As delivered by Senior Advisor Stian Nordengen Christensen
Thank you, Chair
Norway would like to make the following three remarks to the draft text under this agenda item:
First, we recognise the need for global refugee summits as high level-pledging conferences, and agree that there should be a template for pledges as well as a regular stock-taking. It is important that pledges can be made not just for financing, but also other modalities for responsibility sharing, such as resettlement places. In addition, we believe that the most important prerequisites for success of such summits is (first) broad political support for the GCR itself; (second) a credible and comprehensive system for mapping global responsibility sharing, and (third) a systematic analysis and reporting on how states and actors actually deliver on their pledges.
Second, we welcome the general direction in the new language about the “global support platforms” to work on specific national or regional situations, instead of being a global standing group. However, we will welcome further specifications about roles, criteria for membership and most importantly expected outputs, before concluding on the whether such platforms have value added. As the proof of the pudding is in the eating, we would propose that the UNHCR considers to hold a table-top simulation exercise with states to test potential value added from the proposed set-up of global support platforms in comparison with existing mechanisms.
Third and finally, on the “solidarity conferences”: We believe UNHCR should consider developing templates for pledging and a standardised system of mapping follow-up of pledges and of reporting on progress, much in line with the thinking behind the global refugee summits.
Thank you, Chair.