Global Refugee Forum reviews progress as displacement hits new highs
Co-hosted by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and Switzerland from December 15–17, the review convenes governments, civil society, the private sector, academics, faith leaders, and over 200 refugees to evaluate past pledges and plan for the future in a worsening global environment.
The 2018 Global Compact on Refugees provides the framework for international cooperation, focusing on responsibility-sharing and support for host countries and displaced communities.
Nicolas Brass, UNHCR’s head of the Global Compact, emphasized that the review must move beyond assessment to respond to current pressures with collective resolve. The forum aims to “take stock of what has been achieved since the last Global Refugee Forum in 2023,” he said, adding that “we really need, all together, to make this meeting count.”
Brass warned that while responsibility-sharing has improved over the past decade, recent trends are troubling: “The latest data we have received, looking at the allocation of official development assistance, is very concerning. The levels are decreasing and the outlook for the foreseeable future is extremely bleak. This is the number one challenge.”
Highlighting the importance of multilateral cooperation, he said, “This meeting will be an opportunity to show that multilateralism does make a difference,” stressing that it is crucial to maintain unity as humanitarian budgets shrink and political divides widen. “What we are looking forward to seeing happen are renewed commitments in support of refugees and host countries,” he said. The forum also offers a chance to reaffirm UNHCR’s coordinating role and “bring a sense of hope and a sense of way forward.”
Brass acknowledged that host nations have made meaningful policy reforms, including changes to laws facilitating refugee inclusion, but warned that these achievements remain vulnerable without continued solidarity. “Those gains and progress are at risk of being lost if solidarity doesn’t come to fruition,” he said. He urged countries to step up support amid mounting political pressure on asylum systems.
UNHCR data show both progress and vulnerability: since 2019, over 3,400 pledges have been made under the GRF framework by more than 1,300 partners, with roughly two-thirds fulfilled or underway. The pledges have produced tangible results: ten countries introduced new labor laws allowing refugees to work; over 160,000 refugees in Mexico entered the formal workforce; and refugee labor inclusion in Poland contributed up to 2.7% of GDP growth. Refugee enrollment in higher education rose from 6% to 9% since 2023, while ten countries strengthened asylum systems, including Chad, which adopted its first asylum law.
Yet UNHCR warned that without renewed political will and sustained investment, these gains could be reversed. Global conflict, record civilian casualties, and deepening political polarization continue to drive displacement. Meanwhile, countries holding just 27% of global wealth host 80% of the world’s refugees, with low-income nations shouldering a disproportionate share. In 2023, only $14.4 billion in aid was allocated to refugee situations, a figure 190 times lower than global military spending in 2024.
The review also highlighted refugee agency and contribution. Zakia Khudadadi, an Afghan Hazara para-taekwondo athlete and UNHCR supporter, described how inclusion transformed her life after fleeing Afghanistan in 2021. She joined the Refugee Paralympic Team and won the team’s first medal at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. “When inclusion is real, it can change lives,” she said. “Sport became my lifeline – a place where I could stand tall again. If we open these opportunities to every displaced woman and every person with a disability, we don’t just change their future, we start to change the world around them.”
Her story reflects a central message of the review: refugees are not only recipients of aid but active contributors to host societies when barriers are removed. The meeting, bridging the 2023 and 2027 GRFs, is expected to shape financing, policy, and operational priorities under the Global Compact. Brass expressed hope for renewed commitments: “I do hope that we will hear some actors, states, and non-state actors stand up during the meeting and pledge and commit in support of refugees and host countries. I’m hopeful that this will happen.”
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