what we do
THE PROBLEM
Evidence has repeatedly shown that refugee-led organizations (RLOs) are holistically and cost-effectively addressing their communities’ needs. Around the world, RLOs are undertaking innovative programs with the trust, connections and knowledge necessary to support their communities and facilitate long-term solutions. However, RLOs are profoundly under-resourced. Of the nearly $30 billion flowing through the humanitarian system annually, we estimate that RLOs collectively receive less than 1% of funding.
There has been wide acknowledgement of this problem by powerful actors in our sector, such as through growing calls to provide funding to local actors through the Grand Bargain, increased recognition of giving refugees the power and access so they have agency over their own livelihoods, and the push to include refugees as leaders in strategy development and decision making processes.
Despite these calls for change, institutional barriers such as access to bank accounts, lack of relationships with key donors, and bias against the idea of refugees being leaders make it virtually impossible for RLOs to access funding. Community-driven solutions are being excluded from the current system. Meanwhile, the recipients of most humanitarian and development funding—typically large international organizations—allocate financial resources to foreign salaries, travel and bureaucracy, taking exorbitant cuts from impactful work.
THE SOLUTION
Imagine instead that local refugee leaders had the funding and access to scale their impact. As refugee leaders live and work in these communities, they understand and respond to the needs of their communities in a cost-effective, transparent, accountable, impactful and sustainable manner. The Resourcing Refugee Leadership Initiative (RRLI) is realizing this vision. Through our four key strategies, we are launching a movement to transform the forced displacement sector and sustainably fund RLOs.
our strategies
REFUGEE LEADERSHIP FUND
We have established the first-of-its-kind Refugee Leadership Fund—a fund for refugees by refugees. The fund is governed by our six organizations, and housed at Asylum Access in the United States. The fund aggregates contributions and redistributes them to RLOs around the world. Our US-based legally registered fund puts philanthropic power in the hands of refugees and offers donors a way to safely and smoothly fund RLOs.
GENERATING EVIDENCE
We generate evidence on the impact of RLOs in order to combat dominant, inaccurate and harmful narratives of RLOs as small, unstructured, or primarily implementers. We collect and disseminate evidence of the impact and effectiveness of RLOs through external evaluations, case studies and impact reports.
STRENGTHENING RLOs
Through our Strengthening RLOs Partnership Program, our coalition RLOs support our grantees to strengthen organizational capacity, from building financial systems to enhancing monitoring and evaluation processes. This program also enables us to leverage our proximate, firsthand knowledge to help RLOs overcome location- and context-specific barriers to accessing funding and growing community impact.
ADVOCATING FOR REFUGEE LEADERSHIP
We engage with influential stakeholders in the refugee response sector, including UNHCR, bilateral governments and philanthropic foundations to advocate for refugee leadership and the resourcing of RLOs. As part of our advocacy engagement, we collaboratively explore current barriers to resourcing refugee leadership and offer solutions to fund RLOs globally, including through our Refugee Leadership Fund.
“The humanitarian sector needs to bring more resources to our work as RLOs and trust us to do the work ourselves....”
— MOZHGAN MOAREFIZADEH
