About the CRCP
The Consultations on Resettlement and Complementary Pathways (CRCP) (formerly known as the Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement, or ATCR) is the most important multilateral forum for UNHCR, States, NGOs, refugees, private sector representatives, and academics to come together to discuss and advance resettlement issues of common interest.
As the gap between global resettlement needs and available places grows, the CRCP is a forum to promote and develop new and innovative ways to solve problems and combine resources to improve resettlement and complementary pathways for refugees. Since 1995, this annual event has provided an opportunity to address a wide range of policy and procedural matters, including advocacy, capacity building and operational support.
The CRCP has a rotating country chair and involves one main Geneva-based meeting a year and at least one interim working group meeting. Interim meetings, known as the Working Group on Resettlement (WGR), focus on specific themes of interest to the CRCP network. For many years, CRCP chairs have opted to host a WGR meeting in their own country focused on post-arrival settlement and integration. This was an idea that was first introduced by RCOA and the Australian Government when we co-chaired the ATCR in 2011-12, with a WGR meeting held in Melbourne in February 2012.
2023-24 CRCP: Solutions in Action
In June 2023, Australia took over from Ireland as the country chair of the CRCP. The Government of Australia, represented by the Department of Home Affairs and RCOA as the NGO Co-Chair, worked collaboratively with UNHCR and the CRCP Refugee Advisory Group to plan the 2023-24 program of events.
The overarching theme of the 2024 CRCP was: Solutions in Action: Advancing the 2030 Roadmap. This theme references UNHCR’s strategy to grow resettlement and complementary pathways for refugees outlined in Third Country Solutions for Refugees: Roadmap 2030.
This theme provided an opportunity to focus on the expansion of resettlement as well as how emerging complementary pathways can contribute to more durable solutions for refugees. As labour mobility, education pathways and community sponsorship programs and pilots are introduced, explored or embedded in different countries – including in Australia – the need for shared learnings, innovations, coordination and efficiencies becomes greater.
As Chair of the 2023-24 CRCP, Australia organised three main events:
- A virtual working group in lead-up to Global Refugee Forum (24 & 26 October 2023)
- A working group meeting in Sydney focused on post-arrival settlement and integration (26-29 February 2024)
- The main Consultations on Resettlement and Complementary Pathways meeting in Geneva (5-7 June 2024)
Virtual working group on Global Refugee Forum pledging
A virtual working group meeting was held on 24 and 26 October 2023 in the lead-up to the 2023 Global Refugee Forum. The purpose of this meeting was to bring together those in the CRCP network to share information and coordinate pledging in relation to resettlement and complementary pathways.
The virtual meeting included breakout discussions and presentations on key pledge areas. Resulting multi-stakeholder pledges announced at the Global Refugee Forum in December 2023 included:
- Resettlement – a commitment to one million refugees resettled by 2030
- Skills-based pathways – a goal set of 200,000 refugees arriving on labour mobility and education pathways in 5 years
- Family reunification – commitments made to improved access to family reunification for refugees
- Community sponsorship – goal to increase the number, scale and diversity of community sponsorship programs globally
- Refugee travel documents – commitments to facilitating travel documents for refugees to access family reunion and complementary pathways.
- Refugee participation – commitment to meaningful refugee participation in decision-making at local, state and international levels, accountability to affected populations and sustainable resourcing of refugee-led organisations
Sydney working group meeting on settlement and integration
125 representatives from government, NGOs, UN, refugee-led organisations, academia, and the private sector from 14 countries gathered in Sydney from 26-29 February 2024 for a four-day exchange on approaches to refugee settlement and integration. The 2024 CRCP Working Group on Resettlement (WGR) meeting featured two days of visits to settlement programs around Sydney and two days of discussions about current approaches to the key challenges involved in supporting refugees after arrival as they find their feet in a new society.
During the two-day Plenary, the working group covered a broad range of themes related to post-arrival settlement and integration: from practical discussions on how to develop multi-stakeholder and private sector partnerships, find accommodation solutions, promote economic participation, respond to family and domestic violence and build responsive and inclusive service systems, through to more focused discussions on settlement support for and experiences of LGBTQIA+ refugees, young people, and refugees with disability. The role that refugee communities play in supporting the settlement and integration of newcomers was a theme running through the WGR gathering.
The WGR highlighted common challenges across resettlement countries — such as systemic barriers for newcomers in securing housing and employment commensurate with skills, experience and aspirations, access to services and the impact of systemic racism — as well as showed the remarkable commitment of different stakeholders to finding innovative solutions to these challenges. It provided a forum to discuss ideas and challenges across contexts and demonstrated the value of sharing knowledge with the aim of improving the welcome and overall experience of refugees resettling in new countries.
2024 Consultations on Resettlement and Complementary Pathways
The 2024 Consultations on Resettlement and Complementary Pathways (CRCP) meeting was held in Geneva from 5-7 June, bringing together 350 delegates from 44 countries. This was the largest gathering since the annual international resettlement dialogue began in 1995 and included 30 plenary and breakout sessions on many different aspects of planning and cooperation on resettlement and complementary pathways, from early identification of resettlement need to building welcoming communities.
NGO Statement
As NGO Co-Chair, RCOA led the call by NGOs from 26 resettlement countries for international action to expand resettlement and additional migration pathways for refugees. In the CRCP opening session, RCOA CEO Paul Power delivered a joint statement on behalf of NGOs present, welcoming the expansion of resettlement programs by some states and expressing concern about the number of states reducing or pausing their resettlement programs despite the pressing global need.
The NGO statement emphasised resettlement’s vital role in providing a lifeline for refugees at greatest risk in hosting countries, particularly LGBTQI+ refugees, women and girls experiencing sexual and gender-based violence, and people with disabilities and complex health needs.
Refugee statement
The refugee statement delivered by Mohammed Naeem from CRCP’s Refugee Advisory Group was a call to action, focusing on the ‘uncomfortable truths’ that we need to face as a global community.
In a powerful closing, the statement read: ‘We face more complex challenges and a much greater demand on the protection system, requiring both, an enduring commitment to resettlement, as well as, the additionality of complementary pathways that embrace the enrichment that refugees could bring to countries that welcome them — labour mobility pathways that enable economic self-sufficiency, and add to the vitality of economies (win-win), educational pathways, which upskill refugees and build socially cohesive societies (win-win) — we must acknowledge that the protection needs of refugees are diverse, and a one-size-fits-all approach will rarely be sufficient; and, barriers such as travel documents and visas and bureaucratic red-tape, must be overcome, to fully realize the promise of complementary pathways.’
CRCP themes
Several key themes ran throughout the three-day meeting:
Centring diverse perspectives, actors and experiences
The CRCP provided space to hear from diverse actors and their perspectives – from host and resettlement governments, NGOs, UN, refugee-led organisations and private sector actors. In a main plenary focused on host country perspectives, representatives from the governments of Egypt, Uganda, Thailand and Türkiye shared insights into the significant challenges facing host countries in facilitating resettlement and complementary pathways while hosting large refugee populations and highlighted the need for the ongoing engagement and involvement of host states in international dialogue and cooperation on resettlement. A powerhouse panel on the final day of the CRCP asked delegates to consider how to enhance safety, equity, and possibilities for belonging for refugees facing SOGIESC persecution, and a roundtable facilitated by the CRCP Refugee Advisory Group, explored the role of refugee-led organisations in resettlement, family reunification and complementary pathways.
Exchanging information on resettlement needs and processes
Along with detailed briefings from UNHCR staff based in different countries on resettlement needs and priorities in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, the CRCP provided opportunities for delegates to hear from UNHCR’s top leadership – including the UN High Commissioner, Filippo Grandi – on its protection and solutions strategy, global projected resettlement needs and complementary pathways trends. Breakout discussions zeroed in on operational questions, including how resettlement identification processes can ensure protection and referrals where needed, and how to expand and enhance programs in smaller and new resettlement countries.
Strengthening collaboration to grow complementary pathways
Several sessions focused on how to expand and scale up complementary pathways for refugees, with breakout sessions on scaling skills-based complementary pathways, collaborations to develop education pathways at scale, sharing promising practices in named sponsorship programs, and building coordinated systems to support refugee access to family reunification. UNHCR led conversations across the three days on the need for machine-readable refugee travel documents to unlock complementary pathways and family reunification, with a display, speaker’s corner and breakout highlighting ways forward for a 21st Century Nansen Passport.
Sharing knowledge on settlement and integration
Some of the themes and discussions from the February working group meeting on post-arrival settlement and integration in Sydney were carried through to the CRCP agenda in Geneva. This included a roundtable discussion on strategies for combatting negative narratives and creating welcoming communities, a breakout session led by leaders from Australia’s torture and trauma services on addressing the impact of trauma to achieve successful resettlement, a panel presentation sharing examples of accommodation solutions facilitated by the Global Refugee Accommodation Working Group, and a breakout on how to bridge the pre- and post-arrival gap in information and orientation. RCOA facilitated a workshop on how to better share expertise on post-arrival settlement and integration at an international level.
Cross-cutting issues and innovations
The CRCP also provided an opportunity for delegates to explore cross-cutting issues, challenges and innovations. There was a session on private sector partnerships in resettlement and complementary pathways, Artificial Intelligence and digital transformation, and a breakout on routes-based approaches in practices that shared lessons and learnings from models like the Safe Mobility Offices in the Americas. In a main plenary session, a panel of NGO and government representatives from Belgium and the US discussed how coordination, collaboration and synergies can be created between resettlement, family reunion and complementary pathways, with the experiences from Welcome Corps and EU-Passworld used as examples from the community sponsorship space.
RCOA’s contribution to Solutions in Action
As NGO Co-Chair, RCOA worked closely over 18 months with the Australian Government, UNHCR and CRCP Refugee Advisory Group to plan and deliver the 2023-2024 CRCP agenda. We provided a focal point for civil society organisations from around the world involved in these discussions, provided input and ideas from NGOs into the agenda, and drafted the NGO Statement with their input.
In our role as co-chair, we successfully advocated for revision of the CRCP participation guidelines to include an allocation for multiple refugee representatives in each country delegation, and for additional places in delegations for complementary pathways actors.
In helping to inform and ensure the CRCP network captures the key agencies engaged in this work, RCOA undertook a global mapping exercise of resettlement and complementary pathways by country.
At the CRCP meeting in Geneva, RCOA facilitated a workshop on how to strengthen knowledge-sharing on settlement and integration at an international level, identifying gaps, ways forward and organisations interested in collaborating to establish a regular mechanism for those involved in supporting refugees post-arrival to share expertise and ideas from different countries and contexts.
Handover to Spain
Australia handed over the chairing of the CRCP to Spain at the June 2024 meeting in Geneva, with a commitment to support the incoming chairs with a smooth transition and to provide support where needed to ensure continuity of these important discussions.
