rather than a Division or Service) means that its influence on country operations is indirect and often overshadowed by higher level Divisions and Services. UNHCR Representatives are sometimes siloed and under pressure to deliver on immediate, humanitarian emergencies with very limited funds and few opportunities to share best practices on statelessness. There are concerns that the regionalization of UNHCR operations will further reduce statelessness staffing and programming within the agency, although UNHCR’s creation of Regional Statelessness Officer positions is a positive step. As well, multiple informants expressed concerns that UNHCR’s statelessness work will lose what momentum has been achieved during the #IBelong Campaign when it transitions in 2024 to the structures established as part of the Global Compact on Refugees. (The Global Compact on Refugees is a worldwide framework to achieve solutions for refugees, displaced persons, and stateless populations). The evaluation highlighted a strong and close relationship between PRM and UNHCR at the global and country levels. The PRM Statelessness Focal Point based in Washington DC has been critical to the successful relationship between PRM and UNHCR but can only devote 25 percent of her time to statelessness work, which limits her capacity to support PRM’s engagement with Embassies, the broader Department, and other agencies. There is also the perception that PRM's statelessness strategy has been mostly focused on eliminating gender discrimination in nationality laws, and its work with the GCENR, which aligns with GAP Action 3. While this focus led to important achievements, there is also a need for more attention focused on helping to address some of the other major causes of statelessness such as racial and ethnic discrimination. There is a lack of engagement from other donors on statelessness which could benefit from PRM and UNHCR urging them to do more. PRM support for UNHCR at the global level through multilateral diplomacy, such as the Group of Friends, is not replicated at the country-level, where PRM’s Refugee Coordinators (RefCoords), with notable exceptions, were more focused on supporting UNHCR with its refugee and humanitarian caseloads. In general, RefCoords asked for more guidance from PRM Washington on how to best support UNHCR on statelessness. Some RefCoords spent as little as 10 percent of their time per month on non-refugee statelessness. More effort is also needed by PRM to work with other parts of the USG to address statelessness as a cross-cutting issue. The evaluation revealed a vibrant civil society in many countries that lacked support, coordination, and funding to work on statelessness. Many civil society organizations (CSOs) conduct advocacy, awarenessraising, strategic litigation, provide legal aid and influence public opinion on the highly politicized issue of statelessness. Many informants stressed that funding to CSOs will be critical to ending statelessness. KEY RECOMMENDATIONS An updated PRM statelessness strategy could:1 ➢ Advocate elevating statelessness within the implementation of the Global Compact on Refugees. ➢ Elevate the PRM Statelessness Focal Point role and dedicate it entirely to statelessness. ➢ Urge UNHCR to replace the “Statelessness Section” with a “Statelessness Division” or “Statelessness Service.” ➢ Encourage UNHCR to give adequate and appropriate attention to its statelessness mandate to achieve “mandate equality” with its refugee mandate and address concerns that regionalization is weakening the prioritization of statelessness. ➢ Provide a contribution to UNHCR country operations to identify and fund local CSO work on statelessness. Priority should be given to country operations that demonstrate they will use PRM funding to create or expand activities past 2024. ➢ Educate other DOS bureaus on how statelessness is a cross-cutting development, human rights, and democracy issue. ➢ Resume funding to the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights. 1 For a full list of recommendations, see Section 7 and Annex B. vii