Certain Christian church denominations in the UK have become focal points for providing assistance to refugees from East Africa and the Horn of Africa. The Pentecostal and Coptic (Orthodox) churches in particular – the principal religions of the refugees –…
On 11th March 2011, eastern Japan was hit by a magnitude 9 earthquake, followed by a tsunami approximately 30 minutes later. By 22nd June, the death toll had reached over 15,000, with more than 7,000 still missing and over 110,000…
The fifth High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection Challenges explored ‘Faith and Protection’, assembling over 400 representatives of faith-based organisations (FBOs), faith leaders and other partners in Geneva in December 2012 for a two-day discussion on partnership with faith-based actors. This…
The emergence of ‘liberated areas’ in the Syrian conflict has brought into sharp relief the salience of faith in humanitarian activity, as faith-based organisations (FBOs) are explicitly providing the majority of support and assistance to displaced Syrians there. Humanitarian activity…
Innovation is not the same thing as invention; it need not involve the creation of something novel but often takes the form of adapting something to a different context. It may be incremental (step by step) or disruptive (breaking the…
As practised at UNHCR, innovation is a strategy for change and for problem solving that relies on new modalities and products and that seeks to benefit from the ‘minds of many’ (with the ‘many’ drawn from both inside and outside…
Located in the hilly western edge of Rwanda, Kiziba refugee camp is home to some 16,000 refugees. Kiziba’s population is young, with 50% of its residents under the age of 18. The children born within the camp have spent their…
In 2006 UNHCR was looking for ways to reduce its spending on sanitary pads for refugees in Uganda. Staff read about Dr Moses Musaazi, a Ugandan entrepreneur, who in 2004 had been supported by the Rockefeller Foundation to come up…
In August 2013, UNHCR’s Innovation team launched the UNHCR Ideas platform – an online crowdsourcing tool[1] that enables members of the humanitarian community to put forward and develop innovative solutions to challenges in refugee protection and assistance. Each Ideas initiative…
