Statelessness remains a significant obstacle for people in accessing basic rights, enjoying many of the services that are necessary for daily life and having their status and identity recognised. Statelessness is largely a result of discriminatory laws. 

In an article co-authored by the Unit's Shazia Sader and Sky Kruger, the authors assess whether new mechanisms can tackle these long-standing problems. 

The Global Compact on Refugees, as its name suggests, deals mostly with refugees. Yet it forms part of a larger shift in international institutions, states, civil society and increasingly, the private sector, towards using developmental funding mechanisms to address forced displacement and statelessness. One such mechanism, central to the Compact, is a system of pledge-making; non-binding commitments to mobilise funding, resources, expertise or collaboration to expand infrastructure, launch new service delivery projects and provide other forms of assistance.

Shazia and Sky plot some of the early efforts to use this system to eradicate statelessness in Southern African states, and ask questions about this system's viability.

The paper, titled 'Strengthened of Sidelined? An Evaluation of Pledges to Eradicate Statelessness in the Southern African Development Community' was published in the African Human Mobility Review. The issue can be found here.