Goal 1: Empowered and Resilient Refugee and Stateless Communities
© Michel Libroiron
Refugee communities in Malaysia encompass rich and diverse pools of resources to support their own protection and coping mechanisms. There are currently more than 50 community-based organisations and over 250 community leadership structures that support the needs and interests of communities in various ways from advocacy to the provision of services.
Under this Goal, UNHCR will empower, support, and capacitate refugee communities to address their own protection needs. We will support community-based structures in order to stimulate and increase community participation and self-management.
Through a Community-Based Protection (CBP) approach - launched in 2016 - UNHCR will increase its engagement with refugee communities not only in Kuala Lumpur but also in populated areas outside the Klang Valley area.
Refugees are empowered if they better understand the legal and social context in which they live. Better and more informed choices are made by refugees if they have accurate and transparent information on the range of protection services offered and options for their legal status and future solutions, including resettlement, repatriation and UNHCR processing.
To accomplish this goal, we will:
- Conduct mapping and participatory assessments with refugee communities, and where appropriate stateless groups, in different areas of Malaysia. These will ensure their participation in all stages of community-based programmes and a shared responsibility in the protection of community members;
- Build on its community-based protection (CBP) approach to focus on refugees’ existing coping strategies. This will grow organically with the support of ‘grass roots’ Malaysian organisations around Malaysia;
- Promote coordination mechanisms between stakeholders and refugee communities, including working groups and thematic discussions that can serve as a forum for refugees’ voices to be heard;
- Increase access for refugees to essential health, education and livelihood services that are available through refugee communities, local stakeholders, state entities (where possible), UNHCR Malaysia and other partners;
- Improve information-sharing platforms, including innovative mobile communication technology;
- Information will be tailored to the needs and interests of different refugee and stateless communities;
- Support stronger community structures, including governance, fund raising and income generation, and through training and capacity building activities;
- Identify realistic measures of the impact of community based protection over the longer term and ad