UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi addresses the participants of a sub-regional International Conference on Statelessness Eradication in Central Asia. © UNHCR/Yelena Sim On 20 August, in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNHCR and the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region convened a workshop to take stock of progress on the implementation of pledges made by the Government at the 2019 High-Level Segment on Statelessness. The workshop resulted in the adoption of a roadmap for pledge implementation and the establishment of a taskforce to follow up on the commitments. Episcopal Conference to support advocacy efforts for the country’s accession to the UN Statelessness Conventions. From 7 to 9 September, UNHCR and the Interinstitutional Technical Committee for the Fight against Statelessness hosted a workshop to develop and validate a roadmap to end statelessness in the Kasai provinces together with local political, administrative, and civil society actors. The roadmap focuses on four pillars: (1) advocacy for provincial ownership of efforts to address statelessness; (2) improving the governance of civil registration; (3) improving data collection on statelessness to inform policymaking on civil registration and documentation; and (4) awareness raising among the public on risks of statelessness. On 16 July, in Baku, the Working Group on Statelessness in Azerbaijan held its periodic meeting on the implementation of pledges made at the 2019 High-Level Segment on Statelessness. At the meeting, Working Group members highlighted a number of positive developments, including the issuance of a recent decree which granted citizenship to 93 stateless persons and the fact that an increasing number of stateless people have started approaching the authorities for support in acquiring documentation, thanks to the success of awareness-raising activities. On 7 July, in Madagascar, the NGO Focus Development Association (FDA) organized a meeting with the National Assembly and its Secretary General which led to the development of a strategic action plan for the adoption of a new nationality bill. The nationality bill provides for the grant of Malagasy nationality to children born in Madagascar who would otherwise be stateless and the elimination of discriminatory provisions on the grounds of gender and disability amongst others. As part of this action plan, FDA held a briefing with the President of the Senate’s Legal Commission in Mahajanga on 31 July for the Senate to advance the bill with a view to its adoption. On 29 and 30 July, in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Interinstitutional Technical Committee for the Fight against Statelessness and UNHCR conducted a training workshop on statelessness for members of the Parliamentary Liaison Office of the NGO, the Episcopal Conference of Congo. This will enable the 3