Speaking on behalf of the EU institutions, we thank UNHCR for organising this briefing to inform about the progress and follow up to the Global Refugee Forum.

Its been almost exactly a year ago since we gathered in Geneva for the first Forum, but somehow it feels like a life time ago. Of course no one could have imagined how the world and our daily lives would change this year with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although the pandemic has clearly generated new needs and exacerbated existing vulnerabilities for refugees and other persons of concern to UNHCR, it also underscored the relevance and importance of the Global Refugee Compact and the need to come together and broaden the engagement to protect and assist refugees and those countries and communities that are hosting them.

The EU is therefore pleased to see that UNHCR is working hard to keep up the momentum generated at the first Global Refugee Forum last year. As stated at the Forum last year, the EU institutions remain fully committed to a multilateral response to forced displacement as outlined in EU “Lives in Dignity” communication.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, through the “Team Europe” approach, the EU and its Member States have mobilised over 38.5 billion EUR. Inclusion of refugees, IDPs, stateless and other vulnerable population in the response to the pandemic is and will remain a key concern for the EU. So far, the EU alone has supported the Global Humanitarian Response Plan with 284,7 MEUR (making the EU and its Member States the largest contributor to the GHRP).

Let me take this opportunity to provide some updates on the EU commitments and follow up since the Global Forum.

First of all, the EU is an active member in all three regional Support Platforms launched at the Forum, which we believe offers some of the most tangible ways to take forward the commitments to the GCR at a regional level, where the EU is already providing substantial development and humanitarian assistance. We have also accepted the invitation to serve as the first Chair of the Core Group of the Support Platform for Afghan refugees.

At the Forum, the EU joined as co-sponsors in four of the six key priority areas. We remain committed in all sectors and areas of support – let me highlight some examples of our pledges:

On education: The EU remains strongly committed to education in emergencies and protracted crises. Since 2019, we dedicate 10% of our humanitarian budget for access to quality and safe education for all children affected by conflicts. To date, the EU invested more than 450 MEUR in EiE benefiting over 8.5 million girls and boys in 59 countries around the world. In addition, The EU has committed to increase education financing in overseas development aid from 7% to 10%, with emphasis on those left furthest behind, including girls, refugees and displaced learners. The EU would like to see further and faster progress against the joint pledge made by the World Bank, Education Cannot Wait Fund and the Global Partnership for Education to support education ministries to better integrate refugees into national plans.

On protection: the current pandemic has yet again shown that crises exacerbate structural gender inequalities and violence. In the past two years, the EU allocated approximately 62 MEUR in humanitarian aid to prevent and respond to GBV and more than 46 MEUR to reproductive health. The EU launched its new Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in External Action 2021–2025 (GAP III), which aims to accelerate progress on empowering women and girls, including forcibly displaced, and calls for gender-responsive migration policies, programmes and laws.

On jobs and livelihoods: Through the EUTF Syria, the EU has allocated more than 600 MEUR to various training programmes to support more than 145,000 people better chances of finding jobs, allowing them to regain dignity by supporting their families and contributing to the society in which they are displaced.

On energy and infrastructure: The EU is making humanitarian policies and operations more risk-informed through our new Disaster Preparedness approach. We are also committed to implementing the European Green Deal in all our operations: through our new approach to reducing the environmental footprint of humanitarian aid to protect the environment where populations rely on for their livelihoods and well being. We support the goals of the UNHCR Clean Energy Challenge. And finally, the EU continues to support the work of the Platform on Disaster Displacement; as you may have heard, the EU will be joining the Chairmanship in 2022.

We look forward to working with all of you to strengthen these commitments and discuss further at the High Level Officials meeting on the GRF in 2021.