The Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) organized a joint workshop to raise awareness of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) on 29-30 April 2018 in the Jordanian city of the Dead Sea.

During the OIC-UNHCR meeting in Geneva in 2016, the UN Refugee Agency proposed to co-host the workshop with the OIC to raise awareness of the CRRF and the global compact on refugee among the OIC Member States.

At the workshop, SESRIC presented its activities and shared experiences on the issues of humanitarian crises in OIC countries and refugees. It informed the participants on its major undertakings to address the challenges of refugees in OIC countries and how they contribute to the global, regional and national efforts towards improving the state of refugees in the host countries.

Given the increasing frequency and intensity of humanitarian crises in OIC countries, SESRIC has organised various workshops and published several reports such as the “Humanitarian Needs of Syrian Refugees: Challenges of the Neighbouring Countries 2016”, which provides information on the state of refugees in the neighbouring countries and challenges faced by host communities. In addition to that, SESRIC published in 2017 the “Humanitarian Crisis Report in OIC Countries”, which reviews the current humanitarian crisis in OIC countries, as well as non-OIC countries involving Muslim communities and offers potential remedies for prevention of humanitarian crisis. The report focuses on four main drivers as the root causes of humanitarian crises in OIC countries; namely, armed conflicts, occupation and oppression; political and economic stability and governance; climate change and natural hazards; and epidemics.

Furthermore, SESRIC has started a 9-month training programme in collaboration with Yunus Emre Institute for Syrian and Iraqi refugees residing in Turkey, with the aim to improve their potential and skills in the domain of information technologies, network management and web application developments, which are considered to have a high potential of employment.

The Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework was set out in the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants which was adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly on 19 September 2016. The New York Declarations, which aims at improving the way in which the international community responds to large movements of refugees and migrants, is a milestone for global solidarity and refugee protection at a time of unprecedented displacement.

CRRF is designed to ease pressures on countries hosting large numbers of refugees, to enhance refugee self-reliance, to expand access to third-country solutions, and to support conditions in countries of origin for return in safety and dignity.

Since the adaptation of the New York Declaration, a number of countries in Africa and Latin America have begun to apply and implement the CRRF with the support of the UNHCR. At the level of the OIC, the 44^th Council of Foreign Ministers held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in 2017 adopted a resolution calling on all member states to assess the adverse impact on development for countries hosting refugees and encouraged Member states to quantify their support of hosting countries, especially with a view to developing mechanisms for more equitable and predictable burden and responsibility sharing.

The workshop brought together representatives from OIC Member States and Organs, as well as the UN and other institutions, which identified possibilities for increased support to the CRRF rollout and establish key priorities to deliver on comprehensive approaches.