UNHCR has established a new fund seeking to support refugee-led organizations and initiatives.
Refugee Council of Lithuania hosting an event about refugee rights and cultural diversity. © Refugee Council of Lithuania
A new Refugee-led Innovation Fund from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has awarded 17 organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars to improve the lives of displaced people and their host communities.
“This is an important moment for UNHCR and the wider humanitarian community. People who are forced to flee must take centre stage in finding solutions to the problems they face,” Hovig Etyemezian, Head of UNHCR’s Innovation Service, said at an event to launch the Fund and introduce its first awardees on February 28. “The Refugee-led Innovation Fund is part of that process.”
Co-designed with refugees, the Fund was launched in 2022 to champion the creativity of all displaced and stateless people. It aims to provide refugee-led organizations with meaningful financial resources to implement and develop their innovative projects, as they often face challenges accessing direct and flexible funding.
One of these refugee-led organizations is the Refugee Council of Lithuania, Pabėgėlių Taryba, which works to support refugee integration and change narratives via collaborations and dialogue between refugees, civil society, public institutions and the private sector.
“We believe that true integration can be achieved in collaboration, when refugees, other foreigners and locals can work together towards a common goal and learn from each other,” says director Lina Grudulaitė. “We aspire to create an inclusive and open society, where refugees are empowered, integrated and safe.”
The Refugee Council of Lithuania, established in 2021, also works to address the challenges faced by refuges in Lithuanian society. Challenges such as language and cultural barriers as well as economic hardship, which means that it might be difficult to find jobs, housing, or to interact and socialize with the local community.
The Refugee Council is supported by UNCHR’s Innovation Fund for its project centered around supporting entrepreneurship among refugees, in particular startup companies. The goal is to strengthen entrepreneurial skills among refugees and to integrate them into the Lithuanian economy.
“With the contribution from the Innovation Fund we can help refugees build sustainable businesses in Lithuania or strengthen already existing ones. As research indicates there is a lack of services and entrepreneurship support for refugees in Lithuania. The project also helps to employ refugee workers as project leaders and mobilize refugee communities to build support networks in the community,” says Lina Grudulaitė.
Globally, 17 refugee-led organizations – from places as diverse as Greece, Italy, Mali, Rwanda, and Uganda – are set to receive a combined US$700,000 in direct seed funding this year, as well as holistic support from UNHCR through mentorship and technical expertise. Further details can be found here.
The new Fund and its first supported projects feed into the aims of the Global Compact on Refugees by bringing together a range of actors, notably refugees themselves, to find new solutions to challenges facing forcibly displaced communities and those who host them.
The Fund will launch a new call for expressions of interest each year to ensure UNHCR is able to consistently encourage and support refugee-led innovation.
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