Based on our work to date, it is clear that when persons with lived experience and significant learned experience lead human rights initiatives and projects, the likelihood of creating and sustaining impact is higher. However, the ecosystem of actors working on statelessness in the Asia-Pacific region and associated power structures remains largely top-down, with decision-making spaces and associated resourcing largely inaccessible to persons with lived experience and significant learned experience.  It is essential to bridge the gap between actors holding different levels of power, to foster a more cohesive, collaborative, and therefore more sustainable approach to addressing statelessness in the region.

In response, NFA works to address the impact and root causes of statelessness in the Asia-Pacific region through a bottom-up and participatory approach. NFA aspires to increase the proximity to the power of persons with lived experience and significant learned experience through their meaningful participation in the statelessness ecosystem. This includes responding to the issues identified by persons with lived experience and significant learned experience as requiring prioritized action in the immediate, medium, and long term. This approach reflects NFA’s adoption of a strong intersectional feminist lens to understanding and responding to the issue of statelessness.

NFA believes that persons with lived experience of statelessness should lead in determining how statelessness is addressed. NFA is committed to supporting the leadership and agency of persons with lived experience of statelessness by ensuring their meaningful participation in the planning, design, implementation, and monitoring of our activities.

NFA works closely with persons with lived experience- stateless persons and persons affected by statelessness, such as stateless persons’ family members, and persons with significant learned experience grassroots organizations, activists, and national NGOs working closely with stateless persons.


NFA strives to equalize power imbalances between different actors working on statelessness. NFA aspires to increase the proximity to the power of persons with lived experience and significant learned experience through their fair and meaningful participation in the statelessness ecosystem.

Persons with lived experience are not a homogenous group of people and come from different places of privilege and marginalization. They hold varying degrees of power within their groups and communities. Some stateless persons are in a position to lead human rights initiatives and only require the opportunity to do so. However, most stateless persons are members of the lower echelon of the societal hierarchy and need support and guidance to be in such positions. NFA through its program on engaging with persons with lived experience of statelessness aims to strengthen the capacity of such persons to be able to lead and implement human rights initiatives on their own.