Global

Q. Do you think this expansion of policies, tools, and job change anything from the point of view of the affected populations? Well, I think first of all, I think changing our systems of how we do things, you know we still, you know, like, doing these participatory assessments, that are being yearly repeated and it's the same thing. There are no changes, so I think we need to change that. I think what we need to do is this participatory assessment should not be just done by people within the UNHCR’s humanitarian circles. If you want to get proper data, and you want the people to talk about that data in relation to the services they receive. And if you want to empower those people to collect that data for you. Train them. Educate them. Capacitate them. It is happening but in very baby steps I would say, then you will get, we will get what we are asking for, and I and I also think one thing that we're doing, and I think it's a very good beginning, and I think we should hire refugee United Nations Volunteer. Now, that's a start somewhere that you know it is a person of concern who feels, you know you're giving that person ownership within the organization, but also outside of the organization. So outside, I mean, is the example that I gave right now, but also to be part of the UN family, and to also progress as a person, but to represent their community in general. So, I think there are steps we are doing, but I think we need to do more. And I think, and I think this for me would be an ideal beginning. If that would answer your question.

Participation from Policy to Practice

UNHCR’s accountability towards the populations of concern it serves is assessed through the optics of the data collated and processed as part of the yearly country operations planning (COP) exercise. Refugee law informs UNHCR’s corporate data sets, which numerically express the distribution of humanitarian needs across the globe. Data that are collected at the local country level are then harnessed at the global level to present the fiscal needs to the donors to close the gap between the intent of the law and the experiences of those being quantified in data (the rights-based indicators of international law) for its multi-billion-dollar yearly budget. As an outcome of this fiscal exercise, UNHCR's activities, spanning from casework to decision-making, are chronicled in two primary sources: The Global Trends Report and the Global Report. What used to be the Annual Statistical Report (ASR) crafted via the Country Operations Plan (COP) process has evolved into an interactive feature with the 'Refugee Data Finder’ supplementing the Global Trends Report. The Global Trends Report provides a numerical representation of the populations served by UNHCR, highlighting the latest trends and figures. These data subsequently inform the Global Report, detailing UNHCR's budgetary actions and expenditures. Some of these financial details are accessible through the Global Focus website. The community feedback and data that UNHCR gathers through participatory assessments are part of a standardized process of opinion building which is tightly controlled by the staff working for the organization during the COP process. The topics discussed with the communities do not involve figures, budgets, or the evolution of project targets over the years, nor do they involve the communities setting their own goals and identifying impactful activities from which they would benefit the most. Basically, the staff decide which questions to ask, ask the questions, and the people answer. The resultant COP narrative describes the consequences of the problems, the applicable standards, and the findings of participatory engagement with the communities. In addition to participatory assessments, the staff working in various sections pull the baseline data (starting point) on the identified protection risks and gaps affecting each population type that the organization is mandated to serve (refugees, stateless persons, returnees, and internally displaced persons) for the reporting year from various UNHCR and partner agency sources that are not connected to each other, e.g., registration and case management data, mission reports, direct field observations, and technical surveys of UNHCR. These data serve to quantify the unmet needs of the populations by outlining assistance and protection gaps in the resultant Global Trends and Global Report. In other words, the organization, through its expert staff, evaluates its own performance against the standards put forth in the legal and administrative framework with data and narrative text to explain its expenditures and ask for funding. The primary issue with an organization evaluating its own performance is the potential lack of objectivity. When expert staff within the same organization are responsible for assessing their work against standards and reporting on it, there's a risk of bias—intentional or not—in favour of the organization's interests. This self-assessment leads to a less critical perspective, underreporting of problems, and overemphasis on successes. Additionally, when the purpose of such evaluation is to explain expenditures and request funding, there is a tendency to present the data in a way that justifies continued or increased funding, rather than providing a transparent and balanced account of both successes and shortcomings.

Donor-Driven Participation

Q. How would you have imagined the community-owned humanitarian technology or tool to be for the displaced persons to represent themselves and communicate what matters to them the most when they want to seek redress when they want to communicate back with the organization? I don't know. I really don't know now that I think about it. I have no clue, because like apparently in person, it doesn't work, right? Coming to the office and complaining may or may not work depending on whom you are talking to and if the person you are talking to is already burnt out. And then usually these incidents may get covered. If they do not have access to the internet…I really have no clue how this can work. It creates more desperate situations I suppose that may not know how to get out of, and being in a country that you are already most of the time discriminated. Then the organization who can help which can help you. Let's say… doesn't, bother. Then there is no one that you can go and complain. It just creates a horrible situation. I really don't know what kind of tool could help.

Technology on Participation

Q. If you had to imagine for the people to communicate what matters to them the most without UNHCR’s mediation, how would it look like? Probably, the most effective tool would have to be a representative one. But I think that should be augmented where individuals can also communicate, so that their voice isn't lost by the representative group. In some ways in some jurisdictions, you can get portals where a person of concern can communicate directly with the body through a portal that is connected to their number and application.&nbsp;&nbsp;Maybe UNHCR would not be able to cope with the potential volume of this. I doubt that you'd get meaningful responses from UNHCR too often, just because it would be overwhelmed.&nbsp; If there was a representative body, it should be one where you know the representatives rotate a lot, so that there's no nepotism or power structures growing up within the group. UNHCR could be more proactive in meeting with the community and make it more regular and allow communities to respond to whatever the UNHCR is saying is the situation, and those responses would have to be included in UNHCR’s publications, and then the UNHCR would have to respond to that response as well. All the sitrep updates should include an uncensored section for the communities’ take on it all. Q. Are policies, systems, tools, infrastructures behind UNHCR’s publicly available narrative representative of the people whom the organization serves? Sometimes the work is just sticking band-aids on problems that are going on….&nbsp; Internally, if there were very problematic staff, usually steps are taken by UNHCR or they are moved to a different unit where they work better. I mean, there are so many sides to UNHCR, there are some people at UNHCR who do think about these things and there are some who don’t.

Community Representation

Unequal power dynamics and bias in question design and interpretation of feedback by UNHCR that both implement and evaluate its own performance can lead to inaccuracies in understanding, interpreting and representing the needs and sentiments of asylum seeker and refugee communities. Questions: <ol><li>What measures does UNHCR take to inform refugees about their rights and the services available to them?</li><li>How does UNHCR ensure this information is accessible and comprehensible to all, regardless of language, literacy levels, or access to technology?</li><li>How many feedback or complaints has UNHCR received from refugees and affected communities over a specified time frame, and what is the breakdown of the types or categories of these complaints or feedback?</li><li>How effective are the existing feedback mechanisms (complaint boxes, emails to the Inspector General's Office, etc.) in resolving refugees' concerns?</li><li>How many and what type of complaints or feedback has UNHCR received from refugees and affected communities in the past year?</li><li>How many complaints or feedback messages has UNHCR received via different communication channels?&nbsp;</li><li>What are the resolution rates per channel, and how does user satisfaction vary across these channels?</li><li>What actions have been taken based on the results of these assessments?</li><li>What proportion of these complaints have been resolved, and what were the resolutions?</li><li>How is this feedback incorporated into operational planning and implementation?</li></ol>

Agency & Intention in Participatory Data Gathering

The Grand Bargain, established at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, was a response to the High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing's call to close the financing gap in humanitarian aid. It's an agreement between major donors and humanitarian organizations to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian action, directing more resources to those in need.

Over time, the Grand Bargain has evolved. In 2021, a review led to Grand Bargain 2.0, which re-emphasized the commitment to localization and quality funding. In 2023, signatories further revised the framework to adapt to increasing humanitarian needs and financial requirements. 

UNHCR has been an active participant in the Grand Bargain with open data on donor funding, increased support to local and national responders, doubling funds for cash-based interventions, improving needs assessments, and the participation of women and girls in decision-making processes. With the evolution into Grand Bargain 2.0, UNHCR revised it commitments, focusing on localisation and quality funding to meet increasing humanitarian needs and financial requirements.

The Grand Bargain

No explicit legal requirement mandating the participation of refugees in decision-making processes currently exists in international law. Nonetheless, several international legal instruments recognize the normative value of participation and mandate the inclusion of certain groups of refugees in the design and implementation of policy, particularly for women, children, and persons with disabilities. More recently, soft law standards such as the 2016 New York Declaration and the GCR have developed non-binding principles of meaningful participation and articulate best practice. These developments represent an emerging shift in thinking about the inclusion and participation of refugees in policymaking and governance.

No.4 Paragprah 34 of the GCR states that:

Responses are most effective when they actively and meaningfully engage those they are intended to protect and assist. Relevant actors will, wherever possible, continue to develop and support consultative processes that enable refugees and host community members to assist in designing appropriate, accessible and inclusive responses. States and relevant stakeholders will explore how best to include refugees and members of host communities, particularly women, youth, and persons with disabilities, in key forums and processes, as well as diaspora, where relevant.


The Global Compact on Refugees (GCR)

Diversity characteristics include ethnicity, nationality, religion, linguistic minority, social status, economic status, disability, LGBTQI. Aside from economic status and social status (on a case-by-case basis) and LGBTQI, these diversity characteristics are important as they underpin international refugee protection and are the basis for refugee status e.g. social group.


UNHCR Policy on Age, Gender, and Diversity Accountability

This toolkit aims to to ensure that UNHCR's responses involve continuous and meaningful engagement with persons of concern, understand their needs and protection risks, build on their capacities, and reflect their perspectives and priorities with a focus on four core areas:

Participation and Inclusion: Encourages the active involvement of affected people in decision-making processes.
Communication and Transparency: Emphasizes open and clear communication with persons of concern.
Feedback and Response: Addresses mechanisms for collecting and acting upon feedback from affected individuals and communities.
Organizational Learning and Adaptation: Aims to promote learning and improvement within UNHCR based on the insights and experiences of affected people.
The toolkit includes practical methods for implementing these core actions, along with adaptable tools and resources. It's intended to help UNHCR staff and managers effectively operationalize UNHCR’s accountability commitments.

UNHCR Operational Guidance on Accountability to Affected People (AAP) 

How can I  participate in UNHCR's decision making processes and provide UNHCR with feedback on the services I receive?

You have the right to be involved in decisions that affect your life. This means that when policies, programs, or actions are being discussed or implemented by UNHCR or other organizations, your voice, experience, and perspective should be considered and included. It's about ensuring you're not just a passive receiver of aid or decisions, but an active participant who can share your insights, needs, and aspirations.

This principle is acknowledged in the Global Compact on Refugees  (a major international agreement from 2018 designed to support refugees and the communities that host them), which emphasizes the importance of actively and meaningfully engaging refugees in shaping the responses that are designed to protect and assist them. Furthermore, under the international guidelines, there's an emphasis on providing refugees, especially groups like women, youth, and persons with disabilities, the opportunity to be part of key forums and processes.

In essence, your experiences and insights aren't just important— they're essential in shaping the decisions that impact your asylum journey and your life.


The Principle of Participation

Overall Conclusions:

Participatory Assessments (PAs) are conducted with genuine dedication by field teams, despite complexities.
The consultation stage of PAs effectively captures concerns, capacities, and community-suggested solutions in detail, aligning with the organization's inclusive approach.
While PA insights effectively shape priority recommendations, there's room to improve technical aspects, such as differentiating immediate actions from strategic planning and prioritizing recommendations.
The influence of PAs on operational plans varies, with some plans closely reflecting PA findings and others showing little to no incorporation.
The final step, involving communities in implementing strategies, seems to be insufficiently addressed.

A Participation Revolution
UNHCR's commitment: Ensure equal and significant participation of women and girls in all decision-making by 2020. 
UNHCR's commitment to gender equality was reinforced in the 2018 AGD Policy and tools for operational integration. A Gender Equality Toolkit and a GBV Policy were introduced in 2020 to prevent GBV and promote gender equality. Efforts include a refugee-led Gender Audit Team and recognition of Women-and Girl-Led Organizations. UNHCR also adapted engagement methods, like virtual safe spaces in Malaysia and information networks in Syria, to maintain participation amid challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

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