Closure of the Solutions Alliance

Reflecting on the changes brought about by recent initiatives launched in 2016, the Solutions Alliance Governing Board has decided to close the Solutions Alliance on 30 June 2017.

The global discourse on how to best respond to forced displacement has progressed significantly since the Solutions Alliance was launched in 2014. The need to leverage humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding approaches to promote durable solutions and to advance refugee self-reliance and resilience among affected communities has now gained broad political legitimacy. The New York Declaration and the related Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF); the EU’s new development policies on forced displacement; the new World Bank policies, approaches, and financing instruments for refugees and host communities; and the “New Way of Working” approach, have introduced significant changes into the traditional narrative on forced displacement that was previously dominated by humanitarian actors and concerns.

The Solutions Alliance has promoted and advocated these emerging approaches since its inception, and its agenda has been mainstreamed into these initiatives that it helped to inspire. In particular, through integrating many of the ideas that formed the basis of the Solutions Alliance, the CRRF now holds the potential to deliver a vast improvement in the way that we all respond to displacement. The work of Solutions Alliance partners contributed to the formulation of the New York Declaration and to the design of the CRRF, as well as its practical application in Tanzania. The Solutions Alliance also informed key elements in the strategy for return and reintegration in Somalia. In many ways, these Solutions Alliance activities were among the earliest examples of what has come to be called the “New Way of Working.” Additionally, through the Solutions Alliance Thematic Groups, innovative partnerships have formed and are initiating new ways of working that have started to take off in their own independent directions. 

Over the coming weeks, the Solutions Alliance will continue to support this progress by compiling and making available lessons learned to inform new partnership-oriented approaches to forced displacement. Solutions Alliance partners will be able to leverage this progress in their future work, to continue to improve the lives of displaced persons and their host communities and promote lasting solutions for years to come.

Information on the Solutions Alliance website will be archived on UNHCR’s IMF portal after 30 June 2017, to remain accessible for future initiatives.