Women’s rights and women-led organizations (WROs/WLOs) are a critical driving force in providing effective gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response services to women and girls impacted by conflict and displacement. Although rhetorical recognition of WROs/WLOs has grown at policy levels, funding to WROs/WLOs remains incredibly low. Following on from “Why Not Local?”, this report provides analysis from across three contexts: Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Ukraine. It reveals the pervasive systemic barriers preventing WROs/WLOs to access humanitarian funding.

Forty-year-old Thatha and her four sons escaped ISIS-controlled Hawija, Iraq, to Kirkuk in June.  Recent military operations to retake ISIS-controlled areas have already uprooted 240,000 people from their homes in cities like Fallujah and the areas south of Mosul. Some 3 million Iraqis remain trapped, living under ISIS’s brutal rule.

Sixty-five million people were displaced from their homes by conflict and disaster in 2016. That's 24 people every minute. It's not just a crisis; it's a test of who we are and what we stand for, says David Miliband — and each of us has a personal responsibility to help solve it. In this TED talk, Miliband gives us specific, tangible ways to help refugees and turn empathy and altruism into action.

Find out more about the war in Sudan and its impact on neighboring Chad.

With over 100 million people forcibly displaced worldwide, it is now more important than ever for resettlement organizations to partner with members of the community to support refugees.

A compact agreement is an innovative model for bringing together donors, development and humanitarian agencies, the private sector, and civil society under host-country leadership to achieve sustainable outcomes for refugees and host communities. We offer three key principles and 10 recommendations for policymakers to build effective compacts for refugee-hosting nations.

Four reasons why Myanmar ranks as one of the countries most at risk of experiencing a worsening humanitarian crisis in 2024.

In 2017, atrocities by the Myanmar military drove over 850,000 Rohingya across the border into Bangladesh, where they continue to live in temporary settlements today. Over the past four years, as conditions inside the refugee camps have deteriorated, the host community in Teknaf and Ukhiya—who generously welcomed refugees in 2017—have seemingly grown wary of their protracted presence. Intensifying environmental, economic and social impacts linked to continued Rohingya displacement have raised tensions, and studies since 2019 have documented declining social cohesion between refugee and host communities.  This study, undertaken by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), in collaboration with researchers at Dhaka University (DU), assesses the challenges and opportunities to social cohesion in the Rohingya context. The report maps out social tension across five issue areas: environment and ecology; labour market; cultural and political landscape; land; and the presence of the humanitarian community.

While wealthier nations begin to offer already fully vaccinated populations a third dose, many countries lag far behind – and many vulnerable populations are struggling to even obtain their first. In the 20 countries identified by IRC at greatest risk of a major new – or significantly worsened – humanitarian crisis over 2021, only 2.4 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, and less than 5 percent of the population has received a single dose of the vaccine. This inequity will stall the global fight against COVID-19 while making the everyday reality for those living in conflict zones and protracted displacement contexts much graver, as COVID-19 will continue to exacerbate existing humanitarian crises, driving poverty, hunger, and insecurity. To bridge gaps in global response and center vulnerable populations in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, we make five central recommendations for global leaders and institutions in this brief.