EC/68/SC/CRP.13 research relating to statelessness which Melbourne University and UNHCR co-hosted in January 2016, UNHCR provided technical assistance to the university to create a new Centre devoted to study of statelessness. F. Improving quantitative and qualitative data on statelessness 19. During the reporting period, UNHCR undertook surveys to better understand the views of stateless children and youth through a series of participatory consultations in seven countries around the world. Their testimonies were presented in two Campaign publications: “I am here, IBelong: The urgent need to end childhood statelessness”8 and “I’MVISIBLE: Photographs – statelessness children and youth”. The information gathered has helped inform UNHCR’s advocacy approaches. 20. UNHCR continued to advocate the inclusion of questions related to nationality in national censuses and surveys and to conduct studies on stateless populations in partnership with others, including Statistics Norway. Studies containing qualitative and some quantitative information have been completed in many countries, including Austria, Chile, Côte d’Ivoire, Estonia, Lithuania, Norway, Serbia and Sweden. 21. In 2016, the Office reported statistical information on stateless persons in 74 States totalling some 3.2 million individuals worldwide. The persistent, large gap between the number of stateless persons reported by UNHCR and the total estimated number of stateless persons remains a cause for concern. Greater collective efforts are needed to identify all stateless persons and provide them with protection and a pathway to a solution. G. Developing guidance and disseminating good practices 22. During the reporting period, considerable efforts were made to develop policy and guidance to assist UNHCR’s offices, States and other stakeholders to implement the “Global action plan” and to learn from good practices. An internal “Global strategy and implementation plan” (2016-2018) was also designed to guide UNHCR’s operational efforts to address statelessness. UNHCR staff in operations in Africa and Asia were trained on how to more effectively plan and implement statelessness activities. The trainings also helped inform new “Guidance on programming for statelessness”, which was disseminated to operations in February 2017. A guidance paper linking the sustainable development goals and targets most relevant to addressing statelessness, such as target 16.9 on universal legal identity, was published in 2016.9 23. As part of a paper series on good practices relating to the “Global action plan”, new papers on action 2 (“Ensuring no child is born stateless”) and action 6 (“Establishing statelessness determination procedures to protect stateless persons”) were published, highlighting positive practices from countries as diverse as Benin, Chile, Finland, the Philippines and the Republic of Moldova. UNHCR and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) also published a new “Handbook on statelessness in the OSCE area”.10 8 9 10 Available from http://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/wp-content/uploads/2015-10StatelessReport_ENG16.pdf. Available from http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/58b6e3364.pdf. Available from http://www.osce.org/handbook/statelessness-in-the-OSCE-area?download=true. 7