“ When we received this funding, we didn’t have enough operating costs even for one-month. We were in the process of wrapping up the organisation and giving up our office space. When CESF gave us the scoping award (in 2020) it literally saved and sustained us over 2021.” Family Frontiers Malaysia, CESF Consortium Member Importantly, through the work of the CESF, ISI and others were able to introduce Consortium members, especially in Nepal and North Macedonia to new donors and channel bilateral funding for their work. The focus on continuing to find sustainable funding for Consortium members to continue their work after the closure of the CESF, has been crucial. Community resilience was a big focus across CESF projects. Many of the projects included an element of providing psycho-social support to community members, strengthening their economic resilience, and creating platforms to showcase their talents and achievements. The podcasts produced by CAPN (Nepal) aimed to strengthen community resilience through spotlighting the accomplishments of stateless people, while the project also offered psychosocial support directly to members of the community. Micro-finance provided to stateless community members by DxD (Dominican Republic) helped strengthen the financial resilience of community-based entrepreneurs. The project carried out by RWDN (Rohingya group) worked towards community resilience by ensuring Rohingya communities had access to information on COVID-19, its effects and preventative measures. The project in Bangladesh, carried out by CoM, also built community resilience by helping the community to access government services and address community issues through the implementation of a successful advocate system. AN ENDURING IMPACT The Consortium stands as a powerful testament to the change that can be achieved – big and small – through collective community action, resilience and solidarity. Consortium members have contributed to changes in law and policy, better documentation and services for their communities, better awareness and acknowledgment of the challenges faced by government authorities and UN agencies and stronger community organisation. The structural impact of this work will endure beyond the crisis sparked by the pandemic. Further, the approach taken, with sustainable resourcing, can shape longer-term and scaled up activities towards making an even greater impact. FIVE COMMON CHALLENGES ACROSS CESF FOCUS COUNTRIES FIVE EXAMPLES OF ACHIEVABLE CHANGE 1. The insidious impact of ‘lack of documentation’ in all areas – from access to relief, healthcare and vaccinations, to being able to work in safe and nonexploitative jobs and access justice. 1. By supporting paralegal and community work, affected groups can receive much needed assistance and information in their own language, to access documentation, rights and services. 2. The rehashing of ‘lazy, cynical narratives’ to scapegoat and blame stateless minorities for the spread of the virus and impose punitive and discriminatory lockdown measures. 2. By successfully advocating for reforms to immigration regulations and consular support, family unification, legal status and equal rights can be strengthened. 3. The combined impact that high costs and fear of authorities have on stateless communities accessing life-saving healthcare, and the knock-on detriment to public health. 3. By providing micro-finance loans and other assistance to stateless people, resilience can be strengthened, while countering negative stereotypes and narratives about these communities. 4. The failure by governments, UN and others, to recognise the specific challenge of statelessness and tailor policies to address this challenge in order to reach stateless communities. 4. 5. The lack of any respite for stateless communities regarding the challenges, complications and insecurities they already faced daily, with the pandemic adding a new set of challenges on top of these existing issues. By taking mental health seriously, silences and stigmas can be broken, and stateless people can be given access to mental health professionals. Awareness of the mental health impact of lockdowns on wider society also creates an opportunity to generate empathy between non-stateless and stateless people, who endure debilitating restrictions even in ‘normal’ times. 5. By reversing perspectives on lack of documentation, instead of a barrier to accessing rights and services, the point of contact with relevant authorities can be used to grant access and offer assistance to obtain documents. KEY IMPACTS OF THE CESF Direct Assistance • • • • More than 12,000 people were educated on COVID-19 health precautions and vaccinations. Around 7,000 individuals and 2,000 families received direct humanitarian support across six countries. More than 2,500 people received assistance to access vaccines across four countries. 1,000 people received legal support across four countries. For example: in India, DAJI supported more than 800 individuals without the required documentation to get vaccinated, while more than 10,000 stateless people had their documents protected during flooding by ensuring these were digitally scanned and stored. In North Macedonia, Bairska Svetlina offered legal support to over 400 community members, enabling them to exercise their right to social assistance and access state relief during the COVID-19 crisis. In Bangladesh, RWDN supported stateless 18