Refugee-led leadership in Cox’s Bazar

In Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Rohingya youth and refugee-led organisations (RLOs) are at the centre of community life. They play a range of roles including acting as first responders during emergencies, supporting education systems and documenting protection concerns. Yet despite their central role, they continue to be treated as helpers rather than leaders within the humanitarian system.

This article draws on interviews with 50 leaders of Rohingya-led organisations, representing 50 organisations with hundreds of members across the camps in Cox’s Bazar. Based on discussions with community leaders, there are an estimated 300 RLOs operating in the camps, most of which were established after 2017. These organisations are largely youth-led and emerged in response to gaps in service delivery, coordination and representation. Their work spans emergency response, education, advocacy, documentation and community support.

While humanitarian actors increasingly emphasise localisation and local leadership, the experiences of RLOs in Cox’s Bazar highlight a persistent gap between rhetoric and reality. This article explores what refugee-led leadership looks like in practice, the structural barriers that constrain it, and what needs to change for refugee-led leadership to be meaningfully recognised and supported.

What local leadership looks like in practice 

RLO leaders explained that refugee leadership in Cox’s Bazar means standing with and supporting their community in situations where the international governments or aid agencies may not fully understand their realities. As one leader shared:

‘We feel it is our responsibility to address our own issues.’

Leadership also means becoming a voice for vulnerable people, speaking for justice, seeking solutions, and advocating for dignified repatriation. For many RLO leaders, it means encouraging refugees to participate as decision-makers, planners and implementers in community programmes related to education, protection and emergency support, even without formal recognition of their work.

However, many RLO leaders said they are often treated by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and authorities as volunteers or helpers rather than community leaders. RLOs cannot easily approach NGO officials or camp authorities, but community members frequently seek RLOs’ support and guidance. As one leader noted:

‘People trust us and come to us to address their problems.’

Frontline role in emergencies

RLO leaders play an important role during emergencies. In 2024, when violence in Arakan displaced thousands of people toward the Bangladesh border, RLO members helped injured people reach hospitals, rescued people from boats near Teknaf and provided emergency support to affected families. They also sent food, medicine and clothing to people who remained in Arakan.

Within the camps, RLOs respond to fires, floods, landslides and disease outbreaks by sharing information quickly and identifying vulnerable people such as children, elderly individuals, and people with disabilities. They collect and distribute basic items from the community and sometimes conduct small surveys to understand urgent needs before NGOs respond.

However, RLOs are rarely included in formal emergency planning or coordination. As one RLO member explained:

‘They listen politely to our opinions, but in the end, the decisions are always made by others.’

Community-led education systems

In 2017, there were only NGO learning centres in the camps, and these were mainly for nursery students. They provided toys and very basic literacy and numeracy lessons. It did not matter whether the learners were children, adolescents, or adults; the system remained severely limited. Later, Rohingya community teachers began offering private tuition by organising students according to grade levels. However, they mostly taught only Burmese, mathematics and English. Over time, these efforts developed into informal community-based learning centres, which were run completely on a voluntary basis. As one community teacher explained, ‘Many of us work as volunteer teachers, facilitators, or mentors, helping children continue their education even though we have no proper space, schools, or learning materials.’

In 2020, when the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) introduced the Myanmar Curriculum Pilot, it consulted community-based schools and used feedback in the design and implementation of its pilot programme. However, the programme was limited to about 10,000 students from grades 1 to 9. It operated like an NGO project with strict management and limited payments, which discouraged many qualified community teachers from joining. As a result, community teachers continued running their own schools independently by collecting small fees from students to support teachers and basic school activities.

RLO leaders have also been active in discussions with the National Unity Government of Myanmar, in an effort to make board examination more widely accessible in Cox’s Bazar. For example, in 2023, 26 community schools collaborated to organise board examinations and conduct midterm and final exams. In 2025, senior teachers and community leaders established the Examination Board of Rohingya Refugees. They have successfully conducted midterm and final examinations, and the initiative has gained strong support from the community. However, NGOs and authorities have not formally recognised or supported it. Most activities continue through voluntary contributions without dedicated funding or proper facilities.

When some UNICEF and NGO learning centres closed after funding cuts in 2025, community schools continued operating. Currently, around 95% of Rohingya families rely on these schools to educate their children. Some RLOs also support students by providing stationery and learning materials.

However, several major gaps remain in the camp education system. One key challenge is the lack of cooperation between authorities, NGOs and RLOs. Community-based schools and the Examination Board of Rohingya Refugees are not officially recognised, even though they were created to respond to real educational needs. Without recognition and support, these schools face shortages of learning materials, classrooms and trained teachers. Many teachers continue working without regular stipends.  

Documentation of protection concerns

According to many Rohingya representatives, documenting protection concerns and human rights violations is also an important focus of their work. They collect testimonies from affected individuals, including details such as date, time, location and description of incidents. These reports often involve child protection issues, gender-based violence, discrimination, abuse, and gaps in service delivery. They have also assisted with documentation and victim support related to international justice processes, such as with the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. Notably, RLOs do not conduct formal investigations. Their role is mainly to document responsibly and refer cases to human rights organisations, protection actors, or humanitarian agencies.

However, RLOs face challenges in their documentation and referring role. This comes in the form of backlash from community members and local authorities, to whom RLO staff are visible and accessible. For example, one RLO member explained that when they reported an acid attack against a daily labourer on social media, authorities threatened them to remove the post. Such situations make it very challenging for RLOs to document and speak up against injustice.

Key challenges to refugee leadership 

The main challenge in registering an RLO is the refugee status of Rohingya in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has not signed international refugee treaties, and Rohingya are allowed to stay only on humanitarian grounds and bilateral understandings. Because of this, registering RLOs is seen as a sovereignty concern, as authorities may view it as an act of state recognition. Therefore, refugees are not legally permitted to register independent organisations.

Among the 50 RLOs we spoke with, none are officially registered in the host country. Although some are recognised by the UN, they are not allowed to receive financial support directly from NGOs or private donors, and they do not have legal work permits. Because of these restrictions, RLO activities operate informally within the community and only inside the camp boundaries.

RLOs must seek permission from the Camp-in-Charge to conduct any activity. Getting approval is difficult and can take months, even for small workshops. While authorities do not completely stop refugees from forming organisations, they do not allow them to work independently, access funding, build formal partnerships, or join coordination platforms. This limits their visibility and participation in decision-making spaces.

Many RLO members have skills, commitment, lived experiences and strong community trust. If RLOs were allowed to register, they could develop projects, build partnerships with aid agencies and create livelihood opportunities for many people.

Donors usually require legal registration, bank accounts and formal authorisation. However, Rohingya RLOs are not allowed to use the Bangladesh banking system or mobile financial services. As a result, they cannot apply for most donor grants or contracts. NGOs are also not permitted to provide grants directly to RLOs.

For financial transactions, some RLOs rely on informal methods, such as bank accounts in foreign countries or accounts of trusted Bangladeshi individuals. However, these arrangements remain uncertain and risky. One RLO leader shared that:

‘An American university approved funding for our school but cancelled it when we couldn’t provide bank details under our RLO and host country registration.’

Partnerships

Due to legal and legitimacy restrictions, NGOs, international stakeholders, grassroots networks, and major donors are generally unable to form formal partnerships with Rohingya-led organisations in the camps. By contrast, many Rohingya diaspora organisations receive funding and support from host countries. They can travel, work legally, establish offices, and collaborate with international courts, lawyers and international NGOs. However, camp-based RLOs do not have these opportunities.

Some NGOs engage RLOs informally as volunteers, community mobilisers, or outreach partners, but these interactions are limited and inconsistent. Partnerships usually focus on specific activities such as awareness campaigns, volunteer work, or information sharing. As one member shared:

‘An INGO once invited our art club to display artwork at a camp exhibition and selected two volunteers for their project. That is all the partnership we experienced with NGOs.’

There have been a few small collaborations, similar to this art club collaboration. In 2020, the Omar Film School received support from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) for filmmaking and embroidery training, and in 2021 UNHCR supported the Rohingyatographer magazine. Beyond these examples, collaboration with RLOs remains limited.

Sometimes NGOs invite RLOs to events or consultations, such as activities organised around World Refugee Day or Human Rights Day. However, these engagements rarely lead to long-term partnerships. RLOs also lack offices or meeting spaces, although some organisations occasionally provide temporary venues.

Conclusion and recommendations

Rohingya-led organisations in Cox’s Bazar demonstrate that local leadership already exists. They respond to emergencies, sustain education systems and support protection activities for their communities – often without recognition, funding or formal support. Yet the humanitarian system continues to treat them as helpers rather than leaders. They are not treated as central to localisation. Bridging this gap requires more than commitments to localisation. It requires changes to legal frameworks, funding systems, coordination structures, refugee status and partnership models that currently exclude refugee-led actors.

Our suggested recommendations for the many actors and stakeholders involved in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps are as follows:

• Recognise and formally register RLOs as legitimate partners.
• Include RLO leaders in decision-making processes.
• Establish stronger coordination mechanisms for refugee participation in humanitarian planning and policy discussions.
• Create livelihood opportunities for refugees.
• Support capacity-building initiatives for youth and RLOs.
• Co-design programmes with RLOs.
• Provide small grants, office space, materials, and learning facilities to strengthen community-led initiatives.

Khair Ullah, Chair of South Asia Working Group of Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) and founder of Resilience Refugee Alliance, is a Rohingya youth advocate, researcher and human rights defender whose work amplifies Rohingya voices and advocates for justice, education and community empowerment.

Ahtaram Shin, Deputy Chair of the Geographical Working Group of APRRN and founder of Rohingya Youth Club, is a Rohingya writer, researcher, civil society activist and Rohingyatographer’s Editor in Chief.