The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has opened a global call for expressions of interest from qualified organizations to partner in expanding protection, assistance, and long-term solutions for vulnerable displaced populations across 16 countries and territories in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean. With an application deadline set for July 24, 2026, the initiative fills a critical gap in regional response, as UNHCR does not maintain permanent in-country presences across all covered locations, relying instead on collaborative partnerships with local, national, and international actors.
Managed through UNHCR’s Multi-Country Office based in Panama, this regional programme aligns with the agency’s broader global and regional protection mandates, with 10 core strategic goals: strengthening national protection frameworks, streamlining access to fair asylum and statelessness determination procedures, delivering targeted legal assistance and formal representation, expanding access to identity and legal documentation, scaling up life-saving humanitarian assistance for at-risk groups, promoting sustainable livelihoods and self-reliance, improving equitable access to education and essential public services, advancing meaningful socio-economic inclusion, building institutional and community capacity, and upholding universal human rights protections through targeted advocacy and legal reform.
The geographic scope of the initiative covers Aruba, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Curaçao, Antigua and Barbuda, Suriname, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Montserrat, Barbados, the UK Virgin Islands, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Anguilla. Eligible applicants must demonstrate operational capacity to deliver activities in at least one of these locations, and are welcome from a range of organizational types, including civil society groups, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, legal aid clinics, human rights advocacy groups, and specialized service delivery organizations with relevant expertise.
The programme centers on nine key intervention areas: strengthening national protection systems, expanding legal access and justice pathways, supporting documentation acquisition, delivering targeted humanitarian aid, building livelihoods and self-reliance, expanding education access, driving advocacy and legal reform, building institutional capacity, and advancing durable socio-economic inclusion solutions. The primary target populations include recognized refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, individuals at risk of statelessness, forcibly displaced people, vulnerable migrants requiring international protection, displaced families, and people with urgent or heightened protection needs.
Selected partner organizations will be able to deliver a broad range of activities tailored to local needs, including legal counseling and representation for asylum and statelessness claims, documentation support, emergency humanitarian aid, livelihoods training and small enterprise support, education access navigation, policy advocacy for legal reform, institutional capacity building for government and civil service providers, community outreach, and protection-sensitive referral services.
Critical components of the programme address longstanding barriers facing displaced populations: documentation support, for example, helps individuals acquire refugee identity cards, asylum seeker documentation, and other formal identity papers required to access education, healthcare, employment, and legal protection, a fundamental need that many displaced people in the region currently lack. Humanitarian assistance addresses immediate survival needs while connecting recipients to long-term inclusion pathways, while livelihoods programming includes vocational skills training, job readiness support, private sector engagement, and support for small income-generating projects to help displaced people achieve economic self-reliance.
To be considered for partnership, applicants must meet clear organizational capacity requirements, including verifiable experience working with displaced or vulnerable populations, existing knowledge of local legal and service delivery systems, established relationships with national authorities and local communities, robust safeguarding and ethical standards, demonstrated monitoring and evaluation capacity, sound financial and administrative management systems, and a demonstrated commitment to human rights and protection principles. Selection is not guaranteed by submission, with final decisions based on alignment with UNHCR operational priorities, geographic relevance, technical expertise, organizational capacity, availability of funding, and ability to deliver measurable results.
UNHCR has released a step-by-step guide for applicants to prepare strong expressions of interest, starting with confirming geographic eligibility and identifying target populations, before outlining core intervention areas, demonstrating relevant protection expertise, describing proposed practical activities, outlining coordination plans with local stakeholders, detailing monitoring and evaluation frameworks, addressing safeguarding and ethical protocols, demonstrating long-term sustainability plans, and submitting all materials in line with official UNHCR guidelines. The agency also outlines common mistakes to avoid, including submitting generic proposals without clear geographic focus, failing to demonstrate relevant experience, proposing activities misaligned with UNHCR priorities, and overlooking requirements for monitoring, evaluation, and safeguarding.
This initiative addresses a critical unmet need in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean, where displaced and stateless populations routinely face systemic barriers to legal protection, documentation, education, livelihoods, and essential services. By leveraging local and regional partnerships, UNHCR aims to build sustainable, nationally led protection systems that advance dignity, resilience, and inclusion for vulnerable displaced groups, moving beyond short-term emergency aid to support long-term durable solutions.
Organizations interested in applying can access full guidelines and submission instructions through the official UN Partner Portal.