At the heart of localization is the understanding that local stakeholders know their own needs, priorities, and contexts best — and their robust inclusion and leadership results in more equitable and better programming of responses. Therefore, localization is central to the work of the UN Refugee Agency, or UNHCR.
Through enhanced engagement, capacity-sharing, and partnerships with local players — including organizations led by forcibly displaced people — UNHCR supports their ownership and works with them on more sustainable, community-based responses to complex displacement challenges. This localization push, with an intersectional age, gender, and diversity lens, to ensure no one is left behind is central to UNHCR's way of working.
In 2020, UNHCR established an internal interdivisional task team on engagement and partnership with organizations led by displaced and stateless persons with colleagues from protection, partnership, innovation teams, and more; supported by a global advisory board of 16 organizations led by forcibly displaced persons. This board advises the task team on meaningful participation, including contributing to the development of guidance, strategies, and an information repository. They also supported the preparations of the Global Refugee Forum and participated in it.
Local organizations are increasingly involved in refugee response plans, or RRPs. In 2023, on average, 31% of the RRP partners were local. Together with the Somalia NGO Consortium, UNHCR co-led the development of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee guidance on Strengthening Participation, Representation and Leadership of Local Actors in IASC Humanitarian Coordination Mechanisms, which was launched in 2021, which led to an increase of national NGOs and consortia in humanitarian country teams.
Together with the International Council of Voluntary Agencies, UNHCR launched the Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Community Outreach and Communication Fund, which provided grants of up to $20,000 to 56 community-led projects in 35 countries. Reaching over 2 million people, the work of these projects led to a significant increase in reporting of PSEA incidents.
Reinforcing refugee women’s leadership
UNHCR’s efforts to advance gender equality in Malaysia exemplify how capacity sharing can be a two-way transfer of knowledge and skills. The Women and Girls at Risk, or WAGAR, project is led by female refugee leaders from eight community organizations. It works with diverse partners, including UNHCR, to provide safe spaces for forcibly displaced women and host communities and develops projects to reinforce refugee women's leadership. Since 2020, the project supported over 2,000 women and girls at risk.
In April 2024, these organizations were incorporated in a first-of-its-kind refugee women-led consortium aiming at advancing gender equality through livelihood initiatives. This allows participants to pool resources, share expertise, and create a united front in tackling common challenges. The consortium serves as an important bridge between at-risk refugee communities and external partners, who have supported strategic planning, mutual learning, and the initiatives developed through the consortium.
Through this initiative, external partners benefit from the lived experiences and expertise of the consortium, helping their own programming while the consortium benefits from enhanced access to technical expertise, training, broader networks and resources, and funding opportunities. WAGAR applies a holistic approach to multifaceted challenges facing refugee women.
UNHCR’s localization efforts
UNHCR has taken significant steps toward fulfilling its localization commitments laid out in the Grand Bargain, and in some cases, surpassing them. By 2023, a remarkable 85% of UNHCR’s partners were local or national entities, with around $778.7 million allocated to these organizations. Additional support has been mobilized through the 2023 GRF pledge on advancing localization in displacement and statelessness responses, which was signed by 41 stakeholders who pledged more than $100 million to support more than 470 local organizations.
Facilitating the transfer of funds
The development of simplified mechanisms facilitated the transfer of funds to small-scale refugee-led initiatives and organizations through a grant agreement launched in 2021, which facilitated partnerships between UNHCR and nearly 180 organizations led by forcibly displaced and stateless people, amounting to over $1.05 million (until June 2024). In Peru, a combination of technical support and grant agreements has proven crucial to enabling experienced grassroots organizations to expand the delivery of specialized services, while planting the seeds of growth in smaller organizations.
A separate mechanism, the Refugee-led Innovation Fund, focuses on enabling organizations led by forcibly displaced and stateless people to implement projects that test innovative ideas through a holistic approach that enables the transfer of meaningful financial resources and offers support including networking, capacity-building, and technical and innovation advice. Designed alongside refugees and launched in 2022, the fund has received more than 8,600 applications from registered and unregistered organizations alike, demonstrating the commitment and creativity of displaced and stateless communities. A participatory selection process that engages the advisory board and other refugees determines each cohort. So far, the fund has committed almost $2 million in direct support to more than 40 organizations led by forcibly displaced and stateless people, positioning them as agents of change.
Projects supported through this fund are driving forward solutions to various challenges — including those related to livelihoods, mental health, education, and advocacy — touching the lives of more than 70,000 members of refugee and host communities so far. In Brazil, for instance, the Associação Dos Migrantes Indigenas Roraimö is developing income-generating opportunities, strengthening food security, and preserving cultural traditions for displaced Indigenous Venezuelans through ethno-tourism activities. In Uganda, Bridging Gaps and the Afri-Youth Network are providing entrepreneurship training, microloans, long-term coaching, and mentorship to refugee entrepreneurs, to foster self-reliance.
Through capacity-building and peer-to-peer networking, the fund not only amplifies the impact of individual projects but also ensures organizations led by forcibly displaced and stateless people can sustain themselves, develop productive partnerships, and enrich their support network. For instance, Bridging Gaps and Associação Dos Migrantes Indigenas Roraimö connected through the fund and are now forging an alliance to support Indigenous refugee women in Brazil to start social enterprises addressing an urgent challenge: period poverty.
Localization is not only about sharing capacity and decision-making power with local organizations — it is a catalyst for change and transformation in mindsets, approaches, and relationships. Localization respects the unique needs and cultures of people, leading to real, positive change. It also builds community ownership and resilience, which are vital for long-term success.
Co-authors of this opinion article is UNHCR’s task team on engagement and partnership with organizations led by displaced and stateless persons (members are from innovation, protection, programme, etc.), co-led by Stella Ogunlade, chief of NGO and civil society section, partnership and coordination service, division of external relations at UNHCR, and Tamar Suzanne Joanian, senior community-based protection officer, community-based protection unit, division of international protection at UNHCR; as well as the Refugee Women Empowerment and the Rights Advocacy Consortium, represented by Leena Al-Mujahed, founder of Yemeni Refugee Women Organization; Ansa Shakil, director of Lady Ayaz Sewing Centre; and Safa Alnuzely, project manager at Yemeni Refugee Women Organization.
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