In celebration of World Refugee Day, Concordia hosted a set of Strategic Dialogues, including one in partnership with UNHCR – the UN Refugee Agency to examine the role of private sector partnerships in support of refugee communities on a global scale, as well as one in partnership with the Refugee Congress and Refugee Council USA to identify levers of influence for local, state, and federal U.S. asylum and resettlement policy. These in-depth, collaborative dialogues convened high-level decision-makers from the public, private, and civil society spaces and engaged representatives of the global refugee community for a candid discussion on what’s working, and what’s not. Concordia and its partners are committed to amplifying calls to action and next steps on World Refugee Day and every day.
Concordia has a history of Strategic Dialogue programming on the role of the private sector and local elected officials in shaping policies and processes to support socio-economic integration. Many of the best practices learned through these multi-year programming sets in terms of community engagement, refugee empowerment, and local responses are all the more critical in light of the current crisis facing the global community.
Based on the latest figures published in its Global Trends Report 2019, the UNHCR – the UN Refugee Agency cites unprecedented global numbers of displacement, with 79.5 million displaced worldwide at the end of 2019. Displaced populations come primarily from five countries: Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar. Deputy High Commissioner Kelly Clements also cited that this displacement was too often generational: “They’re displacements for a lifetime or a generation.” This tragedy has been compounded by COVID-19, which is creating an “emergency on top of an emergency,” according to Clements. And while the discussions uncovered many process and policy points that must be addressed to more adequately respond to the refugee crisis, both dialogues uncovered silver linings as well; more than ever before, there are partnerships taking the lead to design more equitable and sustainable responses that position empowered refugees at the center of their design.
