Leaving No One Behind: Statelessness and the Sustainable Development Goals Action 10 of the UNHCR 11-point Global Action Plan to End Statelessness 2.0 is to “improve quantitative and qualitative data on stateless populations”. In support of this action, UNHCR has commissioned research on statelessness in many countries in the world.194 In addition, UNHCR has developed resources to help others to improve data collection, including analytical tools to understand statelessness and guides on researching statelessness.195 In 2023, the UN Statistical Commission adopted the International Recommendations on Statelessness Statistics (IROSS), prepared by the Expert Group on Refugee, IDP and Statelessness Statistics, made up of national statistical offices with the participation of UNHCR and other UN agencies.196 The World Bank publications on “identification for development” are also important resources that include country reports on identification systems, analysis of survey data on lack of identity documents as a barrier to financial inclusion, and a toolkit for qualitative research on identification systems.197 The first stage of research on statelessness in any country is likely to be qualitative and analytical, an assessment of the elements of the legal, policy and factual context that create and perpetuate statelessness, the general profile of stateless individuals and groups in that country, the impact of statelessness on those affected and the potential solutions. This should also involve consultation with stateless communities and support to help them establish their own priorities. In some contexts, it will be helpful to follow qualitative research with an assessment to establish an estimate of the number of people possibly affected by statelessness, whether nationally or in a particular region. The IROSS recommendations provide guidelines for national statistical offices on how to design such assessment. In other countries, however – especially those where very many people lack identity documents recognizing nationality, or where questions of nationality and statelessness are particularly controversial – an assessment to establish an overall estimate of the number of people who are stateless or without a recognized nationality may not constitute the best deployment of resources.198 This does not mean that it is not important to collect quantitative data, only that it may make more sense to focus research on a particular district or neighbourhood in which it is known that rates of statelessness are high, in order to establish a better understanding of why this is the case, the impact of a high prevalence of statelessness on individuals and the community as a whole and the measures that will be required to end statelessness. There is a great need in many countries for more granular data about the impact of statelessness as a cause or a consequence of poverty and the extent to which statelessness is a barrier to the enjoyment of rights and services.199 It is particularly necessary to focus on those who are excluded from registers because they are stateless or who are included on registers but with the status of non-nationals, even though they have no documented nationality in any other country. One contribution that development agencies may make to better data collection – endorsed by the IROSS recommendations – is to support affected populations in performing data collection themselves, by providing appropriate technical assistance. Data collection can be highly politicized. It is important to consider the national context and the potential risks associated with data collection campaigns. This applies especially to census data: many of the descendants of those left out during censuses in Lebanon in 1932 and in Syria in 1962 are still stateless today.200 In Myanmar, a 2014 census “inflamed ethnic and religious tensions”, especially in relation to the status of the 194. See resources at www.refworld.org/statelessness.html. Some of these studies have been supported by bilateral and multilateral development funds, including from the European Commission Directorate-General for International Partnerships and US State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. UNHCR Global Action Plan to End Statelessness 2.0, https://www.refworld.org/policy/strategy/unhcr/2024/en/148761. 195. UNHCR, “Statelessness: an analytical framework for prevention, reduction and protection” (Geneva: United Nations, 2008), www.refworld.org/ docid/49a28afb2.html; UNHCR, “Handbook on protection of stateless persons”; UNHCR, “Quick guides: researching statelessness” (Geneva: United Nations, March 2021), www.refworld.org/docid/6054c9ca4.html. 196. UN Statistical Commission, “IROSS”. 197. See generally, World Bank, “The ID4D initiative”, n.d., https://id4d.worldbank.org/about-us; Anna Metz and Julia Clark, “Global ID coverage, barriers, and use by the numbers: an in-depth look at the 2017 ID4D-Findex Survey”, Identification for Development Initiative (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2019), http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/727021583506631652/pdf/Global-ID-Coverage-Barriers-and-Use-by-the-Numbers-An-In-DepthLook-at-the-2017-ID4D-Findex-Survey.pdf; World Bank, “Understanding people’s perspectives on identification: a qualitative research toolkit”, Identification for Development Initiative (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2020). 198. Bronwen Manby, “Schrödinger’s citizenship: framing and terminology in discussions of statelessness”, Statelessness & Citizenship Review, 6 No. 1 (2024): 5-37. 199. Kristy A. Belton, “Statelessness and economic and social rights”, in The State of Economic and Social Human Rights: A Global Overview, ed. Lanse Minkler (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 140, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139235600. 200. Rania Maktabi, “The Lebanese census of 1932 revisited. Who are the Lebanese?”, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 26, No. 2 (1999): 219–41; Frontiers Ruwad, “Invisible citizens”; Zahra Albarazi, “The stateless Syrians” (Tilburg, NL: Tilburg University Statelessness Programme, 2013). 51