The Office of the United Nationas High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was founded in 1950 to lead and coordinate international efforts to protect refugee rights and well-being and find solutions to refugee situations. In 2013, there were 51.2 million displaced persons, of whom 42.9 million fell under the mandate of UNHCR. The rise in the number of refugees in recent years has been fuelled by several large-scale crises, coupled with the fact that durable solutions for those in protracted refugee situations have not been achieved at rates commensurate with previous years. Durable solutions are traditionally defined as voluntary reutrn or repatriation, resetllement to a third country and self-reliance as interim solution measures.
The Office of Internal Oversight Services examined the relevance, effectiveness and impact of UNHCR in achieving its mandate with regard to protection, assistance and solutions, with a focus on durable solutions for those in protracted refugee situations. It used a mix of qualitative and quantitative data-collection methods, including surveys, site visits, interviews, and evaluation syntheses, document reviews and secondary programme data analysis.