Regional Engagement

Forced displacement and statelessness remain critical challenges in Africa with the region hosting over a third of the world’s forcibly displaced or stateless persons for several years. The rising numbers are driven by a range of factors, including persistent conflict and violence, human rights violations, and climate-related pressures. Alongside its magnitude, the protracted nature of displacement in Africa is notable. 

 African governments are making significant efforts to implement IRIS, IRRS, and IROSS through the adaptation of their national census, surveys and improved use of administrative data systems. Regional cooperation between countries supported by the establishment of Migration & Displacement Working Groups by several Regional Economic Commissions’ (RECs) departments of statistics, have created platforms for peer exchange, and EGRISS engages with these initiatives to promote the mainstreaming of displacement and statelessness statistics. In addition, the African Union Commission’s STATAFRIC, one of EGRISS’ Steering Committee members, invests in capacity development for better migration and displacement statistics in the context of the updated Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa (SHASA II). 

 The 4th iteration of the African School on Migration Statistics, organized by STATAFRIC and SCB in collaboration with EGRISS and its members, was held in Abidjan in May 2025. The school aimed to leverage existing momentum to improve the production and use of data and statistics on forced displacement and statelessness in Africa. Representatives from Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Sudan delivered presentations on implementation efforts in their countries. 

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In the European context, the challenges of forced displacement remain pertinent, particularly as the region has experienced a significant increase in internal displacement in recent years, caused by both conflict and disasters.  

Engaging with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) Expert Group on Population and Migration Statistics (formerly only on Migration Statistics), presents itself as one key regional platform with which EGRISS engages. EGRISS co-organized a Workshop on Refugee, IDP and Statelessness Statistics with UNECE in 2024, bringing together interested UNECE member states to discuss the implementation of the International Recommendations on Statistics for Refugees, IDPs and Stateless Persons. The event capitalized on the regular meeting of the UNECE Group of Experts on Migration Statistics who met during the following two days. During the workshop, examples from countries making use of the recommendations in practice were presented, including presentations from Armenia, Republic of Moldova, Germany and Kyrgyzstan that concerned census and survey activities. Others shared both experiences and plans to improve national statistics on these vulnerable population groups, including through enhanced statistical cooperation and use of administrative data sources. 

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Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) has witnessed a significant outflow of refugees, while many individuals are also internally displaced, often due to violence from organized crime, gang activities, and natural disasters. NSOs of effected countries in the region are working to strengthen their technical and coordination capacities and making these populations visible in their official statistics. 

 In 2022, the Central American Integration System (SICA) and EGRISS concretized their collaboration through a series of online meetings that led up to a regional, in-person workshop. EGRISS LAC Task Team, led by UNHCR, the Central American Statistical Commission (CENTROESTAD), JIPS, and IOM, consolidated a strategic partnership in 2023 with the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC) to strengthen statistical production on internally displaced persons, refugees, and stateless persons. This included a series of online webinars to introduce the IRRS, IRIS and IROSS to regional stakeholders. 

 In September 2023, during the 12th meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas (SCA), a working group was formalised for the 2024-2025 period under the leadership of Honduras’ National Institute of Statistics (INE). It aims to contribute to policy development and monitoring international commitments such as the Global Compact on Refugees and the Global Compact for Migration. The Working Group will submit its deliverables in Q4 2025. 

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Asia and the Pacific region hosts several large refugee populations, particularly from countries experiencing conflict. Statelessness also affects many communities in the region, often due to restricted nationality laws, historical migration, and gaps in birth registration – globally, 58 per cent of all reported stateless people are in the Asia and the Pacific region (2.5 million) according to UNHCR. (Global Trends report 2024).  

 Against the backdrop of the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Decade in Asia and the Pacific, EGRISS has worked with members in the region to raise awareness and build capacity to implement the IRRS, IRIS and IROSS. This included through the organization of a workshop for member states in 2024 to promote and support the development of inclusive CRVS systems. Jointly organized by UNESCAP, UNHCR, UNICEF and the International Data Alliance for Children on the Move (IDAC), the workshop aimed to strengthen statistics on statelessness and forced displacement by raising awareness of the IRRS, IRIS and IROSS and discussing opportunities for implementation. The 4-day event underlined the importance of collaboration across governmental institutions to ensure adequate inclusion of these often-marginalized groups within administrative systems.  

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Western Asia hosts almost one third (31%) of the world’s refugees, asylum-seekers and IDPs according to the most recent global estimates. As a result of a series of major national and international conflicts in countries like Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Gaza, in addition to natural disasters, the region’s forced displacement crisis has been acute and protracted for years. Despite this, data gaps in national statistics on refugees and IDPs remain high. 

 In 2024, EGRISS initiated a partnership with the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA) to start to address these gaps, building on experiences from other regions. 

 The EGRISS-UNESCWA Regional Workshop on IRRS, IRIS, and IROSS was co-organized with UNHCR, JIPS, UNRWA and UNFPA, and was generously hosted by the League of Arab States in Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt. The workshop aimed to familiarize participants with the IRRS, IRIS and IROSS, and to strengthen the capacity of Member States to collect data on these populations inspired and informed by these standards. During the workshops, presentations on the current situation of forced displacement and statelessness in their respective contexts as well as their ongoing efforts towards statistical inclusion were held by countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, Tunisia, Mauritania, Iraq, Libya and Djibouti. 

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