News

Coming together to accelerate change

  • USA
  • France
  • United Kingdom
  • Kenya
  • Uganda
Share

 

After 10 years of advocacy and action, we are embarking on a new adventure by coming together with another refugee-focused organization, Xavier Project!

We have been working with Xavier Project for several years and share the same belief that refugees are best placed to make the decisions that affect their own lives and to lead change in their communities.
We feel that, to some degree, our initial mission has been fulfilled. Refugees in urban areas are more widely integrated in humanitarian responses and, since 2016, the international community has recognized the need to rely on locally-led organizations for impactful and sustainable solutions. Although the concrete translation of these principles remains insufficient, refugee-led organizations (RLOs) have increasing access to direct funding, and to new spaces to speak up.

We know that there is so much more to do and we believe that by joining forces with Xavier Project we can achieve even more. 

The challenge is to strengthen and expand this movement and to respond to the growing number of refugees in the world, from 41 million in 2011, to 64.4 million today and a predicted 100 million by 2050.

Therefore, to accelerate the transfer of power and funds to RLOs, we have decided to share our resources, networks and expertise with the Xavier Project.

By mid-2022, our new organisation will:

  • Reach over 60 000 refugees to live more fulfilled lives through our partnerships in cities, camps and settlements across Kenya and Uganda.
  • Support over 40 Refugee Led Organisation (RLOs) partners through a single network, thereby improving their own coordination and collaboration, with enhanced capacity-strengthening and sharing programs
  • Support refugee-led advocacy by 3 national RLO networks in Kenya, Malawi and Uganda
  • Strengthen coordination between RLOs, with a unified network of partners, avoiding duplication in the assistance provided to these organizations
  • Advocate more strongly to donors and other stakeholders, with more impact data and access to a broader range of decision makers
  • Divide overhead costs by 2 (from an average of 24% to 11%), with an increasing budget allocated directly to the RLOs (from 1% in 2021 to 20% by the end of 2022)

“Urban Refugees and Xavier Project do partnerships in a different way, like no one else. They respect us. And with respect, we can really make a difference.” John Bolingo, President of Uganda’s National RLO Network (RELON)

More broadly, we want to lead the way for change in the humanitarian sector, by ensuring that organizations created and led by refugees themselves really are the priority – and that our support to them is maximized by avoiding any duplication in our work and reducing unnecessary costs

We are already working together with the teams and partners of our two organizations, in particular the RLOs we support, to launch our new organization. Our new name of which will be revealed early 2022 !

We hope that you will continue on this journey with us, as we aim to change the way in which the world sees refugees !

Our impact

  • 3700

    refugees have better access to education and livelihood opportunities

  • 40

    countries in which our partner NGOs are implementing solutions

  • 490

    refugee children benefit from mathematics, english, art and sports classes

  • 700

    women can now support their families

  • 650

    refugees have access to critical healthcare and safety information

Get Involved

We’ve accomplished so much, but the growing urgency of refugee issues in cities means we have a lot more to do and we can’t do it alone. Support the refugee communities that need it most.

JOIN US

FUNDRAISE

PARTNER

DONATE

As Seen in

They sponsor us