The Global Alliance: Stronger Together 

Addressing statelessness effectively requires a multi-stakeholder approach. We must combine different expertise, ideas, resources, and experiences to tackle the diverse issues that underpin statelessness. Working with a variety of other organizations can give the issue greater visibility and attention and, as a result, change can be realized much faster is there is sufficient commitment from all stakeholders. 

 I work for Haki Centre Organization (HCO), a non-governmental organization that is promoting equal and non-discriminatory access to nationality and an end to statelessness in Kenya. We support stateless communities, as well as other local communities that are facing citizenship challenges to realize their rights, access civil documentation, and undertake advocacy efforts.  

 Our model involves working with paralegals from affected populations to provide legal empowerment and strengthen capacity of the community to participate in seeking solutions. HCO has a decade of experience on statelessness, working closely with the government and UNHCR to resolve statelessness and to protect the rights of stateless persons. We have worked with the formerly stateless Makonde and Pemba groups and are currently supporting people of Rwandese and Burundian origin to access their right to a nationality. 

 One of the challenging aspects of our work is convincing people who have been stateless for a protracted period that change is possible but only if they are part of it – because we must walk the journey together. The shift from a non-believer to an active ambassador takes time, effort and trust by the community.  

 But the more challenging aspect is keeping the community engaged and motivated when a solution is not coming fast enough. It is painful to see people abandon the fight, resign to fate and resort to coping mechanisms. This is why the multi-stakeholder approach is so important – it will take all of us working together to resolve this critical issue once and for all. 

 As the #IBelong campaign comes to an end, HCO believes that the Global Alliance provides an excellent opportunity for its members to learn from and be motivated by the gains, lessons, challenges, and opportunities of the last 10 years. More importantly, it gives us a new collaborative approach to work together with renewed enthusiasm and commitment to accelerate prevention and eradication of statelessness.  

HCO is excited at the prospect of working together with diverse stakeholders leveraging the immense experience (lived and learned) – as well as the resources, expertise, tools, networks, and workstreams that the Global Alliance will offer – to super-charge effective solutions. We have an opportunity to mobilise and strengthen national level work, bolster cross-regional learning and share best practices through the Global Alliance’s Regional Network Labs. 

We believe that the Global Alliance will strengthen collaboration with the Government of Kenya in terms of pledge implementation toward the eradication of statelessness and lend HCO global visibility and an opportunity to network and access new funding streams.  As HCO, we will bring to our knowledge and learned experience of statelessness, while also lending our grassroots presence to ensure strong connection with affected people and the local context. 

The Global Alliance centers stateless-led organizations and persons with lived experience of statelessness, which is commendable because it ensures accountability to and meaningful participation by those affected by statelessness. Acknowledging their lived experience and expertise in seeking durable solutions to the problem. Further, we think the Solution Seeker program is a game-changer, as it ensures that states commit to taking concrete measures to address statelessness within their territories and beyond. 

 We need to come together in this new Global Alliance to end statelessness. Together, we are stronger than the sum of our parts and our collective action is critical in accelerating effective solutions to wipe out statelessness.