At the UN General Assembly in 2016, the international community united around the plight of refugees with ambitious commitments. All 193 Member States signed the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, agreeing to greater responsibility sharing in meeting the needs of refugees, migrants, and host communities. The Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), an annex of the Declaration, outlined a new partnership framework between donors, international organizations, and host nations to help realize these commitments. 

This policy brief takes initial stock of the CRRF rollout in its first year, drawing on experiences in Uganda,Ethiopia,the Republic of Tanzania, and the Somalia region. It finds that while progress has been made in bringing diverse development and humanitarian actors together under the leadership of host governments to address the needs of refugees and host communities, policy and practice has been varied and generally too slow to meet the urgent needs of refugees and host communities. 

Based on experiences to date, this policy brief highlights emerging best practices and challenges to rolling out the CRRF, and offers recommendations that should be included in the forthcoming Global Compact on Refugees to improve its future implementation.