EVALUATION OF UNHCR-LED INITIATIVES TO END STATELESSNESS – FINAL REPORT – VOLUME I statelessness, and links to other UN development aims, this appears to be a missed opportunity to leverage the weight of the UN system. Influences on the sustainability of progress and the importance of context analysis Finding 12: Experience has shown that external factors, such as political change, trends related to nationalism and xenophobia, and crises can divert attention from statelessness efforts and reverse positive changes in policy and practice. Combined with internal factors, such as single-year funding and staff turnover, they threaten the durability of solutions to statelessness. Ending statelessness is a long-term endeavor and progress is often slow, even in conducive operating contexts. The introduction of multi-year planning and budgeting, based on context analysis, provides opportunities to better address contextual and influence factors and threats to sustainability. 137. The sustainability of solutions to statelessness is supported by the positive attention the campaign and its supporters have generated, the commitments it has elicited from States, and the positive peer pressure and sharing of good practice seen in multiple regions. However, the sustainability of UNHCR’s contributions to preventing and eliminating statelessness and related achievements at country-level are potentially at risk due to a number of trends and factors. 138. As with other large-scale emergencies, the impact of COVID-19 was of concern to most key informants, given that national attention and budgets and donor resources will likely be reallocated to fight the pandemic and its economic effects, at the expense of work on statelessness. At the same time, COVID19 also presents an opportunity to highlight the plight of stateless persons and those of undetermined nationality, as part of broader advocacy on inclusion and equity in the response to the pandemic. UNHCR has published recommendations and good practices for States for addressing protection concerns, including stateless persons, related to the pandemic83 and a specific paper on the impact of COVID-19 on stateless populations84. UNHCR has also publicly communicated through global, regional and national interviews85 about how access to healthcare, social protection systems and education are all more complicated and important during the pandemic, yet in most countries stateless persons lack equal access and rights to systems and services. 139. Key informants and UNHCR reports have also noted that the sustainability of progress towards ending statelessness also faces pressures from rising trends of nationalism, nativism, xenophobia, racism, growing hostility to ‘outsiders’ and broader deterioration of the human rights situation in many countries, including donor States. These trends have been growing over the period evaluated, fueled by economic recessions and conflict-related large-scale migration and displacement, and have often been couched in national security or economic terms that will require the concerted efforts of a much broader coalition of actors to halt or reverse. In 2020 UNHCR published Guidance on Racism and Xenophobia86, including a section related to forced displacement and statelessness, to inform staff on ways UNHCR can address these issues in programming and through national, regional and global mechanisms and platforms. 140. Practical challenges to sustainability include staff turnover, both within UNHCR and among national government actors and partner organizations. This is particularly the case for work on statelessness given the multi-year nature of the work and dependence on many short-term contracts and deployments (see section 5.3). Individual knowledge and interest, comfort with speaking about statelessness issues, personal initiative, and strong inter-personal relationships are important for maintaining forward momentum against statelessness. Sustainability is dependent on broadening understanding and institutionalizing mechanisms to ensure continued focus and prioritization. 141. Financing of UNHCR’s statelessness work overall, and that of all its implementing partners and the governments it supports, is still limited to one-year funding cycles and relies on the continued support of leadership at different levels of the organization. Given the responsibilities of States, overall sustainable financing will need to be addressed through government planning and budgeting mechanisms. UNHCR planning and budgeting considerations are discussed further in section 5.3. 142. The durability of specific solutions to statelessness cannot be taken for granted, whether legal or administrative. Key informants highlighted that the proof of durability is in the equitable and consistent UNHCR, “Practical Recommendations and Good Practice to Address Protection Concerns in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic”, April, 2020. UNHCR, “The Impact of COVID-19 on Stateless Populations: Policy Recommendations and Good Practices”, May 2020. For example, see “UNHCR warns stateless people risk being left behind in coronavirus response” May, 2020 https://www.unhcr.org/enus/news/press/2020/5/5eb952222ec/unhcr-warns-stateless-people-risk-behind-coronavirus-response.html 86 UNHCR, “Guidance on Racism and Xenophobia – How UNHCR can address and respond to situations of racism and xenophobia affecting persons under its mandate”, 2020 83 84 85 UNHCR / May, 2021 41