16 organisations can have on progress towards ending statelessness. Nevertheless, many of these initiatives have been time-bound or limited in geographic scope, often implemented as temporary measures rather than embedded within domestic legal or policy frameworks. Sometimes, new measures have been implemented without adequate risk assessments or input from those with lived or learned expertise to ensure their accessibility and sustainability. As such their overall impact has been limited in some cases, and there is a risk that remaining gaps in law and policy frameworks, combined with the barriers highlighted above, mean that new cases are still emerging daily for which solutions are lacking. A key challenge is the lack of systematic, official identification and outreach mechanisms to identify stateless people or people at risk of statelessness who are not yet known to authorities. While civil society organisations have been indispensable in filling this gap, regularly identifying new cases through community outreach, legal support, and advocacy, their capacity is constrained by limited funding and resources. The absence of coordinated public-sector-led programmes means that many affected individuals remain unidentified and there is an over-reliance on civil society. Ad hoc efforts such as ‘mobile registration units’ operating among Roma communities in some Beneficiaries illustrate the value of proactive measures but also underscore the importance of embedding such initiatives within longterm, institutional frameworks to ensure sustained impact. Without stronger leadership and resourcing, the reliance on NGOs alone will not be enough to achieve the goal of ending statelessness. Moreover, barriers to civil registration remain a core obstacle to reducing statelessness. Across the region, a combination of legal, administrative, and practical hurdles continues to impede the subsequent registration of people who remain outside official civil registers, particularly for affected members of Roma communities. For example, the requirement for adults to provide proof of parentage, discretionary or inconsistent application of rules at the municipal level, and limited institutional flexibility have all been identified as contributing to exclusion from civil registries across the region. These challenges are often compounded by socioeconomic factors, antigypsyism, geographic isolation, and mistrust of authorities, making it difficult for affected individuals to secure civil documentation. Interventions designed to address these issues have often been temporary or narrowly targeted, rather than focusing on the systemic change needed to ensure universal access to civil registration and an end to statelessness. Compounding these issues, access to free legal aid for civil registration and citizenship related procedures remains inconsistent and is often limited across the region. Even when domestic law formally guarantees publicly funded legal aid, access in practice may depend on lawful residence or proof of identity. These requirements often exclude people seeking assistance to resolve their documentation or citizenship status. In some cases, there is also a shortage of qualified or expert providers. Civil society together with UNHCR and other actors have provided training for officials, lawyers, and judiciary in the past, but this resource and expertise is under threat due to funding cuts. Affected individuals often rely on the invaluable support of NGOs for legal assistance, which, although instrumental in reducing statelessness over recent years, is being significantly impacted by funding cuts and resource constraints in the current context. The absence of public-funded legal aid or civil society support will leave many exposed to prolonged bureaucratic delays and exclusion.