Dear colleagues and partners,
The world’s largest gathering on refugee issues – the Global Refugee Forum – took place in Geneva at the end of last year, and we hope you enjoyed the daily Forum newsletters that were brought to you during the event.
The Global Refugee Forum 2023 welcomed all stakeholder groups, from States to refugees, development actors, international organizations, cities, religious leaders, the private sector, civil society organizations, and many more. As noted by the High Commissioner, Filippo Grandi, in his closing remarks:
“This GRF was perhaps the greatest example of a “whole of society” approach that I have seen in my forty years of humanitarian work. As one delegate said, it is an example of ‘a new multilateralism’.”
In case you missed it, here are a few highlights from the event:
- 4,000+ participants attended the Forum. 10,000+ tuned in online.
- 320+ refugee delegates participated, four times as many as at the first GRF in 2019.
- 168 governments and 427 organizations were represented.
- Over 1,700 pledges were made, the majority in support of the multistakeholder pledges announced last year.
- The goal to resettle at least 1 million refugees by 2030 and provide complementary pathways to third countries for 3 million more was furthered through new pledges of support.
- Pledges were made for 1,000,000 pro bono hours of legal support, 100,000 job opportunities, and 400,000 training opportunities.
- 9% of pledges had a financial component, including USD 2.2 billion in financing plus many other costed contributions.
- Over USD 180 million in investment into refugee-owned, refugee-supporting ventures was announced.
- 6,000 scholarships were made available.
The GRF provided plenty of opportunities for frank discussions in a spirit of constructive engagement and unity. Bringing the Forum to a close on the Friday evening, Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, concluded that the state of the world “requires a reboot of humanity and energy to meet the challenges before us, including that of forced displacement.”
But as Evode Hakizimana, a Burundian refugee and founder and CEO of the Transformation Innovation Hub shared during the GRF, “As we start to act, hope is everywhere." With the start of a new year, there is indeed so much room for hope. Our collection of good practices now features over 550 examples of GCR stakeholders doing amazing work for refugees, stateless people, and their host communities. The multistakeholder pledges are already being translated into action, setting out what they plan to accomplish over the coming years – particularly as we start to look ahead to the High-Level Officials Meeting of 2025 - our next global opportunity to take stock of what has been achieved in support of the Compact.
We look forward to collaborating with you throughout 2024, as we continue working towards achieving the objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees.
The Global Compact on Refugees Coordination Team
PS - Check out the BBC’s Global News podcast that came out the day after the Forum had concluded, featuring stories and voices of refugee delegates on building solutions and finding hope. Contributors include Nansen global laureate Abdullahi Mire on winning the award, Bernice Kula Kula, a DAFI scholar, on AI and robotics, and Santos Madhieu, an alumnus of UNHCR’s refugee journalism mentorship programme and the host of REF FM radio in Kakuma. |
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