United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Nov 2018
Interworks and UNHCR’s Division of Programme Management and Operational Support held a workshop from the 12-15 November 2018 in Casablanca, Morocco to consider the importance and future of refugee registration and identify management, and, as appropriate, make recommendations to UNHCR on future directions in these areas. The workshop took place at a critical time given the need to act on the High Commissioner’s commitment at the 2017 ExCom that every refugee should have a unique digital identity, the potential inherent in enabling refugees to own manage their own data, and the opportunity to leverage Sustainable Development Goal Target 16.9, “Identity for All by 2030” as a means of strengthening refugee protection. Digital identify also hold enormous potential as a means to improve and individualize service delivery. The fact that many refugee-hosting governments are strengthening population registry systems also hold enormous potential for refugee inclusion. The participants in the workshop identified priority recommendations in three thematic areas: government action, operational support and refugee empowerment.