Reference:
https://www.refworld.org/policy/strategy/unhcr/2024/en/148761
Online Marketplace Project Snapshot
Lived Leadership: Strengthening Meaningful Participation and Leadership of Stateless Persons in the Asia Pacific
Asia
Lived Leadership: Strengthening Meaningful Participation and Leadership of Stateless Persons in the Asia Pacific
Statelessness and Dignified Citizenship Coalition Asia Pacific (SDCC-AP)
88,500 USD
6-12 months
• GCR Objective 2 - Multistakeholder Pledge: Economic Inclusion and Social Protection • GCR Objective 1 – Multistakeholder Pledge: Sustainable Human Settlements for Refugees and their Hosting Communities • Cross-cutting – Multistakeholder Pledge: Advancing Localizing in Displacement and Statelessness Responses • Cross-cutting – Multistakeholder Pledge: Shifting Power – Advancing Localization of Research and Elevating the Voices of Host and Forcibly Displaced Communities Globally • Cross-cutting – Multistakeholder Pledge: Ending Statelessness • Partnerships – Multistakeholder Pledge: Refugee Participation • Regional – Multistakeholder Pledge: Rohingya Refugees – Expanded Resilience, Enhanced Solution
• SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities • SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions • SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
- Action 1: Resolve major situations of statelessness
- Action 3: Remove gender discrimination from nationality laws
- Action 4: Prevent denial, loss, or deprivation of nationality on ethnic, racial, religious, political, and other discriminatory grounds
- Action 9: Accede to the un statelessness conventions
- Action 10: Improve quantitative and qualitative data on stateless populations
- Action 11: Ensure stateless persons can enjoy their rights
Across the Asia Pacific, persons with lived experience of statelessness remain excluded from decisions and institutions that shape their lives, despite their lived expertise. Where involved, their participation is often limited to tokenistic or unpaid roles. Stateless persons already face major barriers to legal recognition, access to fundamental rights, and are excluded from institutional benefits of the state they reside in. SDCC-AP is co-led by persons with lived experience of statelessness and currently all the seven out of eleven members of the decision-making bodies (the Steering Committee and the Impacted Persons Advisory Group) are compensated for their time. With the Committees’ terms ending in January 2026, SDCC-AP envisions transitioning to a majority-impacted Steering Committee, ensuring that persons with lived experience lead governance and strategic decisions. However, to ensure paid roles for the impacted persons in the Steering Committee, and to further strengthen their meaningful participation and leadership, SDCC-AP requires financial resources.
SDCC-AP begun the Lived Experience Fellowship in 2025, providing mentorship and employment opportunity to six young Fellows, all of whom are persons with lived experiences of statelessness. This second phase of the Lived Leadership Initiative will consolidate the foundation laid by Cohort 1 and advance the transition to an impacted-led governance model in the Steering Committee. Through the 2026 Fellowship (Cohort 2), SDCC-AP will mentor six new fellows, strengthen and compensate seven Steering Committee members (with a goal of majority lived experience representation), and formalize a Community Group for alumni and other impacted individuals. Activities include structured fellowships, microgrants for community-based advocacy, governance training, and a regional learning exchange. By institutionalizing these mechanisms, SDCC-AP will embed lived experience at the core of decision-making and regional advocacy, advancing participatory and sustainable solutions to statelessness
The project will be implemented by SDCC-AP in collaboration with their member organizations, including the new partners who will contribute mentorship, placements, and organizational learning opportunities.
Stateless and formerly stateless persons in Asia Pacific, including those affected by gender- discriminatory nationality laws or barriers to legal identity.
Grassroots civil society partners, host organizations, and regional networks working to advance nationality rights and community-led advocacy.
88,500 USD
88,500 USD
Why this project needs your support
Members of the Global Alliance to End Statelessness are driving innovative projects around the world, and we invite you to be part of this vital work. This snapshot gives you a brief look at one such initiative that needs your support. By contributing to projects like this, you can help create lasting change, uplift communities, and restore dignity to millions of people. Your involvement is crucial – together, we can turn the tide and build a future where statelessness is a thing of the past.
How to support
To support this initiative, please contact the Global Alliance Secretariat at stalliance@unhcr.org.
Together, we can turn the tide against statelessness and create a world where everyone enjoys their right to a nationality, and can fully contribute to society.
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