© UNHCR/B. Diab
UNHCR maintains strategic partnerships with more than 900 partners including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), governmental institutions and United Nations agencies. We entrust about 40 per cent of our annual expenditure to partners for undertaking programmes or projects to provide protection and solutions to people forced to flee.
We place great importance on continuously improving collaborations with partners, particularly promoting national partners as first responders in emergency operations.
UNHCR has been working with NGOs since we first began helping the forcibly displaced in the early 1950s. As our work and size grew to cope with emerging refugee crises in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, especially in Africa, Asia and Central America, so did our ties with a wide range of newly formed humanitarian and refugee-related NGOs.
In 2007, UNHCR adopted the Global Humanitarian Platform's Principles of Partnership that set out common standards of equality, transparency, complementarity and a results-oriented approach among all humanitarian groups. We integrated the Principles of Partnership in to our 'Framework for Implementing with Partners' as an institutional approach to collaborative partnerships.
The Annual Consultation with NGOs includes a range of national and international NGOs from around the world. It provides an important forum for NGOs and states to network, dialogue and exchange views with UNHCR as equal partners – an approach that NGOs welcome.
"The UNHCR has had the most excellent relations with the voluntary agencies. Their work is in a true sense of the term indispensable and invaluable for refugees”
Dr. Van Heuven Goedhart, The first High Commissioner for Refugees, 1954
Today, we rely heavily on NGOs to implement a wide range of projects, including aid distribution, protection, logistics, shelter, health, water, sanitation, nutrition and education projects.
Partners interested to collaborate with UNHCR are invited to register in the Partner Portal, an interactive tool established for enhanced communication between UNHCR and our partners.
Annual Consultations with NGOs
Every year representatives from around the world attend the UNHCR's Annual Consultations with NGOs.
UNHCR Partner Portal
To help communcation between UNHCR and partners and achieve the best protection and solutions for people forced to flee. Register now.
Resettlement: NGO Toolkit for Practical Cooperation
Exchanging ideas on resettlement partnerships, June 2015.
Contact us
If you are interested in exploring a partnership with UNHCR, please contact us at [email protected].