EC/66/SC/CRP.11 31. NGOs around the world play a crucial role in addressing statelessness through advocacy, awareness raising, legal aid and strategic litigation. As part of its broader strategy to build global and regional alliances, the Office has since 2012 brought together an increasing number of NGOs to an annual retreat to develop joint strategies to address statelessness. In 2014, 28 NGOs participated. The European Network on Statelessness emerged as a major actor in Europe and NGOs in the Americas joined to create the Americas Network on Nationality and Statelessness. There was also increased coordination between civil society organizations in Africa. 32. Some 300 participants from over 70 countries attended the First Global Forum on Statelessness, which was held in September 2014 at the Peace Palace in The Hague, The Netherlands. Co-organized by UNHCR and the Statelessness Programme of Tilburg University, the Forum provided an unprecedented opportunity for a wide range of actors to meet and share their experiences, research and ideas on statelessness. 33. Further evidence of joint efforts to address statelessness is the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights launched in June 2014 by a coalition of NGOs supported by UNHCR and UN Women, which aims at removing gender discrimination from nationality laws. In addition, in February 2015, UNHCR together with UN Women and OHCHR organised a High-Level Side Event on Equal Nationality Rights at the Commission on the Status of Women in New York. 34. UNHCR and the Inter-Parliamentary Union published a second edition of Nationality and Statelessness: Handbook for Parliamentarians which provides guidance on action that can be taken by parliamentarians and information on contemporary statelessness issues, developments in international law and good practice examples. III. Resources 35. The Office continued to enhance its response to statelessness in line with its mandate and Executive Committee Conclusions. There was a continued increase in the number of UNHCR operations which set objectives relating to statelessness, from 60 operations in 2012 to 64 in 2015. The statelessness budget, pillar II in UNHCR’s budget structure, remained in the range of USD 67-69.5 million in 2014 and 2015, a decrease from USD79.2 in 2013. In contrast, actual expenditure under pillar II remained largely stable: USD36 million in 2013 and USD35.9 in 2014. 36. The five dedicated regional statelessness posts filled in 2012 and 2013 significantly bolstered UNHCR’s capacity to address statelessness. Two additional regional positions covering Central and West Asia and Southern Africa were created through the High Commissioner’s Capacity Building Initiative in 2014. In addition, dedicated statelessness positions were created in Myanmar and Lebanon and statelessness officers were deployed to nine countries under the specialized roster of the Surge Protection Capacity Project during the reporting period. IV. Conclusion and Outlook 37. UNHCR achieved significant progress on statelessness during the past two years. The call to end statelessness by 2024 resonated widely in the months following the launch of the #Ibelong Campaign. Early indications are that the Campaign is becoming a rallying point for a number of “champion” governments and for civil society. UNHCR’s capacity to undertake targeted advocacy and to deliver technical advice to governments increased as new regional posts were filled. The commitment of a growing number of governments to tackle the issue was highlighted by the number of accessions to the statelessness 8