Speaking about the fund to Innovators Magazine in 2023, Erika Pérez Iglesias, who leads the Refugee-led Innovation Fund, said: “UNHCR’s Refugee-led Innovation Fund proposes a fundamental shift in the way humanitarian and development programming gets designed and delivered, ensuring forcibly displaced and stateless people take centre stage in the decisions affecting their lives.”
Selected RLOs will receive up to $45k in funding but the relationships go deeper than that.
“It’s not just funding: it’s also project management support, technical expertise, and peer-to-peer networking,” added Erika. “And it focuses very specifically on innovative projects – ones that are using new tools or approaches in new ways or new contexts to bring value to people forced to flee.”
We interviewed a previous awardee, an RLO called Women for Action operating in Malawi’s Dzaleka refugee camp, led by Cécile Pango, who said collaborating with the fund works well for her organisation.
“They are flexible, the Refugee-led Innovation Fund, it does not put pressure on us so we are not stressed. Instead it stresses what you have done well and does not blame your faults. Therefore, we can take time to reflect and make minimal errors.”
Applications for the current round close on 31 May 2024 at 23:59 Panama time.
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Iain is a writer, journalist and lecturer, and former editor of two international business magazines. Iain is now editor of Innovators Magazine, as well as the strategic content director for OnePoint5Media.
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