Multi-stakeholder Pledge: Quality Humanitarian Funding for Refugee Situations
Multi-stakeholder Pledge: Quality Humanitarian Funding for Refugee Situations
Key outcomes
- Donors pledge to progressively provide higher quality funding, ensuring at least 30% of their annual humanitarian contributions towards UNHCR responses to forced displacement and statelessness situations is unearmarked or at least 50% is flexible by, at the latest, the Global Refugee Forum 2027. Member States participating in this pledge also commit to work closely with other States to increase their flexible (unearmarked and softly earmarked) funding over the next four years.
- These pledges are encouraged to be multi-year and disbursed in the first quarter of the calendar year to allow humanitarian organisations to plan strategically and efficiently, kickstart emergency response as crises arise, and support underfunded and unpredicted needs.
Background
Quality funds include flexible (unearmarked and softly earmarked) and multi-year funds in accordance with the definitions collectively agreed by humanitarian organizations and donors in the framework of the Grand Bargain. With the size, scale, and costs of humanitarian crises growing, quality humanitarian funding for refugee responses is invaluable.
Unearmarked resources can be used to address any situation where needs are highest while softly earmarked resources can be allocated across a range of countries and activities in a given region or situation, or to specific thematic or outcome areas in accordance with identified priorities. Quality funding is often used more than once: it may serve to bridge a short-term financing gap until earmarked funding arrives, at which point the quality funds can be redeployed elsewhere. A sufficient base of quality funding is therefore essential to support specific programs, target critical needs, and ensure accountability in such situations.
Pledge description
In line with the Grand Bargain commitments, this pledge aims to encourage governmental donors to progressively reduce earmarking and scale up, or embark on, quality contributions to UNHCR responses to refugee and statelessness situations. The pledge commends the generous ongoing contributions from current donors of quality funds and encourages their continued, long-term commitment to providing UNHCR with at least 30% of their annual humanitarian support in unearmarked funds or 50% flexible funds. Where existing agreements do not meet this target, current and new donors are encouraged to mobilize additional resources to close the gap. It outlines a four-year timeline for donors commit to do so. By pledging, donors also endeavour to commit funds for at least two years (multi-year) and disburse contributions in Q1 of the calendar year, allowing UNHCR to plan resources and needs for the year, kickstart emergency response as crises arise, and support underfunded and unpredicted needs. UNHCR commits to providing visibility for quality funding and its vital use, thereby recognizing the contributions made by donors. Pledgers acknowledge that reporting is done in multi-donor formats on an annual basis and that individual donor contributions cannot be tracked and individually reported on.
Leadership
- Government of Denmark
- Government of Finland
- Government of Iceland
- Government of the Netherlands
- Government of Norway
- Government of Sweden
- Government of Switzerland
Contact details
Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva - [email protected]; Melanie Petros, UNHCR - [email protected]; Lisa Holmberg, UNHCR - [email protected]