Multi-stakeholder Pledges for the Global Refugee Forum 2023

Pledges and contributions are commitments of financial, material, technical, material, policy, or other support by States and other stakeholders including organizations, development actors, cities, parliamentarians, businesses, academics, and refugees themselves, that advance the objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees to achieve tangible benefits for refugees and host communities.

For the Global Refugee Forum 2023, stakeholders are encouraged to make high-quality pledges that are:

• Aligned with the key recommendations that emerged from the High-Level Officials Meeting in December 2021
• Additional, quantifiable, and needs-driven
• Jointly developed as multi-stakeholder pledges, in a whole-of-society spirit
• Pre-matched to support inclusive policies
• Developed in consultation with refugees and consider age, gender, and diversity

Multi-stakeholder pledges are joint pledges with a large-scale reach, working towards an ambitious common goal. They aim to be transformational, putting in place long-term arrangements that advance burden and responsibility sharing, drawing from a clearly defined resource base, donorship, or financial instrument linked to implementation.

The GRF 2023 will mobilise impactful, transformative multi-stakeholder pledges to achieve the key outcomes communicated during the 17 May formal preparatory meeting, including financing, climate action, inclusion, resettlement and complementary pathways, creating conditions for sustainable voluntary return, and building peace.

To advance these outcomes, multi-stakeholder pledges are being developed whereby the international community, including governments and other stakeholders, including refugees, comes together in a spirit of shared responsibility for refugees and host communities to advance a common policy approach and high-level goal.

These pledges build on the political commitments made in the New York Declaration in 2016 and the Global Compact on Refugees in 2018, pledges and initiatives announced since the GRF 2019, recommendations from the stocktaking conducted through the High-Level Officials Meeting 2021 and GCR indicator report, and innovation labs from the High Commissioners Dialogue in 2022.

These pledges aim to articulate vision, policy objective, and target; make transformative and substantial improvements in the lives of refugees and host communities; demonstrate government leadership and a multi-stakeholder and partnership approach; and ensure sustainability through dedicated follow-up arrangements and a resource base.

Role of the co-leads

To ensure the key outcomes of the GRF, government leaders, together with other stakeholders co-leading the multi-stakeholder pledges, would:

• Set the vision, policy objective, and target in clear, simple language that aims for transformative and significant improvements in the lives of refugees and host communities.
• Mobilise governments and partners around this clearly defined common vision.
• Lead by example by submitting and implementing high-quality policy, financial, technical, material, or other pledge(s) as a part of the multi-stakeholder pledge.
• Co-lead post-GRF follow-up arrangements, facilitated and supported by UNHCR, to promote sustained engagement, broaden the base of support through the multi-stakeholder and partnership approach, matching, information sharing, and monitoring post-GRF.

Setting the vision, policy objective and target:

All leaders of the multi-stakeholder pledges may wish to come together in support of a common overarching political commitment, for example to champion displacement considerations in relevant multilateral fora and financing mechanisms and bilateral humanitarian, development, and peace cooperation in support of countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence.

Pledge co-leads may wish to agree on simple and coordinated pledging language that can be delivered as a framing statement for their multi-stakeholder pledge description and to introduce each pledge leader’s individual submissions in support of each multi-stakeholder pledge.

For example, as part of the >>[theme]<< Multi-stakeholder Pledge, Country/Partner X commits to:

• include considerations forcibly displaced persons and the communities that host them in bilateral >>theme<< financing windows and decisions, and laws, policies, plans, and programmes in countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence.
• advocate for the inclusion of forcibly displaced persons and the communities that host them in the relevant multilateral fora and financial mechanisms.
• co-lead a follow-up process supported by UNHCR to promote sustained engagement, continued pledge mobilisation, pledge implementation and matching, knowledge sharing, and accountability.

All governments and other stakeholders that contribute pledges as a part of the multi-stakeholder pledges would:

• ensure that their contribution goes beyond an agglomeration of existing programmes and aligns with the vision and policy objective of the multi-stakeholder pledge.
• demonstrate how their policy, financial, technical, material, or other contributions are additional, quantifiable, and needs-driven, complementary, and advance a collective ambition, policy objective, or target.
• report on progress and participate in stocktaking and follow-up arrangements developed for the multi-stakeholder pledges, to ensure cross-fertilisation and accountability.
• ensure relevant policy pledges from 2019 are updated with additional detail and targets and linked to the multi-stakeholder pledges to increase visibility and opportunities for support.

• Each contributor to a multi-stakeholder pledge will make an individual submission detailing their specific contribution to the pledge.
• Each individual submission will be made via the GRF pledges dashboard.
• When submitting the pledge, the pledging entity will be asked if the submission is in support of one or more multi-stakeholder pledges.
  If yes, a dropdown menu of the multi-stakeholder pledges will appear. The pledging entity will then be invited to check to which pledges their submission is applicable.
  The pledging entity will then provide a description of their contribution, including whether there are other specific partners or initiatives with whom they are working on their specific contribution to the multi-stakeholder pledge.
• UNHCR will review and consolidate submitted information following the GRF to facilitate reporting and analysis.

Effective follow-up will be key to advancing policies, building trust and confidence, and demonstrating sustained engagement. Starting in 2024, UNHCR would convene the pledge leaders in a consultation to set out the process and arrangements for:

• Stocktaking, follow-up, and implementation of each multi-stakeholder pledge. Co-leads, supported by UNHCR, would determine follow-up arrangements for their multi-stakeholder pledge and/or for several multi-stakeholder pledges linked to a common theme (such as protection, inclusion, solutions, climate, etc.) to ensure a more comprehensive follow-up process.
   

• Individual reporting. As determined by the design of the follow-up arrangements, each pledging entity that made a specific contribution in support of one or more multi-stakeholder pledges will periodically receive a targeted email inviting them to report on progress made in implementing their pledge.
  
  When reporting on the pledge, pledging entities will have the opportunity to demonstrate how their pledge contributed to each of the multi-stakeholder pledges to which it is linked.
  
  For example:
  Country X submitted a pledge of bilateral development support for economic inclusion for refugees. When reporting on the pledge, the pledging entity could report on:

  • The amount of development support provided over the period of time (HDP nexus pledge)
  • How many refugees and host community members were able to access work permits and employment as a result of this support (economic inclusion pledge)

  
  Drawing upon the reporting provided in the GRF pledges database, UNHCR could provide consolidated reports on individual pledge submissions and progress made linked to the multi-stakeholder pledges to support the stocktaking and follow-up process.
   

• Developing strategies to advance the pledge objectives over the next four years until the next GRF, including through linking them to broader political processes and multilateral fora, advancing inclusive policy and financing approaches, and facilitating further support and contributions.
   
• Facilitating opportunities, creating fora, or serving as a reference group to advance matching and support of host country policy commitments through the multi-stakeholder pledges and their follow-up arrangements.