UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antònio Guterres and the Governor of the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) Raphaël Alomar are signing today a document which will
help UNHCR to find lasting solutions and change lives for thousands of European refugees, displaced people and returnees.The memorandum of understanding, entering into force this morning in
Geneva, will enable a long-term financial cooperation and funding of social housing, educational and health projects for uprooted people under UNHCR's mandate – primarily in European countries
hosting large displaced populations, such as Georgia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.Under the new agreement, the CEB will consider financing selected UNHCR projects in the form of grants,
as well as selected projects for populations under our mandate in the form of loans. In the latter case, UNHCR will assist the CEB and the concerned governments in identifying suitable loan
projects.The cooperation between CEB and UNHCR dates back to 1999 when the bank contributed to UNHCR programmes providing emergency water filtration plants and transport for refugees and
internally displaced persons in Kosovo.Since then, the CEB contributed some three million Euros to UNHCR programmes focusing on the sustainable returns in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as
housing and in kind assistance for refugees leaving collective centres in Serbia. In September the CEB also announced a supporting grant to UNHCR's operation in Georgia to provide shelter for the
newly displaced population from South Ossetia.The successful cooperation between the CEB and UNHCR represents an outstanding example of how to bridge the gap between humanitarian assistance
and long-term development activities and sets a model that UNHCR is keen to replicate with other international financial institutions and development actors.
General view of a construction site of a new settlement for refugees, some 60 km (37 miles) west of Tbilisi, October 29, 2008. Thousands of Georgians made homeless by the August ...
