Article

Financing for forced displacement response is not fit for purpose. The needs of refugees and their host communities far outstrip resources while displacement only grows. The international community continues to facilitate an aid model that was built by a small group of people as a band-aid to address short-term problems. Despite numerous calls for a transformation of the humanitarian and development system, this aid model has not yet shifted to meet today’s reality of protracted, large-scale displacement crises. We cannot keep relying on and supporting this unfit system that encourages traditional actors to do more of the same, especially when funding is scarce. The countries and communities that receive slowly diminishing resources from donors each year – instead of there being a collective radical rethink of the aid complex – are only being hurt by this approach.

The World Bank has become a prominent player in forced displacement response. The Bank could strengthen its contribution further through better coordination with humanitarian agencies and more meaningful refugee participation.

Funding from the Gulf for refugee women’s empowerment could enhance self-reliance and women’s autonomy through flexible and innovative economic solutions, yet it risks reinforcing traditional gender roles and perpetuating inequalities.

The Russian invasion has prompted a new phenomenon: significant reverse remittances from within Ukraine to displaced Ukrainians in other countries. This has implications for the individual recipients, host countries and for Ukraine itself.