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Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Mr. Alexander Aleinikoff, the Deputy High Commissioner for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which appears in full at Microsoft on the Issues. The post commemorates World Refugee Day, which is marked yearly on June 20th by the United Nations, along with countries and communities worldwide, to raise awareness and support for the world’s 34 million forcibly displaced and stateless people. In support, MSN is running a special ‘Causes’ campaign on the plight of refugees.
Aleinikoff writes:
“This year, World Refugee Day takes place during Rio+20, the major UN summit in Brazil that brings together world leaders from a wide range of international organizations, governments, NGOs and the private sector to further debate on reducing global poverty, advancing social equity and ensuring environmental protection and sustainable development. UNHCR, led by High Commissioner António Guterres, is in Rio to advocate for the rights and interests of the world’s refugees and other displaced persons in the summit’s deliberations and outcomes.
Microsoft is a longstanding partner to UNHCR, working with us around the world to ensure a vital role for technology in the delivery humanitarian relief and longer-term support. Through programs that support education and training, we provide refugees with skills for productive, sustainable livelihoods and employment for the near and longer term. UNHCR’s biggest challenge today is the number of simultaneous emergencies which have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Over the past two years, we have provided life-saving assistance to refugees from Cote d’Ivoire and the Horn of Africa; responded to displacement caused by the "Arab Spring" in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya; and, most recently, are responding to emergencies in Mali, South Sudan and Syria. In addition UNHCR continues to provide assistance and protection in what we call ‘protracted refugee situations’- these are situations in which persons have been displaced for many years and have no immediate prospects for either returning home or gaining a permanent residence in another country. In UNHCR's refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya, more than 450,000 refugees--primarily from Somalia--have awaited a durable solution to their situations for years. Dadaab is now the home of more than 5,000 refugees born to women who themselves were born in Dadaab. Innovative technology and partnering with private sector companies such as Microsoft plays an important role both in emergencies and in long-standing refugee situations. Computer literacy and distance learning provide obvious advantages to refugees. We are also now exploring mobile technology solutions. Mobile phone networks, which are rapidly growing even in remote areas, permit refugees to connect with family and to access needed services more efficiently.”
Microsoft is a longstanding partner to UNHCR, working with us around the world to ensure a vital role for technology in the delivery humanitarian relief and longer-term support. Through programs that support education and training, we provide refugees with skills for productive, sustainable livelihoods and employment for the near and longer term.
UNHCR’s biggest challenge today is the number of simultaneous emergencies which have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Over the past two years, we have provided life-saving assistance to refugees from Cote d’Ivoire and the Horn of Africa; responded to displacement caused by the "Arab Spring" in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya; and, most recently, are responding to emergencies in Mali, South Sudan and Syria.
In addition UNHCR continues to provide assistance and protection in what we call ‘protracted refugee situations’- these are situations in which persons have been displaced for many years and have no immediate prospects for either returning home or gaining a permanent residence in another country. In UNHCR's refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya, more than 450,000 refugees--primarily from Somalia--have awaited a durable solution to their situations for years. Dadaab is now the home of more than 5,000 refugees born to women who themselves were born in Dadaab.
Innovative technology and partnering with private sector companies such as Microsoft plays an important role both in emergencies and in long-standing refugee situations. Computer literacy and distance learning provide obvious advantages to refugees. We are also now exploring mobile technology solutions. Mobile phone networks, which are rapidly growing even in remote areas, permit refugees to connect with family and to access needed services more efficiently.”
To learn more about how Microsoft has partnered with UNHCR to help them innovate, visit Microsoft on the Issues.