New toolkit for refugee-led organizations aims to support local leadership in Europe

Across Europe, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, works hand in hand with Refugee-Led Organizations (RLOs), supporting their efforts to provide protection and assistance to their communities, and to contribute concretely to the search for solutions, through a range of initiatives and programmes. These organizations are critical partners for UNHCR, as they facilitate participation in programmatic decisions by people with lived experience of forcible displacement and statelessness. Amplifying their voices and enabling their participation and leadership is a key element in sustainable responses and delivers on UNHCR’s commitment to Accountability to Affected People (AAP).

This toolkit seeks to collect and present information and resources that support the critical work done by RLOs. Covering a wide range of topics related to the establishment, management, communications, and fundraising activities of RLOs, it provides tips and tools to help organizations that may be starting operations or seeking to scale up their delivery. This includes recognizing that RLO work is often carried out under sustained stress—both for communities and for the staff and volunteers supporting them—making well-being and safe, sustainable ways of working a practical part of organizational strengthening. Drawn from the work and experience of UNHCR operations across Europe, this guidance seeks to recognize and reinforce RLOs as strategic partners in delivering services and assistance, advocating for programs that meet urgent needs, and participating in the coordination of the broader response.

This toolkit is designed as a modular, flexible, and non-prescriptive resource to strengthen UNHCR’s engagement with Refugee-Led Organizations (RLOs) and other community based structures. Grounded in UNHCR’s commitments to localization, community based protection, and accountability to affected people (AAP), it consolidates lessons learned from field operations, emerging practices within RLO networks, and standards drawn from interagency frameworks such as the IASC Localization Guidance, UN Community Engagement Guidelines, and the Core Humanitarian Standard.

Recognizing that no two RLOs are alike, the toolkit acknowledges the diversity of their:

• Legal and registration status (formal NGOs, associations, informal groups, social
  enterprises).
• Missions and thematic focus (protection, education, livelihoods, advocacy, GBV, health
  and mental health, disability inclusion, LGBTIQ+ rights, etc.).
• Organizational structures and capacities.
• Operational realities and access constraints, including contexts of displacement,
  statelessness, and mixed-migration environments.

For this reason, the toolkit does not outline a “one size fits all” model, nor does it prescribe fixed pathways for partnership. Instead, it offers a menu of tools, methodologies, and adaptable approaches that can be selectively applied based on each organization’s needs, aspirations, and stage of institutional development.

For questions related to Community-Based Protection (CBP), localization and RLO work in Europe, please write to Vincent Briard, CBP Unit, Regional Bureau for Europe: [email protected]

See publication: UNHCR Europe Refugee-Led Organization Toolkit