EVALUATION OF UNHCR-LED INITIATIVES TO END STATELESSNESS – FINAL REPORT – VOLUME I Overarching enabling factors 109. UNHCR Protection Officers were asked in the evaluation survey to identify helpful or enabling factors for governments and most frequently cited political will to reduce or eliminate statelessness, followed by strong partnerships across government, civil society and NGOs. Figure 15 shows the regional variance in responses (N = 333 UNHCR staff). Figure 15 – Factors that help or enable governments to make progress against statelessness, number of UNHCR protection officers citing factors in global survey 90 Political will to reduce or eliminate statelessness 80 70 Strong partnerships across government, civil society and NGOs 60 A specific event that has created momentum for change The availability of technical capacity 50 Regional attitudes that encourage the elimination of statelessness 40 Favourable public opinion / public support 30 Diplomatic advocacy or pressure from other member states 20 Unsure / I am not familiar with the statelessness context of my country operation 10 0 Not applicable to my country operation Africa (N = 125) Americas (N = 26) Asia and the Pacific (N = 62) Europe (N = 49) MENA (N = 71) 110. Data from key informants and the document review reinforced the survey results. Finding key entry points among supportive government officials and parliamentarians and building their awareness and understanding, allowed some operations to build political will. Political incentives can also be generated through increasing public awareness, including the awareness of stateless or at-risk populations themselves. Partnerships across government and between external actors were credited with building momentum for positive change, influencing key decisions, and expanding government capacities. Diplomatic advocacy, positive peer pressure, and sharing of lessons through regional bodies and global events and process (such as the Universal Periodic Review, and the HLS) were cited as positive influences supporting government action to address statelessness. In some cases statelessness prevention and reduction has also been enabled by UNHCR engagement of donors and other Member States to coordinate efforts to advocate with a government, such as in Cote d’Ivoire where the global Friends of the Campaign group has been replicated at the national level. 111. Key informants in Africa and the Americas particularly emphasized the importance of regional intergovernmental initiatives that have led to declarations and workplans (i.e., the efforts of ECOWAS, ICGLR, and the Brazil Plan of Action). They stressed the belief that such regional bodies can more effectively address cross-border concerns and overcome national sensitivities on statelessness by linking to broader political agendas such as economic integration in ECOWAS and the peace process in Cote d’Ivoire. Supportive legal environments, with some pre-existing favorable legislation to expand on, facilitated further improvements. Factors that help or enable national governments to make progress against statelessness cited by key informants included political will, financial and human capacity in the government, awareness of statelessness issues, favorable legislation, willingness to strengthen data systems, and inter-governmental and other partnerships and collaboration. Overarching hindering factors 112. Factors that hinder or limit the ability of governments to make progress against statelessness were consistently raised by internal and external key informants at global, regional and country levels, and supported by documents. The most frequently noted was the political sensitivity of nationality, citizenship and statelessness issues, often related to underlying discriminatory beliefs and social norms, which are often reinforced by identity driven politics and historic policies of exclusion. Low awareness and understanding of statelessness within governments and the public also hindered progress, which can be due to a lack of data on stateless and at-risk populations. Other factors cited as hindering government progress included turnover among government officials (leading to loss of understanding and political support), lack of government capacity and weak systems (including lack of financial resources and staff capacity and weak civil registration and vital statistics and birth registration systems), the capacity and standing of civil society and their ability to partner and advocate within a context, low donor interest, and UNHCR / May, 2021 35