Thank you chair.
I make this statement on behalf of the Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, and my own country, Norway.
The Nordic countries welcome this special meeting of the ECOSOC and we appreciate in particular the attendance of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. Filippo Grandi.
The timing of this debate is critical as the multilateral system is facing a funding crisis and the number of forcibly displaced persons is reaching alarming record levels. This requires us to adapt, prioritize, reform – and to work in the most cost-effective ways for the benefit of refugees and internally displaced persons and their host communities.
The Nordic countries are reiterating our strong support and commitment to the Global Compact on Refugees. The Compact is key in mobilizing global support to the host communities that generously are hosting refugees.
The Compact has important recommendations on the inclusion of refugees in the host country’s education and health systems as well as labour markets. These are cost efficient measures to build self-reliance and enable the refugees to contribute to their host communities.
Also area-based approaches, and the use of local partners, are effective ways of supporting both the forcibly displaced persons as well as their host communities.
Addressing forced displacement through the humanitarian-peace-development nexus is important for the efficient use of limited financial resources in the long term.
Development actors should, in cooperation with host countries and countries of origin, take more responsibility for facilitating durable solutions to forced displacement. The partnership between the World Bank and UNHCR sets a good example.
For the Nordic countries, protection remains a priority, and this includes preventing and responding to Sexual and Gender Based Violence.
Ringfencing women’s rights and gender equality is vital both for protection and for including forcibly displaced persons and their host communities in the achievement of the sustainable development goals.
We donors must also do our part.
We should provide flexible and unearmarked funding, use pool funds and ease conditionalities and bureaucratic burdens on our partners.
This will contribute to more efficient use of resources to the benefit of both the forcibly displaced persons and their host communities.
Thank you.