The Library
Integrated communications strategy: a collaborative experience in Costa Rica
Integrated Communications strategy: a collaborative experience in Costa Rica During the Innovation Fellowship we iFellows were trained on the Human-Centered Design (HCD) methodology to try to solve the challenges refugees face through innovative and creative...
Education above all: unlocking human development at Kakuma
"Anyone can become a refugee. This is not a choice we make."-- Aisha, 17 years old. Iterative Innovation For anyone who becomes a refugee, accessing education and a way to support oneself is always a priority. That's why UNHCR and our Learn Lab have teamed up with...
Could tablet-based education help ensure a high quality education for some 18,000 young refugees at Dadaab?
Our Learn Lab is working with UNHCR’s Education Unit and the Vodafone Foundation to provide tablet-based education in primary and secondary schools, and vocational skills centers across Dadaab’s camps. How will this work? The centers have been equipped with mobile...
Helping refugees help themselves: community based approach
In Kampala, Uganda urban refugee case load is excluded from the mainstream refugee assistance and protection that is focused on the settlements. These categories of refugees who opt to stay out of the settlement are supposed to cater for themselves. Relief agencies,...
Can crisis mapping show innovation a new way to grow up?
Crisis Mapping has been an inspiring example of community-led open innovation applied to big problems. Leveraging both technology and crowd sourcing, passionate participants have been able to provide detailed real time information in places of crisis, where insights...
How to plan a prototype project: 4 lessons learned
Refugees have reported that, thanks to solar streetlights in the refugee camps around Dollo Ado, Ethiopia, there’s now more freedom of movement in and around the camps. Security has increased and people can go to the market, read, or study at night – activities that...
A life of dignity for all
The global population has crossed 7 billion and children are amongst its largest yet most vulnerable stakeholders. Exploitation of young people affected by violence and strife has reached alarming proportions globally and policy makers need to take urgent stock of the...
SMS system for warehouse management
If functions like selling, marketing and finance could be embedded into such a device, why not logistics and procurement? It is the same turnover computers once did to all the bundles of papers and files that occupied the offices when we doubted if the work could be...
Asylum Support Map
Making it easier for asylum seekers to access services and support. Refugees often leave behind not just homes and jobs, but their entire support network of friends, colleagues and loved ones. In an unfamiliar country, they often struggle to find the resources they...
Integrated Communications Strategy
Helping refugees get critical information about rights and services. In the vibrant, bustling city of San Jose, Costa Rica, about 17,000 refugees and asylum seekers find relative stability and a sympathetic legal system. But they still struggle to get critical...
Linking education and innovation in humanitarian settings…are they connected?
Education is repeatedly mentioned as a priority by refugees often as their only hope for a better future. Today, the number of refugees worldwide is at an all time high; more than half of them children, spending years seeking asylum. Ideally, refugee children should...
Redesigning refugee communities: post 2 of 2
Designing a Solution: The innovative design consists of a U-shaped compound, and is based on the principle of compact development. The model comprises at the first level a family area which is the smallest planning unit of the settlement. The family plot area has a...
Redesigning refugee communities: post 1 of 2
A Look at the Challenge: We all have our own origin and our way of life! We all wish to live in well-arranged area for our well-being and development. We all want to live in an area where access to basic services is easy and mostly safe. As a Civil Engineer...
Informational App for Syrian Refugees
The crisis in Syria has already driven 3 million people to flee the country. In 2014 as they poured into neighboring countries, UNHCR was registering more than 100,000 Syrian refugees each month. A core part of UNHCR’s mandate to protect refugees is to communicate...
Piggeries, solar lighting, and biodigesters: my iFellow experience
As an iFellow in Beirut, Lebanon, I’ve had the opportunity to delve more deeply into sectors I’ve always wanted to learn more about. Particularly, environmental protection and livelihoods are two sectors that I have wanted to explore more and try something innovative...
An innovative approach to latrines in Dollo Ado
Dollo Ado is a Woreda (district) in Somali region of Ethiopia – that borders the troubled Somalia. It’s home to over 200,000 Somali Refugees that fled war, drought and other calamities in Somalia. Hiloweyn refugee camp - one of the five camps in the district– hosts...
Change is difficult: let’s dance!
As a reader, you will notice that I will use the term ¨Harmony” a lot of times during this blog. Like in music, the harmony (how each instrument interact with other in a certain time line) and the timing (when and how each instrument enters) are key elements to make...
UPRISE – UNHCR promotional items generating sustainable earnings for refugees
Even if you dream big, you have to start small. Innovation is not about novelty or invention. It is about adapting to context. Those are just three examples of UNHCR´s promotional items. Operations all around the world can order them at their own cost, and some have...
Lessons learned from iFellow workshop in Nairobi
Innovation fellowship itself is an innovative initiative of UNHCR. I always feel proud of being a member of the first class iFellowship programme for 2013-2014. The fellowship offers multidimensional skills to the iFellows such as human centered design and...
10 reasons you should be an iFellow…
1. It’s an extraordinary learning experience. The Innovation Fellowship is an integral learning experience that brings together a perfect balance between theory and practice. You will learn about human-centered design, prototyping, change...
Innovation takes time…
I was excited to become part of UNHCR’s inaugural Innovation Fellowship programme. Excited because I wanted to learn about the “innovation process”; excited because I wanted to meet and work with other like-minded people in the organization; and excited because I...
Building bridges between refugees and the private sector
As an ifellow, I am receiving training in innovative design thinking and project management, and to put into practice these new skills, I will be working in three objectives through the fellowship: 1. Strengthen an ongoing innovative initiative, which is the Corporate...
What do I intend to do as an iFellow?
I’m a development professional with extensive experience in applied research, livelihoods monitoring, impact evaluation and qualitative research, and worked for CARE and UNAIDS in Bangladesh prior to joining UNHCR. I’m conversant with the...
Innovation workshop in Eastern Sudan: A wake-up call for collective efforts
Eastern Sudan is the largest concentration of refugees and asylum seekers. The region currently hosts 73,181 refugees and asylum seekers. After more than 40 years, eastern Sudan is also known as the oldest refugee situation in UNHCR’s history and is distinguished by...
What have I learned about innovation?
I remember the day we received the broadcast calling for applications for the UNHCR Innovation Fellowship 2013-2014 and how it got my attention immediately. The programme was launched in July 2013, my supervisor was on leave by then, and even though there was enough...
Innovation process @ UNHCR Azerbaijan – How to make protection counseling at the refugee reception center more efficient?
UNHCR Azerbaijan is a small office with 16 staff members covering around 1,600 asylum seekers and refugees. UNHCR Refugee Reception Center (RRC) reception center is located around 10 km away from the main office where most of protection activities take place which...
Empowering girls through sport: an iFellow in Afghanistan
Part of 16 Days of Activism against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence On the 25th of November 2013, UNHCR operations around the globe launched the annual 16 Days of Activism against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence. UNHCR in Herat, Afghanistan took part in the...
iFellows…what are they?
What is an iFellow? That was the question that I got this afternoon in my office; I get that question a lot from my friends and colleagues in UNHCR, and it’s not easy to explain but I hope that once this first year of the iFellow program is finished, it’s going to be...
All fingers are not same, so are poverty and vulnerabilities of protracted refugees in Eastern Sudan
The food aid, a vital livelihood provisioning intervention and an element of the relief-development continuum, aims to reduce the vulnerability to food security of extremely/chronic poor people in any humanitarian and development setting. The inclusion and exclusion...
Solutions to livelihoods crises for refugees: SOLVE
At present, I am in the field, and leading the rapid livelihoods impact assessment in the refugee camps in Eastern Sudan. In the meantime, the assessment team has already completed data collection in 3 camps out of the 6 sampled camps. As the team leader, I had...