History
The Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative (GRSI) is led by the Government of Canada, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), The Giustra Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, The Shapiro Foundation, the University of Ottawa Refugee Hub-Pathways International, Porticus and Robert Bosch Stiftung.
| September 2016 | The GRSI was announced in New York City on the margins of the UN and US Refugee Summits. |
| December 2016 | The GRSI was formally launched in Ottawa, Canada during international consultations with close to 100 participants from 10 countries. |
| June 2017 | The GRSI participated in UNHCR’s Annual Tripartite consultations on Resettlement in Geneva and launched its official website (release). During these Geneva events, the GRSI initiated global consultations for its policy design. |
| July 2018 | Ministers from Canada, the UK, Ireland, Argentina, Spain, and New Zealand underscored their support for community sponsorship in advance of the 2018 UN General Assembly and agreement on the Global Compact on Refugees (release). |
| November 2018 | The GRSI co-organized global, multi-day workshops for 40 civil society sponsorship champions in London, England. |
| December 2018 | States were encouraged to work with the GRSI in the newly-affirmed The Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). |
| December 2019 | 6 Ministers underlined their support for community sponsorship at the first Global Refugee Forum and announce the launch of the GRSI States Network, co-chaired by Canada and the UK (release). |
| July 2020 | The GRSI convened a high-level dialogue on sponsorship, resettlement, and complementary pathways. The event featured a pledge from the European Commission to continue financing sponsorship projects, a commitment from Canada to welcome an additional 500 refugees through labour pathways, and other statements of support from other governments, private sector leaders, sponsors, and a sponsored refugee. |
| December 2020 | The GRSI welcomes a new partner, The Shapiro Foundation. |
| April 2021 | Together with the European Commission and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), the GRSI brought together speakers from various governments, academia, philanthropy, and civil society to reaffirm commitments to growing community sponsorship in Europe. |
| December 2021 | Alongside key partners, leaders and supporters, the GRSI celebrated its five-year anniversary in Ottawa. During this celebration, partners reconfirmed the collective commitment to advancing their cooperation to sustain the scaling of community sponsorship for the benefit of the greatest number of refugees possible (release). |
| April 2023 | The GRSI welcomes two new partners, Porticus and Robert Bosch Stiftung. |
| December 2023 | The GRSI launched a multi-stakeholder pledge at the 2023 Global Refugee Forum. The multi-stakeholder pledge aims to expand community sponsorship opportunities for refugees worldwide. The GRSI garnered pledges from 10 states committing to develop (Brazil), continue or expand existing programmes (Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy UK and USA), as well as pledges by 33 entities (including 3 Private Sector, 5 faith-based organisations, 3 international organisations and 19 civil society organisations). |