The delegation with from left to right: Martin Christensson (UN Building Administration), Jørgen Brisson (UN Common Services), Luan Osmani (UNHCR), Iona Lee (WB), Ewen Macleod (UNHCR), Xavier Devictor (WB), Thomas Thomsen (MFA), Jens Ole Back Hansen (Danida MFA) – UNHCR C.Arnaud
On 28 September, a delegation comprised of the World Bank Group, UNHCR and the Government of Denmark representatives visited UN City to discuss the establishment of a Joint Data Centre on forced displacement.
The new centre will greatly improve statistics on refugees, other displaced people and host communities by enabling a better informed and more sustainable response to forced displacement, underpinning a coordinated humanitarian-development approach.
With the support of the Government of Denmark, the operationalization of this innovative initiative is well underway and the center should start its activities by the first quarter of 2019 with around 10 highly qualified staff coming on board to work as statisticians, economists and data experts.
Systematically making data available will allow for a dramatic scaling up of such critical analytical work, which is essential as the World Bank Group and UNHCR collaborate to support both refugees and host communities. Evidence-based information will also be available for use by practitioners and policy makers to improve programs and projects on forced displacement.