who attended the HLS noted a bit of friendly competition between those who attended: “Almost like a bit of competition I saw it at the HLS. There was a group who were watching a video that was highlighting some legislation and then in a bilateral I overheard them talking about how incredible it was and I could hear them saying how they could do that too... It was amazing.” Overall, the HLS was considered a major success by UNHCR staff, PRM and others who were aware of it, although the majority of countries did not pledge, including the majority of countries hosting major 25 The Global Refugee Forum is a worldwide framework to achieve solutions for refugees, displaced persons and stateless populations for more information see UNHCR - The Global Compact on Refugees 18