initiatives are rarely resourced to lead or influence policy discussions and are instead forced into dependent partnerships with larger, legally recognised NGOs - diluting the voices of those with lived experience. 15. The UNHCR’s 2025 budget crisis resulting in a 40% reduction in resources has severely undermined statelessness work and civil society engagement. UNHCR reported a $230 million funding drop from 2024 to 2025 for local and national partners, disproportionately affecting organisations led by stateless people. The number of grant agreements also dropped from 251 to just 70. Further key losses include the elimination of dedicated statelessness staff at national and regional levels, withdrawal of operational support to civil society organisations, and closure or restructuring of regional offices. The Southern Africa Regional Bureau, for example, was closed in September 2025 and merged into a broader Eastern and Southern Africa Bureau. Only two out of seven Regional Statelessness Officer posts remain. These roles, previously central to collaboration with civil society and regional actors, were foundational to the progress made over the past decade. Without a clear mitigation strategy, these cuts risk dismantling critical protection infrastructure and reversing significant advances in the statelessness sector, placing human rights defenders and affected communities in an increasingly precarious position. 16. The impact of funding cuts is illustrated through a range of delayed documentation, halting operations and services, halting advocacy engagements, strained asylum systems, reduced legal assistance, and lack of community support, leaving stateless people exposed to exploitation, detention and forced returns. We liaised with some of our partner organisations for input on how the funding cuts have impacted their work and received the following responses; • In the US, one partner organisation faces a risk of shutting down their legal services clinic. In Europe, several UNHCR country offices have either been closed or downsized and several members of the regional network, European Network on Statelessness (ENS), were also directly impacted by the US foreign aid cuts. • In Africa, the Southern African Nationality Network (SANN) operated without funding for the first half of 2025, disrupting coordination and joint advocacy. The closure of UNHCR’s Regional Bureau and lack of a sub-regional statelessness focal point further weakened engagement with SADC government and slowed momentum on the African Union Protocol on the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness. Our partner organisations in Libya face similar challenges in reduced the ability of local organizations to carry out awareness and documentation campaigns on a regular basis, leading to reliance on voluntary work and collaborative partnerships. • In Asia, there is weakened regional coordination to continue statelessness work. Apart from the downsizing of UNHCR offices, the regional civil society network working to end statelessness, The Statelessness and Dignified Citizenship Coalition – Asia Pacific (SDCCAP) risks collapsing without Secretariat support. The regional organisation working to end statelessness, Nationality for All (NFA), has had their funding paused for two months. Family Frontiers from Malaysia emphasized the struggle for civil society to raise statelessness issues. 4