Australia for UNHCR Supporter Survey 2008

Thank you to all our donors who responded to Australia for UNHCR's first annual supporter survey. Key survey findings are summarized below. If you would like any clarification about the survey responses or have any other queries or comments please email us at info@australiaforunhcr.org.au.       

Thank you.

Key Findings of Survey

Question: Today there are over 33 million refugees and other displaced people in the world. Did you know that last year only 1 million were able to return home?

The majority of respondents did not know how many people were displaced in the world.

Since our survey the total number of refugees and displaced people has increased. UNHCR estimates that there are currently 11.4 million refugees outside their countries and 26 million internally displaced people bringing the new total to 37.4 million people of concern to UNHCR.

Question: UNHCR currently works with refugees in 116 countries. In the last 12 months, which of the following countries have you read or heard about as being a major country of origin for refugees or displaced people?

Donors who responded were most aware of emergency situations in Sudan, Iraq, Kenya and Afghanistan. These areas are a key focus for UNHCR's Emergency Response Team. Donor awareness of refugee and IDP situations in Colombia and the Democratic Republic of Congo was much lower.

There are about 552,000 refugees fleeing conflict in Colombia and approximately 1.3 million internally displaced people in the DRC. The UNHCR Emergency Response Team is active in both of these countries.

Question: Refugee situations can occur anywhere. Today there are people in refugee situations in many parts of the world. Which regions of the world are of concern to you?

Overall, donors rated the situations in Africa and the Middle East as of most concern to them. A large proportion of donors also listed refugee situations in Australia as a concern.

Question: All of UNHCR's projects provide all round care and aim to protect and assist refugees. Which project areas are of importance to you?

Overall donors rated basic health and medical care of most importance.

Education and Food &Nutrition Programs were seen as important as well.

Question: Why did you choose to support a refugee agency?

Majority of donors responded that : ‘I believe that the refugee issue is one of the most serious global problems today.'

A significant proportion also responded that the fact that : ‘80% of refugees are women and children' is an important consideration to them.

Other Key Findings

Many of our supporters expressed an interest in attending UNHCR field staff briefings. We are responding to this and are currently planning donor briefings for the latter part of 2008.

Many supporters also wanted to attend Australia for UNHCR events with family participation. Many donors attend the World Refugee Day and Christmas events with their families and we encourage you to do so this year.

Awareness of Australia for UNHCR's contribution to UNHCR over the past 5 years was low (Australians have donated more than $12m to UNHCR projects).

Several of our donors are former refugees.

Donors in their feedback to us wanted us to focus on more ‘environmentally friendly' ways of communicating with them.

Recycled paper

We have now started to use 100% recycled paper in our publications when possible. Look out for the 100% recycled paper sign on our newsletters.

More Email communication

We will focus on email as the main means of communicating with our supporters. If you are receiving paper-based communication and would prefer to receive email communication please email us on info@australiaforunhcr.org.au. We hope to send out at least one email a month.

Reduce paper

We have endeavoured to reduce the amount of paper included in our mail outs whilst still communicating the key needs of refugees. We appreciate however that many of our supporters do enjoy reading our publications.