NRC and UNHCR expand cooperation under new agreement
NRC and UNHCR expand cooperation under new agreement
NRC and UNHCR today signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at further boosting cooperation between the two organizations in their efforts to help the millions of people around the world who are forcibly displaced or stateless.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in a meeting in Geneva between United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres and Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland. It updates and expands an existing 1992 agreement between the two organizations, who over the past 20 years have worked jointly in multiple areas, among them planning of protection work, assessments, monitoring, training, environmental issues, cross-border displacement and camp management.
"UNHCR's partnership with NRC has endured over two decades and become crucially important for us," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres. "Our hope is that this strategic partnership will lead to better-still emergency response, as well as maximize the significant resources of our two organizations for solutions across our operations, and thereby directly benefit refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people, and those who are stateless."
"I am glad and proud to sign this important agreement between UNHCR and NRC. This renewed agreement sets out an ambitious agenda to deepen the partnership between our organizations in some of the most difficult places in the world, as well as at the level of the global policy research and innovation," said Mr. Egeland.
"We will capitalize on our long operational partnership in contexts where we still see long-term protracted displacement such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. We are now facing a terrible crisis in Syria and the neighbouring countries, the largest humanitarian challenge in this generation, and it is very important that humanitarian organizations are able to cooperate effectively," Egeland added.
The MOU signed on Thursday establishes a framework for cooperation. The two organizations will work together over the coming months to develop concrete action plans and projects. These are expected to be in the areas of shelter and emergency response; housing, land and property rights; protection for refugees and internally displaced people; assessments and analysis; cash-based responses; camp management; capacity building of local partners; and joint advocacy and resource mobilization.