MYANMAR Context and existing response Currently UNHCR reports that there are 1,090,000 stateless people in Rakhine State, including those reported in an IDP or IDP-like situation, but the total size of the stateless population across the country is likely to be larger. UNHCR has a nation-wide focus on statelessness and as such continues to provide capacity-building for government counterparts, as well as lawyers and civil society organizations across the country. UNHCR continues its statelessness monitoring in Rakhine State to identify protection incidents, conduct community consultations and analyse trends. In central Rakhine State, UNHCR has been transitioning from an IDP-focused engagement towards a statelessness focus, aligned with the approach in northern Rakhine. While the main focus is on protection monitoring and advocacy, UNHCR continues providing limited and targeted material assistance and livelihoods support, and to promote peaceful coexistence and social interaction. Resources are essential to scale up efforts to engage with a broad range of actors within the Government, civil society and international organizations, with the aim of full implementation of the existing legal framework and incremental steps towards resolving the situation. The promotion of solutions for the population of concern has to be carefully adjusted to the immediate context of Rakhine State, where opportunities and approaches to promoting solutions need to be regularly reassessed and adjusted to take into account developments on the ground. Strategy and partnerships The nationwide focus of the UN and a group of diplomatic missions in Myanmar to resolve statelessness includes advocating for the highest level of protection for stateless people until they acquire nationality, with the focus on the incremental lifting of those restrictions limiting dignified life and the integration of stateless communities within society. Efforts will be made to strengthen and harmonize protection monitoring and profiling to provide analytical reports that can inform advocacy at national and international levels. Promoting greater understanding amongst leaders, confidence building between communities, improving development in Rakhine State, building the awareness and capacity of civil society and the justice sector, are key elements of the strategy. Promoting reform of the nationality law for it to be in line with Myanmar’s international obligations and to eradicate statelessness in the long term, and at the same time, efforts to ensure that stateless people have access to citizenship and the rights that they are entitled to under the current legislation, remain central components of UNHCR’s approach. Finally, supporting birth registration activities, in particular in the context of the Ministerial Declaration and accompanying Regional Action Framework on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Asia and the Pacific region, will also be essential for enhancing protection of stateless people and to prevent new cases of statelessness. Vision for 2019     Thousands of stateless children obtain birth certificates. Improved access to legal assistance and legal remedies by stateless persons. Improved quantitative and qualitative data on statelessness country-wide. Concrete steps taken towards a nationality law reform. 24