named ‘fundraising’ as one of the top challenges they face in working on statelessness. While most community groups across all fields – particularly those operating in hostile environments – face significant financial challenges, there are structural issues which underpin the financial exclusion of stateless-led groups, further disadvantaging them. For example, for many such groups, financial exclusion stems not only from the fact that they cannot register their organisations and comply with state regulations, but that the individuals themselves are undocumented, and can even be criminalised for their lack of legal status. Barring a few notable exceptions, statelessness has not been fully understood or prioritised by the donor community. It remains a peripheral issue, which often falls between the gaps of more established donor priorities. Statelessness, though, intersects with many (if not all) the biggest global challenges we face including development, migration, discrimination, democracy and the rule of law, peace and conflict, women’s rights, child’s right and climate justice. As such, statelessness pervades and further exacerbates many of the challenges that donors rightly prioritise. It is a cross-cutting issue, which must be factored in when addressing other global challenges. It is also a challenge and field in its own right, with its own expertise, dedicated advocacy and activism, which must be supported. The CESF model with its collaborative peer structure and flexible modality meant that projects were able to develop at the local level and programme work could be adapted as necessary. This combined with the supportive nature of the Consortium which allowed for peer-to-peer learning and knowledge exchange paved the way for a successful programme which significant impact at the local level as detailed in the three ‘Consortium Hero’ chapters of this report. The CESF model highlighted how a relatively small amount of money can go a very long way, examples of this can be found across the CESF projects. If this could be achieved in a time-bound emergency response, the potential for impact through supporting such groups with long-term, sustainable funding - unrestricted funds and more autonomy and power to set their own agenda – will be all the greater. As articulated in the CESF Independent Evaluation Report: “ The overarching sentiment throughout the evaluation was that the CESF was a step towards addressing the overlooking of statelessness as an issue to fund. It moved in that direction both directly through its implementation, as well as in its opening up of wider donor discussions.” The CESF was a time bound initiative put in place to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it ultimately taught us that urgent and concerted action is needed to promote the right to nationality, protect the rights of stateless people and address the root causes of statelessness at all times, be they of relative stability, or of crisis. The lack of mainstream recognition of the benefit of supporting the statelessness field in general and to stateless led organisations and stateless individuals in particular, and the absence of dedicated avenues to enable donors to meaningfully contribute to the work of stateless led and community groups is of significant concern. Promoting the right to nationality, protecting the rights of stateless people and addressing the root causes of statelessness in a sustainable and impactful way over the long-term, will only be possible with the strategic and long-term support and solidarity of the donor community. FOLLOWING THE ROADMAP FOR CHANGE A key outcome of the Consortium’s work was to inform the co-design the Roadmap for Change for resolving and addressing the structural discrimination and exclusion of stateless people. Building on the work of partners, the Roadmap provides a practical 3-step framework to inform and guide states, organisations and institutions to develop and implement inclusive responses by: 1. 2. 3. Checking for Institutional Blind-Spots Including, Consulting & Engaging in Dialogue Building Back Better The Roadmap provides a way forward in identifying and addressing fundamental structural and systemic barriers faced by stateless populations, ensuring they are centred in all initiatives. The Roadmap for Change operates in several unique ways. Firstly, it provides a critical framework to conceptualise the historic and root causes, challenges and barriers confronting stateless populations to ensure their right to a nationality and the rights flowing from this. As a practical tool, the Roadmap helps to guide and inspire dialogue and to shape and develop strategies, approaches and interventions to address the systemic exclusion, deprivation, discrimination and marginalisation of communities. And lastly, it operates as a modus operandi to inform practical ways of working with affected communities and key stakeholders. In Bangladesh, for example, the Roadmap informed the strategic planning process of an emerging Think Tank, while in Central Asia it was integrated into advocacy messaging. Reflecting on how the Roadmap helped target advocacy efforts in India, Consortium member DAJI said: “The roadmap was translated into local languages for dissemination and our advocacy focused on institutional blind spots in the legal architecture of citizenship to identify where we need to put energies to address them”. In Nepal the Roadmap provided a starting point to critical conversations to help shape CAPN’s work: “During our strategic planning meeting, we had a long conversation based on the ‘Roadmap for Change’. It was important to check the blind spots of the institution and the individuals leading the organization. As a newly registered organization the roadmap provided a foundation for us to begin our conversation. We also discussed how we can further strengthen the participation of other stateless persons in the country in our work”. Roadmap Call to Action It is critical that the work ahead to catalyse action to address the structural and systemic barriers faced by stateless people embeds and expands the use of the Roadmap by multiple stakeholders: governments, political parties, professional bodies, NHRIs, regional organisations, UN actors, diplomats, donors, international organisations, NGOs, grassroots groups, the media and concerned members of the general public. The starting point is a belief that change is within our grasp, and can be achieved through creative, committed and courageous action. Together we can and must address the structural discrimination underlying statelessness and protect the rights of stateless people and their right to a nationality. 36