13-15 December 2023
The second Global Refugee Forum was held in Geneva in December 2023. The event presented an opportunity for the global community to come together to strengthen implementation of the Global Compact on Refugees. Over 4,200 participants from 168 countries attended the Forum, including more than 300 refugee delegates. The inclusion of refugees, IDPs and stateless persons in national statistics as a critical tool to enable more inclusive policies and better target development programming, was clearly highlighted during the Forum.
Together with the JDC and the Republic of Djibouti, the EGRISS successfully co-led a multi-stakeholder pledge on statistical inclusion of refugees, IDPs and statelessness, with support from UNHCR. Results were announced at the GRF by UNDP’s Associate Administrator, with over 60 pledges received in 2023 from host countries, international and regional organisations and donors. Building upon the existing baseline from 2019, this indicates a total of almost 80 pledges demonstrating increased political will by countries and other stakeholders to support the inclusion of displaced and stateless persons in national census, surveys and administrative data systems.
A high-level side event, including interventions from Peru, Chad, Djibouti and the Philippines alongside Denmark, EU, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank was held to draw more attention to the importance of national statistics to underpin inclusive policies and development programming for refugees and others. In addition, IGAD’s Head of Statistics delivered a complementary Speakers’ Corner presentation, emphasizing the role of regional and international cooperation to further statistical inclusion, drawing on experience from the East African region as well as their participation in EGRISS activities.
Results from the EGRISS-run GAIN survey were also shared during the Forum, including through a permanent display in the lobby and a dedicated flyer, and a video on EGRISS’s work and the international recommendations was also shared through the event’s digital space.
