Refugee-led Access to Integrated Solutions and Empowerment (RAISE)
Refugee-led Access to Integrated Solutions and Empowerment (RAISE)
When challenges emerge in Kakuma Municipality, the first people to respond are often those at the grassroots community level.
They are community leaders who identify protection risks before they escalate, youth advocates who create opportunities for their peers, women who support survivors of gender-based violence, educators who expand access to digital learning, and local organizations that help families access information and services in languages they understand.
Across Kakuma Municipality, refugee-led organizations (RLOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) have become trusted partners in strengthening protection, promoting inclusion, and supporting solutions that reflect the priorities of the communities they serve.
In June 2026, Ms. Fatima Mohammed Cole, UNHCR Kenya Representative, officially launched the Refugee-led Access to Integrated Solutions and Empowerment (RAISE) report alongside refugee-led and community-based organizations in Kakuma. The report documents how partnerships with local organizations are helping strengthen community ownership while expanding opportunities for refugees and host communities.
From community initiatives to strategic partners
For years, many refugee-led organizations in Kakuma supported their communities through volunteerism, grassroots initiatives, and informal collaboration. As these organizations grew, so did their ability to contribute to protection, education, peacebuilding, and community engagement.
Recognizing this potential, UNHCR launched the RAISE initiative in 2025 to move beyond ad hoc collaboration towards a more structured partnership model. Through transparent selection, grant agreements, technical mentorship, capacity strengthening, and regular oversight, refugee-led and community-based organizations are supported as accountable partners delivering community-based interventions.
This approach reflects a broader shift towards placing communities at the center of the design and delivery of solutions, while strengthening local leadership and long-term sustainability.
Delivering change where it matters most
Through RAISE, six refugee-led and community-based organizations worked alongside UNHCR to address some of the most pressing challenges facing refugees and host communities.
Their work expanded access to digital learning opportunities for thousands of learners, strengthened disability inclusion in schools and communities, supported efforts to prevent gender-based violence, promoted peaceful coexistence through cultural dialogue, empowered young people through creative arts and digital storytelling, and engaged communities in addressing drug and substance abuse through youth leadership and awareness campaigns.
These initiatives reached more than 30,000 refugees and members of the host community across the Municipality, demonstrating how locally led organizations can extend the reach of protection services while strengthening trust, participation, and accountability.
Investing in stronger local leadership
January 2026: High Commissioner Barham Salih meets representatives of refugee-led and community-based organizations working with UNHCR in Kakuma Municipality during his first official field visit to Kenya.
RAISE is also meant to help local organizations build the systems and skills needed to grow into stronger, more sustainable partners.
Throughout the programme, participating organizations received training in project management, financial accountability, procurement, safeguarding, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, legal frameworks, and results-based reporting. UNHCR teams also provided ongoing technical guidance, joint monitoring, and mentorship to strengthen institutional capacity alongside programme delivery.
By investing in organizational development alongside community action, the initiative aims to ensure refugee-led organizations are better equipped to respond to evolving community needs and engage confidently with partners in the years ahead.
Building on what works
12 June 2026: L–R: Ms. Fatima Mohammed Cole, UNHCR Representative in Kenya, and Mr. Sateesh Nanduri, Head of UNHCR Sub-Office Kakuma, shortly after the launch of the RAISE report at the UNHCR Sub-Office in Kakuma.
The RAISE report identifies important priorities for the future, including strengthening organizational capacity, improving how results are measured, supporting more predictable technical engagement, promoting greater coordination among partners, and helping refugee-led organizations pursue formal recognition to expand future partnership and funding opportunities.
As Kenya advances its refugee inclusion agenda through the Shirika Plan, the Kalobeyei Integrated Socio-Economic Development Plan (KISEDP II), and UNHCR's 50by35 initiative, refugee-led and community-based organizations will continue to play an essential role in building more inclusive, accountable, and locally driven responses to displacement.