Multistakeholder Pledge: Community Sponsorship

Key outcomes

Commitments which form part of this multi-stakeholder pledge will contribute towards increasing the number, scale and diversity of community sponsorship programmes globally in order to grow third country solutions for refugees, enhance the integration prospects of refugees and strengthen community narratives by allowing communities to welcome new neighbours.

This may be achieved through:

• Law & policy. Enacting laws, policies, and frameworks that allow national and local authorities and communities to create and implement new community sponsorship programmes, including in the context of complementary pathways; committing to scale existing community sponsorship initiatives by better leveraging sponsors motivation, engaging local authorities and removing formal or informal barriers to access; and providing peer support to States, CSOs or other actors that are implementing Community Sponsorship programmes, including as part of the GRSI networks.
• Data & evidence. Ensuring monitoring and evaluation frameworks are included in community sponsorship design; regular monitoring and evaluation of programmes and pilots using a participatory assessment model and other monitoring and evaluation tools.
• Funding. Providing funding at a national and regional level to support Community Sponsorship programmes; and supporting the establishment of the new Global Sponsorship Fund that will pool funds globally to grow community sponsorship programs at a national level.
• Including refugees. Ensuring grassroots initiatives, including those led by refugees, are fostered and inform policy design and implementation; establishing co-creation and advisory mechanisms at different levels to assist in the planning, implementation and monitoring of community sponsorship programs which are inclusive of and facilitate leadership of refugee and immigrant communities; and enhancing refugee participation in programs by enabling them to become active sponsors.

Background

The Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative is calling on members of the global community, its partners, states and civil society networks to come together on pledges to increase the number, scale and diversity of community sponsorship programs in different countries.

Community sponsorship programs empower groups of individuals to welcome refugees and others in need of international protection into their communities. Community sponsorship programs operate as a public-private partnership and include a variety of partners, including national governments, local authorities, the UNHCR, and local civil society organisations. This whole-of-society approach to refugee settlement can improve integration outcomes, strengthen local communities, and expand pathways to protection. Community sponsorship has demonstrated value in sustaining resettlement and complementary pathways.

Pledge description

The pledge aims to expand community sponsorship opportunities for refugees worldwide.

This is to be achieved:

• By growing existing community sponsorship programs by making them more accessible, empowering for refugees and welcoming communities and strengthening their financing;
• By linking community sponsorship programs to a wider set of pathways to protection, including complementary pathways in education, labour and family;
• By establishing new community sponsorship programs in countries that do not have one already;
• By providing peer support, including between members of the GRSI communities of practices (Community Sponsorship States Network, CSO network);
• By engaging local authorities in community sponsorship programs;
• By including refugees in the design and creation of community sponsorship programs and enhance their participation;
• By supporting the establishment of a new Global Sponsorship Fund.

Leadership

• Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative

Members

• The Government of Canada
• The University of Ottawa Refugee Hub
• The Open Society Foundations
• The Giustra Foundation
• The Shapiro Foundation
• Robert Bosch Stiftung Foundation
• Porticus

Supported by UNHCR.

Contact details

DIP Resettlement and Complementary Pathways Service, UNHCR

Calendar

GRSI and Sponsorship-adjacent events

• Fall – Community Sponsorship States Network Meeting, Geneva
• 12 – 13 October 2023 – Brussels 4
• 7 – 9 November 2023 – Global Gathering for Sponsorship (CSO Network)