Category: Blogs
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Education Under Strain: Displaced Children and Local Efforts to Sustain Learning in South Sudan
In a temporary classroom made of iron sheets, wooden poles, and bare ground, South Sudanese returnees, internally displaced children, and Sudanese refugee learners sit quietly, focused on their teacher. They are determined to learn with passion and curiosity despite the harsh environment surrounding them. Yet today, hundreds of these learners remain at risk of dropping…
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True Allyship Doesn’t Ask for Compromise
In December 2025 I spent five days in Geneva talking to refugee advocates, donors, intermediary organisations and others about funding refugee leadership. Cohere has been able to channel funding to over 100 refugee led organisations in the last decade and it is often assumed that Cohere’s goal is to get as much funding to refugee…
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Refugee Women Are Already Leading, They Just Need the Platform
Every year on International Women’s Day, the world celebrates the achievements of women and reflects on the progress made toward gender equality. But it is also a moment to think about the voices that are still missing from leadership and decision-making spaces, especially in the humanitarian sector. Across refugee communities around the world, women play…
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In Pursuit of Inclusion Through Relationships
“When partnerships are described as rooted in in-person relationships, or even friendships built over years of shared work, they are often treated as unprofessional. Formal calls for proposals, legally binding contracts, audits, and controls are assumed to be more objective. Through this lens, language around building relationships can seem informal or suspicious.” In part one…
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‘Are you just going to write one of those reports?’
The question was simple, disarming even. It was our last day in Dadaab after being here for 11 days, spending time with the RLO leaders, listening about their work, their priorities, challenges, and overall telling us about their communities. This was the last field visit; we had just finished introductions on both organisations. There was…
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Leaning In and Listening from the Ground: Insights from a conference with Rwamwanja refugee farmers
“…solutions emerge when we lean in, listen carefully, and co-create with communities. Farmers already know what works and what is possible—they just need space, trust, and support to scale it.” In January, I had, what I can honestly call, the most interesting “conference” I have attended for a very long time. This time it was…
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Suffering and Sovereignty – a UN system with misaligned values
The UN Chief, António Guterres, has warned that due to imminent financial collapse, the UN as we know it could implode. “Fifty years on, the UN continues to ask how it can remain relevant to people living in contexts of oppression and displacement. Yet the questions it poses often reveal a narrow understanding of what…
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Reflections from Geneva on funding flows and the agency gap
R-Space returning to Geneva alongside the GRF Progress Review came with something the sector rarely gets right; a programme designed around refugee leadership. Over three days, the space brought together refugee leaders, organisations, and allies across protection, localisation, disability inclusion, climate, economic inclusion, gender, etc and with a clear signal that refugee expertise belongs at…
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Advocating for us without us (Refugee Voices)
By Jenny Basika and Emmanuel Arika Samuel Refugee-led organisations are struggling for recognition, because when we talk about marginalisation in the sector it’s not always about funding but also trust and recognition. Refugee-led groups are often questioned for their capacity and accountability and a lot of mistrust on their core values and being talked about…
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The Tailors of Kasisa
From Micheal and Jenny in Rwamwanja In the heart of Rwamwanja refugee settlement, in a small village called Kasisa, Basecamp 2, lives a quiet but remarkable couple; Mr. Bisimwa Mufambali and his wife, Ms. Fifi Balisesa. Their story is not one of large grants or official recognition, but of agency, humility, and the power of…