An Agenda for a Dignified and Sustainable Rohingya Refugee Response in Bangladesh There are increasingly close interactions among individuals, groups, and representatives of various types of institutions and networks at every level: local, national, regional, and international. Developing institutional national and local ownership and capacity requires that many different stakeholders each do their part, in collaboration with the State, international institutions, and each other, to manage refugee protection holistically, effectively, efficiently, and sustainably. That kind of complementarity of practice is how a “whole-of-society approach” can be achieved. 1.2 Relevance and applicability to the Rohingya Refugee Response in Bangladesh Bangladesh, as host to one of the world’s largest refugee populations, without formally recognising them as such, has been involved in the consultations related to GCR and has formally endorsed the whole-of-society approach and multi-stakeholder and partnership approach frameworks.7 In terms of the application of the Global Compacts, particularly the whole-of-society approach, the Bangladesh experience is characterised by a number of challenges and local dynamics that arise from a limited domestic and regional legal and policy framework, a weak and deteriorating refugee protection environment, complex and inadequate humanitarian coordination structures, restricted opportunities for inclusion of refugees or host communities in decision-making and coordination structures, and contested localisation agendas. Bangladesh’s engagement with the Global Compacts and the whole-of-society approach is further complicated due to the deteriorating situation and dim prospects of peace and justice for Rohingya in Myanmar as well as the absence of a comprehensive regional or global Rohingya refugee response plan, with the international and regional community seeking to contain the problem in Bangladesh, and await resolution in Myanmar, rather than take shared responsibility or offer any particular joint solution. The Rohingya refugee response does not adequately reflect a whole-of-society approach in practice. A lot more needs to be done in terms of harnessing complementary capacities among a multiplicity and diversity of stakeholders and agendas in the Rohingya response in Bangladesh with collaboration and complementarity as shared fundamental values among all stakeholders. This report considers that operationalising refugee protection requires a ‘whole-of-society’ (or multistakeholder and partnership) approach in practice and analyses refugee protection, humanitarian coordination, and localisation from that perspective. The application of a whole-of-society approach is critical for a comprehensive refugee response by ensuring more sustainable approaches that link relief and development as well as ensure the meaningful participation of affected communities. Development actors should be involved at an early stage and investments should be made to strengthen the resilience of both refugee and host communities, including through support to national and local systems.8 7 Karen Hargrave and Veronique Barbelet, The Global Compact on Refugees-Lessons from Bangladesh, HPG/ODI Briefing Note, 10 December 2019, available at https://odi.org/en/publications/the-global-compact-on-refugees-lessons-frombangladesh/ 8 UNHCR, Towards a global compact on refugees: a roadmap, available at https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/59195d0e4.pdf 10 Act for Peace / May 2021