Transforming Humanitarian Response: Rebuilding Refugees' Lives

Our Organization

Women's Refugee Commission

What is the name of your solution?

Transforming Humanitarian Response: Rebuilding Refugees' Lives

Provide a one-line summary of your solution.

Measuring the impact of economic programs targeting refugees and using the evidence to promote a paradigm sift in humanitarian response

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

In what country is your solution team headquartered?

• United States

What type of organization is your solution team?

Nonprofit

Film your elevator pitch.

What specific problem are you solving?

114 million people are currently displaced by conflict and human rights abuses - most of whom are now displaced, on average, for between 10 - 20 years. Additional millions are displaced annually by natural disasters and the effects of climate change. The traditional humanitarian response of providing aid to meet the basic needs of those displaced is neither sufficient nor sustainable. The humanitarian system can not keep pace with the growing needs and donors are not allocating the resources to do so. As a result, food rations for refugees across the globe are being cut by the World Food Program - in some places by as much as 40%. As displacement situations become protracted, donors lose interest and re-channel their funds to newer emergencies and international organizations close their programs and move on. For refugees, such as the hundreds of thousands in the Dadaab and Kakuma camps in Kenya, the 1.5 million hosted by Uganda, and the tens of thousands living on Burmese on the Thai border, many of whom have been displaced for decades - being dependent on erratic humanitarian assistance increases their vulnerability and impacts their safety. When families cannot provide for their basic needs, children are pulled out of school, food intake is decreased and needed health care is neglected. Women, girls, and their families often resort to negative economic coping strategies such as engaging in transactional sex, child labor, and petty theft and criminal activity in order to feed their families. The traditional humanitarian response, its way of working, is no longer adequate or appropriate. Refugees tell us - "we want to work", "we need income", "If we have jobs we can address our own needs", "we don't need the other programs the humanitarians are providing, we can take care of ourselves". It is time for us to listen to and respond to the expressed needs of those displaced - create economic opportunities, assist them in rebuilding their lives wherever they are, and ensure that those opportunities are sustainably leading to self-reliance. 

What is your solution?

Our solution is to promote economic opportunities for displaced households early and everywhere by demonstrating that the impacts of livelihood programs can be easily measured and refugee and displaced households can graduate off humanitarian assistance and rebuild their lives. To do this, we created a simple tool, the Self-Reliance Index (SRI), that captures progress over time on 12 domains (housing, food, education, health care, health status, safety, employment, financial resources, assistance, debt, savings, and social capital) overtime  - ideally every 6 months - and provides a composite score that allows service providers to assess what assistance displaced households need to become self-reliance and when they have achieved such.  The SRI is administered by partner organizations using either Kobo or CommCare on smartphones and the data is then transferred electronically to Dropbox where it is  analyzed by the Women's Refugee Commission's data analyst. 

After data is analyzed, reports are written, shared and discussed with partners to identify trends and inconsistencies in the data and  look at elements of implementation and context that influence scores and could be considered to improve scores longer-term. Programs then use this information to adapt and strengthen their self-reliance-oriented services. Data is then uploaded to a still under development global dashboard developed using Tableau. An intended "output" of the Dashboard  is improved coordination, stakeholder access to information on SRI reach and impact, potential for partners to connect if their applications align in terms of approach, context, population, etc.). Sixty partner organizations are currently applying the Self-Reliance Index in 30 countries. WRC has received data on nearly 30,000 households, some of them multiple times, generating evidence that displaced households can become self-reliant and end their dependency on humanitarian assistance.  This evidence is allowing us to advocate with donors to increase their funding for economic programs for displaced households and for hosting States to reduce restrictions on refugees' right to work. Ultimately, the evidence can help shift and transform the humanitarian system from one based on the delivery of basic assistance to one that provides opportunity, choice, sustainable livelihoods and restores dignity. 
 

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

While our solution directly targets service providers who are implementing economic programs targeting displaced households, the ultimate beneficiaries are the refugee and displaced households who are served with stronger, evidence-driven programs that help them achieve self-reliance.  By helping the service providers measure the impacts of their programs, they can adapt and modify their programs, as needed, refer their clients to services that they do not provide, and responsibly graduate their clients off humanitarian aid. 

The 60 partner organizations we are currently working with serve refugee households in urban areas, rural areas, and refugee camps, as well as internally displaced populations living in those same situations. In addition, some service providers are also targeting vulnerable host community members and others are targeting returnees.  All of the targeting households are currently dependent on humanitarian assistance which can be unpredictable, undignified, and even when provided, unable to meet all of their basic needs leaving these populations mired in poverty, uncertainty, and unable to plan for their futures. 

At present, our partners are using the Self-Reliance Index with displaced populations in Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Zambia, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Aruba,  Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq,  Syria, Myanmar, Poland, and the USA. They are reaching refugee households who have often been dependent on humanitarian assistance for years and even decades and assisting them achieve sustainable self-reliance. Because the partners are all humanitarian organizations and serve populations based on need, they focus on the most vulnerable including female heads of household, widows, survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, youth, and LGBTQI+ persons.  By assisting these households achieve self-reliance, they are helping them secure the resources they need to plan for their futures and that of their families.  Additionally, by promoting self-reliance early and everywhere, the Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative aims to transform the humanitarian sector and rally practitioners around a shared objective of reducing dependency, restoring dignity, and rebuilding lives. 

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?

The Self-Reliance Index, which we developed, was based on the direct input from refugees themselves wherein dozens of refugee households were asked what would self-sufficiency look like in their lives and what would be different. This led to the creation of the twelve domains the Index covers which were workshopped with dozens of partner organizations including donors and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.  The Index was then piloted in multiple settings before being revised with the current version beginning rollout in mid-2020.  The Index is implemented directly with the target households via conversations. The households are engaged throughout the process and are participants in tracking their own progress. Practitioners using the Index report that it allows them to view the households holistically and to understand the interplay of various events and statuses in their lives which impede or facilitate their movement towards self-reliance. 

The staff working on the Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative (RSRI) include very seasoned practitioners who have worked in refugee contexts around the world and academics long engaged in humanitarian research. The team is composed of strong networkers who believe in partnerships, collaborations, and networking. Our operational partners are field-based direct program implementers working with the target communities daily. The RSRI Steering Committee consists of refugee-led organizations, local civil society organizations, a think tank, international nongovernmental organizations, and UNHCR. 

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?

• 1. No Poverty
• 2. Zero Hunger
• 3. Good Health and Well-Being
• 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
• 10. Reduced Inequalities

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Please share details about why you selected the stage above.

We have developed, piloted, iterated, and rolled out the Self-Reliance Index which is now being used by 60 partner organizations in 27 countries. We have made the Index available in  English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Kiswahili. We have directly trained over 300 individuals on use of the Index and developed e-learning modules for self-instruction that are available in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic.  More than 400 individuals have completed the e-learning modules in the various languages. To date, we have received data on 30,000 households that are being tracked using the Index. In addition, we are beginning to develop evidence about which programs work best for which populations in which contexts and generate evidence that displaced households can be assisted to achieve self-reliance.  We have also piloted the Index in high-income countries  - Poland and the U.S. to assess applicability. Further, while the Index was originally developed to measure the self-reliance of urban refugees, partners are using it with internally displaced populations, rural populations, camp-based populations, returnees, and vulnerable host community members. Two humanitarian donors now strongly suggest that their grantees use the Index in their livelihood programs. In addition, we have successfully co-developed and co-hosted the mega-pledge on economic inclusion and social protection at the UNHCR Global Refugee Forum last December which generated 240 commitments of nearly $1 billion targeting 57 million people by 2028.  Finally, we have just begun our first randomized control trial to further validate findings through use of the Index.

We have also built a robust Community of Practice that includes 192 individuals and organizations and that convenes bi-monthly and draws together some 40 practitioners to share learning. Our mailing list includes more than 500 organizations that receive bi-monthly Initiative reports. We continue to strengthen our website to make it the 'go-to' resource for all things related to refugee self-reliance.  

We also have a research working group that convenes quarterly to review learning and additional research needs and questions. In addition, we have completed a market systems development analysis to assess application in refugee settings and have begun a body of work on climate adaptation.

Over the past two years, we have brought on a full-time executive director for the Initiative, a trainer, and a communications officer. We have also hired two part-time academic advisors, and a part-time data analyst, and have just hired a part-time technician to develop our global dashboard.  

Why are you applying to Solve?

Thus far, most of our partner organizations have sought us out as we have not had the bandwidth to conduct targeted outreach to bring the entire pool of organizations implementing economic programs targeting displaced households on board. We need to strengthen our outreach and our support for potential new partners including refugee-led organizations that often require more intensive support. Additionally, our processes for partners to transmit data to us, for us to analyze the data in a timely fashion, upload data to our global dashboard (which is under further development), and share data findings back with partners need to be streamlined through the more effective use of technology. We are discussing if and how artificial intelligence may help us streamline these processes. 

Achieving our ultimate goal of transforming the humanitarian system into one that shares a common objective of helping displaced households achieve self-reliance requires more robust messaging, communications, and advocacy. This necessitates engaging additional government and foundation donors and supporting partners' advocacy efforts with hosting States around refugees' right to work. 

Increasing the Initiative's visibility and credibility could facilitate broader uptake and engagement from the myriad of stakeholders who need to be influenced to make the change we seek to achieve. The Initiative aims to be a convener and a catalyst for changing humanitarian response. This requires more robust and sustained advocacy, the development of policy and learning briefs, and conducting more webinars, conference presentations, and donor briefings. In addition, we have begun conversations with the UNHCR- World Bank Group Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement on data sharing and comparing to assess alignment and how our various data sets can be compiled to present a more comprehensive picture. This will require considerable analysis and likely the use of additional technology. Further, we have begun conversations with the Organization for Economic Cooperation Development on how their tracking of shifts in donor funding can further inform our ultimate goal. 

In summary, our needs our more robust advocacy and communications, more effective use or types of technology, expanding and strengthening our partnerships, effectively visualizing the data collected, and comparing data sets between and among entities collecting relevant data that could build a more comprehensive picture of what is being achieved globally.  

In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?

• Business Model (e.g. product-market fit, strategy & development)
• Product / Service Distribution (e.g. delivery, logistics, expanding client base)
• Public Relations (e.g. branding/marketing strategy, social and global media)
• Technology (e.g. software or hardware, web development/design)

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Kari Diener