By Gillian Triggs, Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Most of the world’s forcibly displaced people choose to live in towns and cities. They do so largely for economic opportunities and actively contribute to their local communities as employees, small business owners, and taxpayers. Cities can also present risks for refugees, internally displaced, and stateless people, as they have limited material and financial resources, tend to work in the informal employment sector, and are without established social networks. Cities continue to show their commitment to the world’s forcibly displaced people. Cities find innovative and pragmatic solutions to expanding local services to accommodate newcomers, including providing information about services in multiple languages and providing temporary documentation.
The Call to Local Action invites cities to pledge their concrete inclusion initiatives toward the Global Compacts on Refugees (GCR) and Migration (GCM), providing them with technical and other forms of support. Examples include the opportunity for knowledge exchange and the online course being launched at the UCLG World Congress in Daejeon, South Korea from 10-14 October 2022. UNHCR welcomes the opportunity to forge this new partnership led by the Global Forum on Migration and Development’s Mayors Mechanism, co-steered by United Cities and Local Governments, the Mayors Migration Council, and IOM, the UN Migration Agency. With its growing and robust network of cities, the Call to Local Action resulted in 36 new pledges to the GCR & GCM and 70 actions, all of which are outlined in the Report on Local Action for Migrants and Refugees from May 2022.
Pledges include training front-line staff so refugees and migrants can access municipal services in San Jose, California, improved access to banking and other services in Montréal, Canada, access to health care in Beiruit, Lebanon, and new livelihood opportunities for refugees, migrants, and internally displaced people in Nairobi, Kenya. Dhaka North, Bangladesh, commits to improving livelihood opportunities for climate-affected internally displaced people from rural areas. UNHCR looks forward to hearing more about these good practices and inviting new pledges that increase economic, social, and cultural inclusion at the local level in the lead-up to the Global Refugee Forum in December 2023.
