EVALUATION OF UNHCR-LED INITIATIVES TO END STATELESSNESS – FINAL REPORT – VOLUME I have made it more difficult to communicate and prompt action. More progress has been made to strengthen statelessness data in contexts where there is already political will to address the issue and some degree of public awareness. However, it is precisely in the places where the least is known about statelessness, and where political appetite to discuss and tackle statelessness is lacking, that data is most needed to support UNHCR and partner efforts to communicate and lobby on behalf of stateless persons. The JDC funded effort to develop the IROSS provides a critical opportunity to systematically improve statelessness data. 193. Internal leadership on statelessness has been crucial to successes so far. Country Representatives play the most critical roles of all – as the face of UNHCR with national governments and the most influential decision-makers when it comes to prioritization of statelessness work. However, the ambitions of the campaign and the organization’s clear mandate for statelessness have not been met with commensurate efforts to systematically mainstream statelessness within UNHCR. Leadership on the prioritization for statelessness has been inconsistent, with much greater attention to other priorities such as the GCR. Hesitancy to lobby on behalf of stateless persons in some sensitive contexts has been a risk to UNHCR’s credibility. A short-term, emergency mindset has further relegated statelessness down the list of priorities within a culture that emphasizes quick impact over the long-term nature and results of statelessness work. Overall, the institutional culture of UNHCR has not adequately evolved to match the needs and challenges of the objective of the campaign and the organization’s mandate for statelessness. 194. UNHCR’s financial investments in statelessness have been critical to the progress made so far, providing opportunities to prevent and end statelessness for both the organization and its partners. However, UNHCR has not adequately prioritized statelessness in its resource mobilization efforts. Additional, sustained and carefully prioritized funding (and fundraising) is required, particularly for specific countries and regions where progress has been slow and GAP actions that have been relatively neglected. 195. Investment in UNHCR’s workforce is crucial, as work on statelessness relies primarily on knowledgeable and skill personnel. Dedicated staffing has been a critical success factor in a number of operations. Conversely, where staff are stretched too thin and/or lack the necessary confidence to lobby on the topic, statelessness is often one of the first areas to be deprioritized. More dedicated statelessness staff and communications capacity are needed in key operations, including additional short-term surge capacity, and increased responsibility for statelessness is required across UNHCR staff functions. This implies a greater and more targeted effort to build knowledge and skills at all levels – allowing UNHCR to achieve more on statelessness with the limited resources available. 196. Ongoing changes within UNHCR – such as decentralization and multi-year planning and budgeting – are both opportunities and challenges for the work on statelessness. As responsibilities and authorities shift within the organization, and as ways of working evolve, a continued corporate prioritization of statelessness is required. Better configuration and use of systems for reporting on statelessness-related results would help UNHCR monitor its own performance during this period of transition and allow for greater transparency and accountability. 197. UNHCR has been particularly successful in implementing initiatives to address the legal and administrative causes of statelessness, which align with its institutional strengths. There are other key drivers of statelessness, however, including political, social and economic aspects, which need to be more consciously and robustly addressed. Similarly, the broader socio-economic impacts of statelessness, such as exclusion from schools, legal employment and social welfare, and the suffering that they cause, need to be more holistically recognized and addressed. 198. While UNHCR has played a critical and central role in highlighting and championing the situation of stateless persons, the organization has not responded to all of the drivers and impacts of statelessness, nor should it. Collaboration has been critical to the progress made so far on statelessness and UNHCR has successfully mobilized a wide range of stakeholders at different levels. Overall, however, there is not a strong enough sense of shared responsibility. UNHCR could do more to bring a diverse set of international, regional and national actors together to collectively mobilize for change, including harnessing the contributions of stateless persons directly. In particular, UNHCR should invest more in maximizing the potential for UN system-wide collaboration on statelessness. 199. The foundations are in place for scaling-up UNHCR and partner action to reduce statelessness, but success will require a dedicated, creative and sustained approach to overcoming the remaining challenges. The organization needs to find a way to work across divisions to elevate its work on statelessness and capacitate staff at all levels to contribute. Similarly, it will need to leverage the mandates and capacities of partners to create a stronger coalition – sharing the responsibility for preventing and ending statelessness. This comes at a time when funding and staffing are constrained 52 UNHCR / May, 2021