Providing multi-year and highly flexible funding, Norway enables UNHCR to plan effectively and respond where the needs are greatest.
Norway is a true partner of UNHCR. As one of the largest governmental donors providing multi-year and highly flexible funding, Norway enables UNHCR to plan effectively and respond where the needs are greatest. It’s a partnership steeped in history, from Fridtjof Nansen’s work as a High Commissioner for Refugees in 1921, to their joining of the Executive Committee of UNHCR in 1955. Norway and UNHCR share common values and priorities, focusing on issues such as equal protection for both men and women, comprehensive approaches and improving assistance through innovation. Norway uses an innovative approach which resettles refugees to different locations based on their education and skills, resulting in better integration into new communities.
Norway’s contributions makes a significant impact around the world. Much of Norway’s financial support is unearmarked funding, which provides UNHCR with critical flexibility meaning it can respond quickly to emergencies and continue to support people in protracted or forgotten crises which are no longer in the public eye. Norway supports comprehensive approaches by assisting host communities, an approach that is at the heart of the Global Compact for Refugees. At the Global Refugee Forum in December 2019, Norway co-sponsored the themes of Education, Energy and Solutions, showing their commitment to bringing countries and organizations together and advancing the objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees. Furthermore, specific Norwegian innovation grants are enabling UNHCR to reduce its environmental footprint and adopt new approaches within refugee communities and camps.
Norway’s dedication to the Grand Bargain commitments, which include a series of changes in the working practices of donors and aid organizations, as well as their prioritization of the UN Reform, illustrates their focus on efficiency and integrity, two important pillars of UNHCR’s work. Finally, Norway’s support to the resettlement programme allows UNHCR to maintain its capacity to provide long-term solutions to the most vulnerable refugees by giving them a chance at a new life in a place of safety and security.
