CONCLUSIONS The #IBelong Campaign and the GAP have been effective in increasing awareness on statelessness, but they have been less effective in advancing the goal of ending statelessness in 10 years. To make significant progress to end statelessness, the evaluation found that UNHCR needs to elevate statelessness within all programming to achieve “mandate equality,” whereby the statelessness mandate and the refugee mandate are treated as co-equal, although not necessarily identical in terms of funding or staffing. PRM should also support UNHCR to coordinate better with other actors, particularly UN partners and local CSOs. The evaluation’s findings highlighted that UNHCR staff are worried that the regionalization process will lead to fewer resources for statelessness. Staff have already observed a decrease in staffing resources, which they attribute to regionalization. The evaluation findings highlighted that more strategic diplomatic support from the U.S. is critical for making progress on major situations of statelessness, as seen in the Dominican Republic. The relationship between PRM and UNHCR is strong, but there is the potential for the U.S. to take an even stronger leadership role in the future. The evaluation findings highlighted that the U.S. plays a leadership role in statelessness through its multilateral diplomatic engagements at the global level through the Group of Friends, the HLS and through engagements with UN mechanisms, but PRM should emphasize better coordination between UN actors in line with the UN Secretary General’s Guidance Note on Statelessness and work to ensure global initiatives translate into progress at country levels. PRM’s funding and diplomacy were key to UNHCR’s implementation of the GAP and the #IBelong Campaign. PRM’s diplomacy and direct funding for the GCENR made a key contribution to Action 3 on ending gender discrimination in nationality laws. However, in Nepal, the Dominican Republic and Thailand, the GAP has been less effective in protecting and assisting stateless people, including supporting access to education, healthcare, livelihoods, and other basic human rights. These activities are more likely to be done through other actors and there is opportunity to adopt more robust protection activities following the model set by UNHCR in the Dominican Republic. The evaluation found that the relationship between RefCoords and UNHCR staff is strong both at the global and country levels. Additionally, U.S. diplomacy plays a key role in advocacy with country governments, but there has not been enough emphasis placed on engaging with like-minded governments for joint advocacy on statelessness. RefCoords need guidance and support from PRM Washington to play a more effective role. RefCoords spend, on average, less than 10 percent of their time working on non-refugee statelessness issues. Further elevating statelessness in the work of the RefCoords is necessary, along with more training and resources to better engage with UNHCR and the U.S. Embassy at the country level. The evaluation findings demonstrated how statelessness is a cross-cutting issue, where coordination with CSOs, UN agencies, INGOs, and other actors will be critical to success, but the GAP has not achieved this coordination. Findings highlighted that the GAP is directed toward governments and focused on legal reform and procedural changes. In Nepal, the Dominican Republic, and Thailand, UNHCR has struggled to engage constructively with CSOs in the field, stateless communities, and the public. In terms of greater accountability to stateless populations, the evaluation found that CSOs play a key role in advocating and holding governments accountable, however, they are underfunded. UNHCR has not done enough to engage with non-refugee stateless communities. There is little guidance or support for CSOs or focus on movement building, public awareness raising and engagement with the arts at the country level, the empowerment of stateless persons, or other ways of making progress on statelessness. Thus, the Evaluation Team’s recommendations are targeted towards addressing these gaps and updating PRM’s strategy on statelessness. 30