EC/64/SC/CRP.11 III. Progress and ongoing challenges A. Ministerial Intergovernmental Event 6. The anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness in 2011 proved to be a breakthrough in UNHCR’s efforts to achieve progress on statelessness around the world. At the Ministerial Intergovernmental Event, 61 States made a total of 105 specific and measurable pledges relating to statelessness. These pledges included: 32 on accession to the 1961 Convention; 22 on accession to the 1954 Convention; 12 to reform nationality laws; 12 to improve civil registration to prevent and reduce statelessness; 12 to conduct studies or awareness-raising campaigns; 11 to establish statelessness determination procedures; and 4 to address the problem through foreign policy initiatives. In large measure, these pledges resulted from efforts at the regional and country level to promote action on statelessness, including a series of bilateral and multilateral dialogues with governments in locations as diverse as Benin, Costa Rica, Croatia, Georgia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Mozambique, the Philippines, Senegal, South Africa and Spain. A number of States also took measures in the lead-up to the Ministerial Intergovernmental Event, including eight accessions to the 1954 and 1961 Conventions. UNHCR continues to work with States on follow up to the pledges made. For example, a regional statelessness course for governments in Latin America held in 2012 and 2013 was used to provide technical training for implementation of the pledges. Currently, 22 per cent of the pledges made have been implemented. Significantly, there were 26 accessions to the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Conventions during the two years covered by this report. B. Strengthened operational responses 7. There was a clear trend toward greater engagement by UNHCR on statelessness in the following areas: (a) Improving baseline data on stateless populations 8. The identification of stateless populations continues to be a priority. Stateless populations are notoriously difficult to measure, however, and establishing accurate baselines remains a challenge. During the reporting period, UNHCR worked in 61 countries to support, or undertake directly, studies, surveys and population censuses. This included studies on statelessness undertaken by UNHCR and partners in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America. These studies offered detailed recommendations on the establishment of status determination procedures and standards of treatment of stateless persons. Surveys on stateless populations were undertaken in a range of countries including Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Serbia and the Philippines. UNHCR organized a workshop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to train staff on measuring statelessness in the region. More broadly, training on the identification of stateless populations was mainstreamed into various learning tools. Field offices also benefited from a guidance document on measuring stateless populations which was issued in 2011. The impact of these efforts was a slight increase in UNHCR data coverage of stateless populations: statistics from 72 States were reported at the end of 2012, up from 65 at the end of 2011. This increase results primarily from the inclusion of questions relating to nationality in the latest global round of national population censuses. 9. In addition to a number of initiatives being undertaken by UNHCR, nine States made pledges at the Ministerial Intergovernmental Event to take steps to identify stateless populations. Thus far, only Burundi has implemented its pledge in this area. 4