Joint Organisation Strategy: UNHCR—2007-2009

Introduction

UNHCR is the primary inter-governmental organisation with responsibility for protecting and finding durable solutions for refugees. The agency has also provided protection and supported solutions for many people who have been displaced internally by conflicts in recent years. UNHCR is a central actor in the global humanitarian system and has a pivotal role to play in the ongoing reforms to that system. As part of the United Nations system, UNHCR is an important actor in reforms to improve its performance and coherence¹.

Canada, Denmark and the UK (the 'donors') are strong supporters of humanitarian action, which is a core priority for each country. They are signatories to the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, and reaffirm their commitment to the Convention and Protocol as the foundation of refugee law. Consequently, UNHCR is a key partner that has traditionally received generous funding from all three countries.

Consistent with the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness² and the Principles and Good Practice of Humanitarian Donorship³, the donors have agreed a Joint Organisation Strategy (JOS) with UNHCR⁴. It is the product of a consultative process with UNHCR and is aligned with the organisation's Global Strategic Objectives (GSOs)⁵, as well as priorities and guidance provided by the Executive Committee (ExCom) and its Standing Committee. A broad range of donors to UNHCR have been informed about the JOS and are invited to become partners to this arrangement.

The overall aim of the JOS is to strengthen UNHCR's capacity for operational delivery. The donors and UNHCR aim to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their working relationship by reducing management demands and associated transaction costs, enhancing coherence in their approach, and providing greater predictability and flexibility in funding.

UNHCR developed GSOs for 2007-2009 early in 2006, and has subsequently decided to update these for 2008-2009. They reflect key objectives for the organisation across the full range of its mandate - protection, assistance, search for durable solutions, and emergency response - and management priorities for improving the organisation's capacity - including its partnerships, age, gender and diversity perspective, external relations and management. The GSOs for 2007-09 have been used as the framework for the JOS, highlighting those issues that are of highest priority to the donors⁶.

The JOS covers the period 2007-2009 to reflect the period of UNHCR's GSOs. The donors and UNHCR will monitor progress in achieving the objectives of this strategy on the basis of performance indicators and targets. Progress against objectives will be assessed annually and indicators and targets will be reviewed as required⁷. The donors expect steady advancement over the three years. During the lifetime of the JOS, UNHCR will be moving towards longer-term planning and budgeting, and improved tracking of results and indicators, which the donors strongly welcome.

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2. Description of UNHCR

This section provides a brief overview of UNHCR's mandate and objectives, organisation and governance structures, and financial resources.

Mandate

UNHCR was established by the General Assembly in 1950. Since then its mandate has been extended every 5 years up to 2003, at which time the General Assembly agreed that UNHCR will continue to exist "until the refugee problem is solved". The basis for the work of UNHCR is the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, and the Statute of the Office.

UNHCR's mandates from the General Assembly and Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) empower it to provide international protection and humanitarian assistance to refugees and other persons of concern while working to find durable solutions to their situation⁸. At the end of 2005, UNHCR was responsible for 20.8 million people in tota⁹, including 8.4 million refugees and 12.4 million others of concern, including 6.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), as well as asylum-seekers, returnees (for up to 2 years after they return home), and stateless persons¹⁰. In the 55 years since its creation, UNHCR has helped provide protection and assistance to over 50 million forcibly displaced people. While the number of refugees has been declining in recent years the number of IDPs for whom UNHCR is responsible has increased, a trend that is likely to continue.

In September 2005, UNHCR agreed with other members of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), which includes UN humanitarian agencies, the Red Cross Movement, NGOs and the International Organization for Migration, to provide a more consistent and predictable response to the needs of conflict-generated IDPs, when UNHCR became the lead agency for the three 'clusters'¹¹ of protection, emergency shelter, and camp coordination and management. UNHCR will be an active participant in the early recovery cluster, behind the leadership of UNDP, which is designed to cover the transition between humanitarian and longer-term development activities for populations recovering from a disaster or crisis, as well as all other clusters to which its expertise and resources can contribute. In 2006, UNHCR agreed to participate in the cluster approach in four pilot countries covering approximately 3.7 million IDPs (Uganda, Somalia, Liberia and Democratic Republic of Congo), as well as in response to new crises. Given that there were an estimated 23.7 million conflict-generated IDPs at the end of 2005, UNHCR's responsibilities and need for resources is likely to increase as the cluster approach is rolled out to more countries.

These mandates and responsibilities make UNHCR an important agency for the donors, who are keen to see increasingly effective international humanitarian action, including action to address the plight of refugees and IDPs. Furthermore, UNHCR contributes to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) among its populations of concern, by working with governments and development actors to promote durable solutions to the situation of refugees and other persons of concern and to support them in the transition from humanitarian relief to development assistance, as well as helping to save lives and alleviate suffering during humanitarian crises¹².

Organisation and Governance

By late 2005, UNHCR had 262 offices in 116 countries, and a staff of 6,885 to serve approximately 20-million people of concern. UNHCR is organised into three main parts: (1) Protection, incorporating the Division of International Protection Services, and headed by an Assistant High Commissioner for Protection; (2) Operations, including five Regional Bureaux and the Division of Operational Services, headed by an Assistant High Commissioner for Operations; and (3) Management, including four Divisions for Financial and Administration Management, Human Resources, Information Systems and Telecommunications and External Relations. Approximately 85% of UNHCR staff work in field locations.

UNHCR is governed by an Executive Committee (ExCom), which is a subsidiary organ of the UN General Assembly and is elected by ECOSOC and which now includes 70 members¹³. The Committee's main function is to approve the High Commissioner's assistance programmes, advise the High Commissioner in the exercise of his/her functions (including through policy guidance and the development of conclusions on international refugee protection), and oversee the Office's finances and administration. ExCom meets in plenary session for one week every year, and has inter-sessional Standing Committee meetings every three to four months.

Financial Resources and Accountability

Total contributions to UNHCR in 2005 amounted to US$1.1 billion¹⁴. The donors have consistently been among UNHCR's strongest supporters, especially in the provision of unrestricted (or "un-earmarked") funds. The following table shows their overall and unrestricted contributions in 2005, together with the percentage shares of total overall and unrestricted contributions, as well as their positions in the ranking of donors to UNHCR according to level of contribution:

Country	Overall Contribution			Unrestricted Contribution15
	US$	Share	Rank	US$	Share	Rank
Canada	31.7	2.9 %	10	11.7	5.3 %	6
Denmark	53.0	4.8 %	8	22.8	10.4 %	3
United Kingdom	56.9	5.2 %	7	38.1	17.4 %	2
Combined	141.6	12.9 %		72.6	33.2 %

The donors are active in UNHCR's ExCom and Standing Committee meetings. Generally, they find that these Committees facilitate good accountability to member states, as UNHCR is responsive to ExCom's advice and guidance. This JOS has been guided by ExCom decisions. It will provide a coherent framework for the donors' interests and support, including through ExCom, policy dialogue and other meetings.

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3. Key Strategic Issues for UNHCR

UNHCR faces several important challenges during this time of significant change in the UN system and the humanitarian system. Some challenges are primarily externally driven, while others are internal. Among the most important at present are:

• UNHCR's efforts at organisational reform in the coming year - especially structural and management change, adoption of results-based management (RBM), introduction of new resource allocation mechanisms, and an improved evaluation function - which should strengthen effectiveness and efficiency across UNHCR's work, and thereby free up resources for frontline operations;
• UNHCR is expanding its role in specific sectors, as part of the wider inter-agency approach, with regard to conflict-generated IDPs, whose numbers have remained persistently high even as the number of refugees worldwide has decreased;
• As one of the pre-eminent UN humanitarian agencies, UNHCR must continue to strengthen emergency response and preparedness, working in partnership with others to improve capacity, co-ordination and efficiency, so that it can respond effectively and provide strong cluster leadership in new emergencies, without disrupting ongoing humanitarian activities;
• Ensuring access to international protection for refugees remains a critical need - some 50% of UNHCR country offices reported concerns relating to potential violations of the principle of non-refoulement in 2005, and some 75% of states who were in breach of the non-refoulement principle were signatories to the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol;
• The growth of "mixed flows" of both economic migrants and refugees poses particular challenges, to which UNHCR must respond by ensuring that international protection is provided to those in need of it, while also working with governments to help maintain the integrity of domestic asylum systems;
• Emphasis must continue on finding durable solutions for refugees and other populations of concern - including sustainable voluntary repatriation, local integration (for which the UNDP-led Early Recovery Cluster and more general partnerships with development actors are crucial), and resettlement;
• Age, gender and diversity policies need to be promoted and applied consistently across operations and management; and
• Given the complexity of situations requiring humanitarian response, and the wide range of relevant actors (especially but not only in the context of UNHCR's increased activities for IDPs), UNHCR will increasingly need to rely on partnerships in its operations - including partnerships with other humanitarian organisations and with development agencies.

Considering these challenges, and the full set of GSOs, the donors and UNHCR have decided to focus on five areas for the JOS which they consider to be particularly important. These are:

• Emergency response and preparedness;
• Durable solutions;
• Internally displaced persons;
• Age, gender and diversity;
• Results-based management and evaluation.

The table below sets out how the five focus areas relate to UNHCR's 2007-09 GSOs:

JOS Strategic Priority	UNHCR 2007-09 GSO
Emergency response and preparedness	GSO 6.3 and 6.2
Durable solutions	GSO 3
Internally displaced persons	GSO 4.1 and 5.1
Age, gender and diversity	GSO 1
Results-based management and evaluation	GSO 6.5

The following sections outline agreed priorities for the period 2007-2009 in each of these areas.

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4. Strategic Priorities - Emergency Response and Preparedness

While UNHCR is able to respond effectively to smaller emergencies, larger emergencies (those with populations of concern of over 500,000 persons) continue to pose a serious challenge to the organisation¹⁷ and the humanitarian system as a whole. UNHCR's efforts to strengthen its capacity to be able to respond to an emergency involving up to 500,000 beneficiaries - through continuous monitoring of security, forced displacement and repatriation possibilities and through maintenance and development of standby and surge preparedness- are strongly welcomed by the three donors.

UNHCR and other humanitarian actors must find ways to work together more effectively to prepare for, and respond to, both individual large and concurrent smaller emergencies. UNHCR's role as cluster lead for camp management, emergency shelter and protection for conflict-generated IDPs will result in an increase in the number of emergencies in which it plays a part, which may in turn increase its beneficiary caseload. This will require a significant change in UNHCR's delivery framework. In particular, the role of cluster lead does not imply that UNHCR should undertake all activities itself, but rather lead and co-ordinate the work of others and act as provider of last resort. Key to this will be the development of partnerships within the cluster response system in order to strengthen standby and surge capacity in terms of (a) staff numbers and skills, (b) size, access and inter-operability of relief supplies, and (c) service delivery and logistical capacity.

In order to support a more needs-based strategic and coordinated response, UNHCR should continue to work effectively under the leadership of the Humanitarian Coordinator/Resident Coordinator to improve the quality of Flash Appeals and Common Humanitarian Action Plans, actively supporting OCHA's humanitarian co-ordination role, and strengthen partnerships with other agencies in order to improve joint needs assessments.

The donors welcome UNHCR's continued efforts to reform internal procedures so that they are both flexible and efficient thus enabling the fastest possible mobilisation of staff, equipment, relief items and funding, and ensuring the protection and assistance of forcibly displaced populations, and the safety and security of UNHCR staff members and beneficiaries. As UNHCR strengthens its capacity to respond to new and protracted emergencies, it is critical that it maintains the capacity and the quality of service delivery in response to existing commitments where there is an ongoing humanitarian need.

In addition, paramount is the requirement for UNHCR to ensure safety and security for staff who work in some of the toughest places in the world, as well as for its populations of concern. The donors strongly encourage UNHCR to continue to make progress on implementing its 2005 work plan on security management, including efforts to mainstream security into every facet of UNHCR's work. Security management efforts should address the needs of national and international staff, and operational partners¹⁸.

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5. Strategic Priorities - Durable Solutions

Achieving a durable solution - be it voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement for refugees; or voluntary return, relocation and reintegration for IDPs - is the ultimate objective of UNHCR. However, the search for durable solutions is often a difficult task, and less visible than UNHCR's basic protection, care and maintenance activities. Nevertheless, in recent years, there has been a welcome increase in attention to durable solutions, through pilot programmes such as Development Assistance for Refugees (DAR) and the 4Rs approach to voluntary repatriation (Repatriation, Reintegration, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction). These pilots have shown some success, but there have been challenges arising from reluctance to participate by, or from institutional barriers to working together with, governments and development agencies who are essential partners in finding durable solutions.

The donors welcome UNHCR's commitment to the achievement of durable solutions, particularly for those who have been in need of support for a protracted length of time. This effort begins with ensuring that there are comprehensive strategies for finding durable solutions and that implementation of these strategies is consistently tracked. UNHCR should encourage an emphasis on durable solutions from the outset of operations, engaging governments and UN entities (including the Department of Political Affairs), in order to minimise the likelihood that new refugee situations will become protracted. The donors are committed to supporting UNHCR's prioritisation of protracted refugee situations, so that UNHCR - with support from donor governments and others - can focus its work on the most important situations for resolution.

The donors support UNHCR in its efforts to pursue the full range of durable solutions and ensure that solutions are sustainable, and age and gender sensitive. UNHCR will continue its efforts to improve monitoring and reporting on progress achieved in durable solutions using both qualitative and quantitative measures. In its durable solutions programmes, UNHCR is committed to ensuring that:

• Voluntary repatriation and reintegration programmes, conducted in partnership with development partners, governments, returnees and local communities, enable the sustainable reintegration of returnees;
• Local integration programmes encourage and facilitate host countries to grant refugees rights similar to those of citizens, and to benefit from development assistance available to host communities. In promoting and supporting local integration, UNHCR will adopt a range of approaches: refugee self-reliance strategies and projects at a minimum, facilitating economic integration (e.g. through work permits or access to land in rural areas, for both women and men) where possible, and ideally securing legal and cultural integration in host countries, particularly where voluntary repatriation is not a foreseeable option;
• Resettlement is treated as a core activity within UNHCR and mainstreamed in Country Operations Plans and budgets. UNHCR will continue to create and maintain resettlement hubs in Africa and elsewhere, as appropriate, reinforcing this network through the Resettlement Service. UNHCR and the donors will work to use resettlement more strategically, and employ effective approaches such as group resettlement more frequently, to provide protection and durable solutions to more refugees globally.

UNHCR and the donors recognise that durable solutions for refugees and IDPs will require enhanced cooperation from development agencies and governments to close the "gap between relief and development" which often exists between the end of humanitarian response and the beginning of the longer-term development response. UNHCR has given high priority to this issue, which is welcomed by the donors. In particular, the donors support UNHCR's intention to be an active participant in the UNDP-led Early Recovery Cluster as a mechanism for engaging development actors and closing the "gap". UNHCR will actively engage with the new Peacebuilding Commission as the latter becomes fully operational and will continue efforts to become involved in the planning processes in countries of origin and host countries, including Common Country Assessments (CCA), UN Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAF), and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP), to ensure that refugees and IDPs are included.

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6. Strategic Priorities - Internally Displaced Persons

Refugees and IDPs have very real protection and assistance needs, irrespective of whether they are inside or outside their country's borders.The internally displaced have long been underserved by the international community, as highlighted in the Humanitarian Response Review of 2005. While refugee numbers are declining, the number of conflict-generated IDPs remains exceptionally high at over 20 million people. UNHCR has assisted in specific IDP situations in the past, consistent with UN General Assembly resolutions and ExCom conclusions, which noted that this role should not come at the expense of the right to asylum.

Positive efforts have been made to strengthen the UN system's response to IDPs in the last 5 years, in particular as part of the inter-agency collaborative approach, which recognised that no single agency could address the various needs which IDPs have in a given context. However, the international community has made clear, including during the 2005 UN High Level Summit, that it wishes to see further progress towards a more predictable and accountable response by the UN system to meeting the needs of internally displaced persons. The High-level Panel on UN System-wide Coherence in the areas of Development, Humanitarian Assistance and the Environment stated that "UNHCR must reposition itself to provide protection and assistance for displaced people in need, regardless of whether they have crossed an international border", and recommended that: "The humanitarian agencies should clarify their mandates and enhance their cooperation on internally displaced persons. In particular, the role of UNHCR should be reviewed, to establish a clear mandate and to further strengthen the effectiveness of the UN's approach to addressing the needs of internally displaced persons"¹⁹.

The donors welcome the commitment of UNHCR to strengthening the international humanitarian system and improving responses to conflict-generated IDPs as part of the cluster system whereby it will provide greater support to the Humanitarian Coordinator at the field level, under the overall responsibility of the Emergency Relief Coordinator. They welcome UNHCR's continued commitments to improved field-level co-ordination.

Our shared overall priority in relation to IDPs is that UNHCR is better able to contribute to system-wide efforts to address the protection and assistance needs of conflicted-generated IDPs over the years 2007-2009 in the areas it has volunteered to coordinate: currently, protection, emergency shelter, and camp management and coordination. This will be achieved by working with others within the context of the collective framework of responsibilities developed by the IASC. As cluster lead, UNHCR should focus on expanding its partnership with other operational organisations while also keeping in mind its responsibility to act as the agency of last resort. This will require increased capacity from the agency to fulfill this new role in IDP protection and assistance, and active engagement in assessing needs and planning for IDPs with other agencies. In addition, the donors recognise that UNHCR will need adequate funding to undertake an expanded role with conflict-generated IDPs as it continues to support refugees.

To succeed in this new endeavour, the donors will support UNHCR in its effort to:

• Clearly articulate a vision for its work with conflict-generated IDPs, especially within the cluster system;
• Clarify how best to integrate IDP work into its programming and budgeting;
• Develop a strategy for needs-based resource allocation and budgeting which should lead towards a budget covering all UNHCR's "persons of concern", bearing in mind the requirement to ensure that the needs of refugees remain a priority consideration consistent with UN General Assembly resolutions; and
• Establish, in collaboration with other humanitarian actors, standards and indicators for IDPs for its three areas of cluster leadership, in order to improve global reporting on impact during 2007-2009.

The donors urge UNHCR to continue to ensure that its work for conflict-generated IDPs does not affect the right of IDPs to seek asylum.

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7. Strategic Priorities - Age, Gender and Diversity

Applying the principle of equality will help to ensure that the well-being of all refugees and IDPs - women, men, girls and boys - is improved and that their rights are realised. Recognising that age, gender and diversity mainstreaming as an objective in itself, the donors believe that it should continue to be vigorously pursued by UNHCR across all program activities and supported at the highest levels of the organisation.

Protection of women, children and groups with specific needs must be a high priority for UNHCR. In particular, UNHCR must take measures to prevent and respond effectively to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and sexual exploitation and abuse, consistent with the Secretary General's bulletin on special measures for protection from the latter (ST/SGB/2003/13) and consistent with UNHCR's own guidelines on SGBV. It must also pay special attention to enhancing the protection of women and girls who find themselves in situations of heightened risk.

To this end, UNHCR will strive to:

• Make further progress on the implementation of the age, gender and diversity (AGD) mainstreaming strategy by ensuring that all country operations plans (COPs) incorporate the results of AGD participatory assessments, implement the AGD accountability framework, and make further progress in the development of a three-year AGD corporate strategic plan to consolidate gains made to date;
• Actively contribute to the prevention of and response to sexual and gender-based violence, including sexual exploitation and abuse consistent with the Secretary General's bulletin on special measures for protection from the latter (ST/SGB/2003/13) and consistent with UNHCR's guidelines on SGBV; and
• Take steps to make its workforce gender-balanced and capable of meeting future needs.

Among other measures, this requires:

• Increasing capacity in the field to address the range of protection concerns through the appropriate recruitment, training and deployment of staff, including protection officers;
• Ensuring that all staff have relevant and sufficient training on age, gender and diversity issues and on participatory assessment methodology;
• Further development of the gender sub-roster ²⁰ in the protection surge-capacity project and continued deployment of child protection and community services officers; and
• Implementing a gender equity policy in the area of human resources.

Finally, UNHCR should measure progress on age, gender and diversity issues by including targets and indicators related to age, gender and diversity in the presentation of results, and by addressing issues that emerge in subsequent planning and operations.

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8. Strategic Priorities - Results-Based Management and Evaluation

UNHCR has made significant progress in the past few years on implementing results-based management (RBM). The format of the annual Global Reports has improved. Global Strategic Objectives for 2007-2009 have been established, as have Priority Performance Targets for 2007. However, considerable work remains to be done. We consider the following activities to be central to consolidating RBM throughout the organization:

• Continuing to enhance results-based planning and reporting at the global, regional, and country levels;
• Improving needs-based prioritisation and resource allocation processes throughout the organisation;
• Developing and measureable performance indicators and targets that include impact measures and are increasingly "SMART" (i.e., Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound);
• Strengthening RBM in operations through the development, refinement and full implementation in the field and Headquarters of UNHCR's RBM Software, Focus. When fully implemented, Focus should strengthen UNHCR's capacity to record and prioritise assessment results, set targets and establish linkages from the global level to the point of delivery, enhance monitoring and reporting, enable results-based budgeting, support improved global prioritisation and resource allocation based on identified needs, and strengthen accountability; and
• Developing and improving UNHCR's accountability system, including clarification of accountability relationships, revised accountability mechanisms, improved procedures for needs-based planning and reporting to beneficiaries and anti-corruption policies.

Evaluation plays an important role in any learning organisation, especially one in the process of transformation like UNHCR. What is learnt from evaluations informs decision-making and leads to improved policies, strategies and practices. Evaluation is a core feedback mechanism in RBM, yet it needs to be strengthened considerably at UNHCR. The donors urge UNHCR to rebuild this function so as to allow lesson-learning, adaptation for addressing future challenges and managing for results. There is a significant opportunity to do this through the new Policy Development and Evaluation Service (PDES) launched in 2005. UNHCR should strive to:

• Build the capacity of the evaluation function within PDES by recruiting sufficient staff and allocating sufficient budget so that the function can meet the norms and standards for evaluation in the UN system, and deliver on a revised UNHCR evaluation policy, including sufficient numbers of evaluations;
• Make sure that findings and recommendations from evaluations are utilised to guide policy-making, strategic planning and operations management - this is an essential element of RBM.

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9. Monitoring and Review

The donors and UNHCR will track progress on the priority objectives of this strategy on the basis of jointly agreed performance indicators and targets. Targets will be reviewed at annual review meetings and will aim to encourage steady improvements over the three years covered by the strategy. It may be necessary to review indicators during the three years, however the donors will seek to rationalise and justify this process. The donors will coordinate and seek to minimise requests for additional reporting. They will work with UNHCR to identify performance indicators and targets that are based on UNHCR's GSOs and performance indicators. This should minimise the reporting obligations on UNHCR additional to its standard annual reporting mechanisms (such as reports to ExCom and its Standing Committee, the report to the General Assembly and the Global Report, which include reporting on progress towards the GSOs and Priority Performance Targets).

The donors support UNHCR's work to improve data collection and analysis, including on impact and at the global level. This should result in improved global reporting of impact in the five objective areas identified in this strategy.

In recognition of the challenges UNHCR faces in aggregating, consolidating and analysing data and results at the global level, UNHCR will use 2006 reporting as necessary to establish baselines that will enable the setting of appropriate performance targets in 2007 and subsequent years.

At the end of the JOS period, the donors and UNHCR will jointly evaluate the performance of UNHCR to determine the extent to which it has delivered the objectives and desired impact outlined in this strategy. As part of this evaluation they will review the harmonised approach taken to this strategy and share lessons-learned about the strengths and weaknesses of the approach.

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Footnotes

¹Reform of the UN system is progressing following the publication of the Report of the High-Level Panel (HLP) on System-wide Coherence, in the areas of Development, Humanitarian Assistance and the Environment. With the ultimate goal of enhancing outcomes for beneficiaries, the reform process will bring together the UN system in a given country so that agencies work in a more coherent and efficient manner, operating under the Resident Coordinator / Humanitarian Coordinator, and align their programmes to country priorities where appropriate. The HLP recommendations have far reaching implications for agency efficiency, and for other areas relevant to UNHCR's role such as gender equality.

²Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (March 2005) and the earlier Rome Declaration on Harmonisation (February 2003).

³Principles and Good Practice of Humanitarian Donorship was agreed by Canada, Denmark, the UK and 14 other major donors in June 2003, together with anImplementation Plan for Good Humanitarian Donorship in which the donors agreed to a number of activities including to "harmonise reporting requirements and management demands placed on implementing humanitarian organisations". See Web site.

⁴This joint organisation strategy will supersede existing framework agreements between UNHCR and Canada, Denmark and the UK so as to enable this strategy to include all three countries.

⁵UNHCR's Global Strategic Objectives 2007-09.

⁶At the end of 2007, the partners will use the revised GSOs for 2008-09 as the basis for updating the performance indicators and targets, which are included in a separate annual action plan.

⁷The donors will seek to minimise the number of indicators which are revised.

⁸See, for example, UNHCR Global Appeal 2006

⁹UNHCR Global Appeal 2006

¹⁰A stateless person is someone who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law, including persons whose nationality is not established.

¹¹The Humanitarian Response Review in 2005 recommended that the humanitarian system adopt a "lead organisation concept" to cover critical gaps in providing protection and assistance to those affected by conflict or natural disaster. In September 2005, the UN's Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) comprising the UN Humanitarian Agencies, NGOs, the Red Cross Movement and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), established nine underserved gap "clusters". These are Protection, Camp Co-ordination and Management, Water and Sanitation, Health, Emergency Shelter, Nutrition, Emergency Telecommunications, Logistics and Early Recovery.

¹²UNHCR has detailed how it contributes to the MDGs, e.g., in the document Putting Refugees on the Development Agenda: how refugees and returnees can contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals presented to the High Commissioner's Forum in May 2005.

¹³UNHCR Web site.

¹⁴UNHCR Global Appeal 2006; UNHCR Global Report 2005.

¹⁵All three donors provide additional funding earmarked at the regional or sub-regional levels, giving UNHCR additional flexibility in managing its budget; in 2005, all three donors earmarked only about a quarter of their total contributions at the country level.

¹⁷Based on the internal review conducted in 2005 and real-time evaluations of responses in Kosovo and Darfur.

¹⁸UNHCR Global Appeal 2006, pages 63-64.

¹⁹Delivering as One: Report of the Secretary-General's High-level Panel on UN System-wide Coherence in the areas of Development, Humanitarian Assistance and the Environment

²⁰The gender sub roster is a standby capacity of protection officers with particular skills and experience in gender related protection issues.