What it is
The Global Compact on Refugees is a non-binding international framework affirmed by the UN General Assembly in 2018. It aims to strengthen responsibility sharing, ease pressure on host countries, enhance refugee self-reliance, expand third-country solutions, and support conditions for voluntary return.
Governance function
The compact links refugee protection to development cooperation, national systems, host community support, financing, and multi-stakeholder pledging. Its function is to shift refugee response away from purely parallel humanitarian assistance toward more predictable inclusion and burden sharing.
Who is included
Refugees and host communities are the core populations. Returnees and stateless persons may be included where relevant to a particular situation or pledge.
Who is left out
IDPs, migrants, disaster-displaced people, and development-displaced populations are outside the compact's central refugee frame unless addressed through related national or international mechanisms.
Where continuity breaks
Continuity breaks when pledges do not translate into budget support, when refugee inclusion remains project-based, when host states restrict legal status or work rights, or when national systems lack capacity to absorb additional users.
Why it matters
The compact is a key global instrument for sustainable inclusion because it legitimises refugee access to ordinary systems while recognising host-country costs. The political economy archetype is conditional inclusion through responsibility sharing: host states may include refugees when international financing, development cooperation, and political incentives align.
Governance coding table
| Political economy archetype | Conditional inclusion through responsibility sharing |
|---|---|
| Responsibility | Host states retain responsibility for domestic systems and legal access. Donors, development banks, UNHCR, UN agencies, NGOs, private actors, and refugees themselves are expected to contribute through the compact's responsibility-sharing architecture. |
| Eligibility | Eligibility follows refugee status and host-country rules, with inclusion often mediated by registration, documentation, location, sectoral policy, and national programme criteria. |
| Financing | Financing is mobilised through donor pledges, development cooperation, concessional finance, humanitarian assistance, host government budgets, and multi-stakeholder support platforms. |
| Data systems | Refugee registration, host country administrative data, sectoral systems, social registries, education and health data, and development monitoring systems all shape implementation. |
| Delivery system | Delivery may occur through national services, UNHCR-supported systems, humanitarian partners, development programmes, municipalities, schools, health facilities, and social protection programmes. |
| Portability | Portability depends on documentation, legal status, movement rules, recognition across jurisdictions, and access to services outside camps or assigned locations. |
| Accountability | Accountability is political and programmatic rather than judicial. Global Refugee Forums, pledges, indicators, host-state policy, donor reporting, and protection monitoring shape follow-up. |
| Time horizon | Medium- to long-term framework for protracted displacement, inclusion, solutions, and international cooperation. |
Sources
Official sources
- Global Compact on Refugees official platform
- Global Compact on Refugees PDF
- UNHCR Global Compact on Refugees booklet
Secondary sources
No sources listed yet.