Japan-UNHCR humanitarian development cooperation: for Afghan internally displaced persons, returnees and host communities (5 December 2022)

 

As global displacement is hitting unprecedented levels, there is a need for more innovative approaches to identifying sustainable solutions for people forced to flee. While it is essential to promptly provide emergency humanitarian assistance, such as support for housing, food, water and sanitation, it is equally important to provide mid- to long-term development cooperation to meet the needs of both displaced persons and their host communities.
 
Thus, it is highly appropriate that UNHCR’s 2022 High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection Challenges from 7 to 8 December (link to the conference) will focus on the theme of development cooperation.
 
Japan supports UNHCR’s initiative both in principle and in practice.
 
On 5 December 2022 in Geneva, the Government of Japan, represented by Ambassador YAMAZAKI Kazuyuki, Permanent Representative of Japan to the International Organizations in Geneva, signed an agreement with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. Filippo Grandi, to provide approximately USD 12.5 million for a joint project in Afghanistan.
 
This is a joint assistance project conducted by Japan’s international development cooperation agency, JICA, and UNHCR. The project aims to create a conducive environment for displaced persons to return to their places of origin, resettle and reintegrate. The areas targeted by this assistance are located in regions identified as priority areas of return and reintegration in line with the Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees (SSAR). A Support Platform for the SSAR was launched at the Global Refugee Forum in 2019, followed by the creation of the Support Platform’s “Core Group,” which held its inaugural meeting in October 2020, with Japan in attendance as one of its founding members. (link to SSAR)
 
Under the project, facilities for health, sanitation, education and vocational training will be developed alongside the provision of opportunities for skill development for returnees in line with the concept of human security.
 
Japan, as a co-convener of the Second Global Refugee Forum in December 2023, will endeavor to promote the humanitarian-development nexus as an effective approach for addressing displacement challenges. On this occasion, we are pleased to be taking a new step forward in this area, in partnership with UNHCR, with this assistance project for Afghanistan.
 
Japan is ready to draw on its extensive experience in providing sustainable solutions to contribute to making the forum an important milestone for the international community in tackling the challenges of forced displacement.