An Agenda for a Dignified and Sustainable Rohingya Refugee Response in Bangladesh 1.1 What is the ‘whole of society approach? On 19 September 2016, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the New York Declaration (“NYD”) for Refugees and Migrants. States agreed that a comprehensive refugee response “should involve a multi-stakeholder approach that includes national and local authorities, international organisations, international financial institutions, civil society partners (including faith-based organisations, diaspora organisations and academia), the private sector, the media and refugees themselves.”2 The NYD was followed by a two-year process of intergovernmental negotiations towards the development of a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration (“GCM”), and a global compact on refugees (“GCR”) in 2018. The GCR, “[w]hile recognizing the primary responsibility and sovereignty of States” agreed that “a multi-stakeholder and partnership approach” would be pursued.3 The GCM recognised the “whole-of-society approach” as one of its guiding principles promoting broad multi-stakeholder partnerships to address migration in all its dimensions. 4 The concept of a whole-of-society-approach in refugee protection has garnered universal consensus through these negotiations. Refugee protection is operationalised by and with those affected, and usually by a very diverse group of stakeholders with the capacity to meet the relevant needs. Refugees and host communities have diverse needs, are often marginalised and at risk, and may be in particularly vulnerable circumstances. This diverse set of needs requires a diverse set of interventions and substantial expertise, and it is unrealistic for any single actor to deliver protection alone even if they are a government or a large international institution like UNHCR. Instead, what must happen in practice is that a large number of diverse stakeholders (service providers, humanitarian and development actors, policy-makers, media, affected communities, among others) collaborate through referrals networks: identifying needs, vulnerabilities and risks and making referrals to each other on the basis of those actual needs.5 As described in a recent research piece on the whole-of-society-approach to the Rohingya refugee crisis in South and South-East Asia: “Local protection capacity requires, among other things: a broad set of functional capacities that align with the needs, vulnerabilities, and risks faced by displaced and host communities; and a wellcoordinated platform for all relevant stakeholders to collaborate effectively across a whole-of-society approach.”6 2 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, GA Res A/RES/71/1, 19 September 2016, Paragraph 69 GCR (n 27) (The non-exhaustive list of stakeholders that were explicitly included in this approach included: refugees themselves, States and national institutions, parliamentarians, host communities, local authorities and local community leaders, UNHCR, international institutions, humanitarian and development actors, financial actors, civil society organisations, faith-based actors, the private sector, academia and research institutions, and sports and cultural facilities.) 4 GCM (n 27) (See also the “whole-of-government approach” ensuring “horizontal and vertical policy coherence across all sectors and levels of government”.) 5 Brian Barbour, Lilianne Fan and Chris Lewa, “A Whole-of-Society Approach to the Rohingya Refugee Crisis: Strengthening Local Protection Capacity in South and South-East Asia”, Asia Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law (forthcoming) 6 Ibid. 3 Act for Peace / May 2021 9