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This is the Executive Summary of the outcome document of the Regional Government-to-Government conference on Delivering the Global Compact on Refugees: Local Approaches to Inclusion, which was hosted by Ethiopia, and jointly organized by the Ministry of Peace, the Embassy of Denmark in Ethiopia and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. The conference was attended by government representatives from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda, as well as UN agencies, donors and NGOs. Among those who spoke on the occasion were the Minister of Peace of Ethiopia, the Under-Secretary for Development Policy of Denmark, the African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs, as well as senior IGAD, UNECA and UNHCR officials.

‘Delivering the Global Compact on Refugees: Local approaches to Inclusion’, a regional government-to-government Conference, was held from 31 October – 1 November 2019 in Addis Ababa, hosted by the Government of Ethiopia. The Conference brought together six governments of the East and Horn of Africa region - Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda, as well as Representatives from the AU, IGAD and ECA, and stakeholders from donor governments, UN agencies, and NGOs.

The conference was held with the objective to foster cross-national sharing of experiences and identify forward-looking opportunities for the implementation of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) and roll-out of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) throughout countries in the Horn and East Africa. It served as an opportunity to take stock of good practices, lessons and opportunities in advance of the Global Refugee Forum in December 2019.

The countries of the Horn and East Africa have, despite national challenges, shown impressive commitment and leadership in tackling the challenges of forced displacement. Since their initial commitment to the implementation of the CRRF, pilot countries are now in different stages of roll-out, where some have presented a road-map for its implementation, established coordination mechanisms, and begun regional and local implementation. In all countries, development partners have engaged positively to support various initiatives that are inclusive of refugees and host communities. Experiences are emerging that chart the transition to sustainable development-oriented support to refugees and to host communities, through strengthening refugee access to essential social services and phased transition away from exclusive and parallel humanitarian assistance.