Vision and objective
The Refugee-led Innovation Fund champions the creativity of all displaced and stateless people. It aims to reshape their participation in the delivery of humanitarian work by ensuring they take centre stage in the decisions affecting their lives, leading the identification of needs and the design of innovative solutions.
The Fund provides holistic support – combining financial resources, mentoring, and other expertise – directly to organizations led by forcibly displaced and stateless people, to enable them to design and deliver new interventions that have a lasting positive impact on their communities.
About the Fund
Organizations led by displaced and stateless people make remarkable contributions to their communities but face considerable challenges accessing direct and flexible funding. Too often, they are excluded from existing networks of entrepreneurs and innovators, resulting in poor access to knowledge, information, and resources that could help them amplify their impact.
The Refugee-led Innovation Fund proposes a fundamental shift in programme architecture. It takes a grassroot approach whereby people who have experienced forced displacement or statelessness are directly provided with meaningful financial resources and support to implement innovative approaches.
Who can apply
The Fund supports innovation by all organizations led by people with lived experience of forced displacement or statelessness – including refugees, asylum-seekers, the internally displaced, returnees, and stateless people – that are recognized within their communities due to their past significant contributions.
Applicants are required to apply as a team, representing an existing organization made up of multiple community members. Organizations must demonstrate a collective structure to qualify. Individual applicants are not eligible. Please refer to the FAQ “How do you define a ‘refugee-led organization’?” below for a detailed explanation of the Fund’s eligibility criteria.
The Fund accepts applications from both registered and unregistered organizations that are well known in their communities due to their past significant contributions and initiatives.
Additional attention will be given to ensuring organizations led by LGBTIQ+ persons, women, people with disabilities, internally displaced and stateless individuals, Indigenous populations, and other underrepresented groups receive support and encouragement to apply to the Fund.
