Refugee participation and leadership
This edition of the Humanitarian Exchange, co-edited with Emily Arnold-Fernández, former CEO of Asylum Access, focuses on refugee participation and leadership in addressing forced displacement. While the importance of refugee-led organisations (RLOs) and the support they provide to people in displacement is now widely acknowledged by both policymakers and practitioners, ensuring RLOs’ leadership, decision-making power and sufficient flexible funding lags far behind. The erroneous assumption that all RLOs are small and lack financial and administrative capacity is reflected in the unequal partnerships and power relations between them and international organisations.
Five years on from the first Global Summit of Refugees organised in 2018 by the Global Refugee Network, Emily Arnold-Fernández reflects on three key questions about refugee participation and leadership: where are we, what have we learned and what’s next? The recently established United States Refugee Advisory Board explains how it aims to ensure that forcibly displaced people have a meaningful and equitable role in influencing global policies and Bahati Kanyamanza makes the case for refugee representation on the Executive Committee of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Farah Al Hamouri and her co-authors from the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN) and the Refugee-led Research Hub (RLRH) share findings from an 18-month research project they conducted in East Africa and the Middle East which investigated the nature, scope and impact of RLOs and what factors condition their impact. Drawing on this research as well as other experience in East Africa, Foni Joyce Vuni, Buhendwa Iragi and Pauline Vidal advise humanitarian actors and donors that prioritising systems for community accountability over donor accountability will achieve better outcomes for affected people. Abdullwahid Dahir, President of the Somali Society in Idaman Sutera Condominium in Kuala Lumpur, recounts action his organisation took to prevent local authorities and building management from illegally evicting him and his fellow Somali refugees. Referencing his experience of starting a Social Innovation Hub (SHiFT) in Lebanon and later working with the Resourcing Refugee Leadership Initiative (RRLI), Hane Alrustm and Gabriella Kallas highlight the transformative impact refugee-led organisations can have on communities.
The response of Syrian civil society organisations to the recent earthquakes in Syria and Türkiye feature in the article by Muzna Dureid, who notes that with the support of local people these organisations responded more quickly and effectively than the UN. Sarah Smith, Lauren Post Thomas and Barri Shorey look at what role philanthropy can play in supporting the meaningful and systematic participation of refugees and refugee leaders in global and national refugee policymaking, while Christina Thompson highlights the importance of supporting meaningful participation of refugees at all levels. Maha Kattaa and Nathalie Both look at the positive impact of refugees’ participation in the labour market on decent work and social cohesion, citing examples and evidence from two International Labour Organization programmes in Jordan. The edition ends with an article by Serwah Asante and co-authors who report on the resistance they encountered when trying to promote the decolonisation of their refugee-supporting organisation, concluding that achieving a decolonial future will require concrete actions to transition power from international non-governmental organisations to affected communities, including RLOs.
Issue 83 articles
1. Displacement and decolonisation: refugee participation and leadership in the forced displacement sector
7. The transformative impact of refugee-led organisations on communities
12. Organising towards a practice of decoloniality, refugee/IDP leadership, and power redistribution in humanitarian aid: experiences from inside the international humanitarian aid sector
