Reports and Resources
The IRC uses our learning and experience to assist people affected by crisis and shape humanitarian policy and practice. Browse our research and resources.
Working children in crisis-hit Lebanon: exploring the linkage between food insecurity and child labour
In 2020, the IRC and the Lebanon Protection consortium (LPC) partnered up to explore the linkage between food insecurity and child labour, and its recent evolution in Lebanon given the multiple crises that hit the country and the deteriorating overall environment. Food insecurity has increased significantly in Lebanon during the past year; nearly 97% of the Syrian refugees on Lebanese soil are marginally or completely food insecure. Food based-negative coping mechanisms have also increased and infant and young child feeding practices have deteriorated. Food is the main expenditure for the most vulnerable households.
Leave No One Behind: How to include Crisis-Affected Populations in the Generation Equality Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence
This position paper outlines why and how the Generation Equality Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) could and should include crisis-affected populations in its work plan, that is to be presented at the Mexico Conference.
NA Decade of Destruction: Attacks on Health Care in Syria - new report
As Syria marks ten years of war, this report explores the widespread and devastating impact that a decade of systematic attacks on health facilities has had on Syrian civilians, and the crippling effect the decimation of the country’s health care system has had on its ability to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
GBV Trends Among Rohingya Refugees in Cox’s Bazar: COVID-19 update
New data from the International Rescue Committee reveals that 94% of Rohingya women and girls living in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, who have reported incidents of Gender-Based Violence (GBV), have experienced it at the hands of their partners.
9 Humanitarian Goals for the Biden-Harris Administration’s First Year
Drawing on its decades of experience responding to crises in over 40 countries worldwide and resettling refugees in 25 cities across the U.S., in this brief the International Rescue Committee recommends nine actions for the Biden-Harris Administration to take in its first year.
Cruelty of containment
This report shows how EU migration policies have perpetuated a mental health crisis for thousands of asylum seekers trapped on the Greek islands.
2021 Emergency Watchlist
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is launching Watchlist 2021 as a call to action for global leaders and the general public. Historically, the annual Watchlist was a humanitarian planning tool to inform operational preparedness. By identifying the 20 countries at greatest risk of a major new—or significantly worsened—humanitarian crisis over the year ahead, the IRC could better focus our own planning and preparedness efforts. However, humanitarian planning and preparedness on their own are insufficient to meet the scale of challenges we expect in 2021. Watchlist 2021 reveals that the world is facing both unprecedented humanitarian emergencies as well as a political crisis of inaction and global retreat from humanitarian obligations. The international community must take action now, before decades of hard-won progress on reducing poverty, hunger and disease is lost or even reversed.
The Essentials for Responding to Violence Against Women and Girls During and After COVID-19
Risk of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) has increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, exacerbating the already pandemic levels of violence women and girls face.
Catalyzing the U.S. Response to COVID-19 in Humanitarian Settings
Catalyzing the U.S. Response to COVID-19 in Humanitarian Settings
Safety for all: Responding to the humanitarian crisis in Central America, restoring the U.S. asylum system, and protecting the most vulnerable
Over the last four years, the Trump administration’s increasingly restrictive immigration policies have drastically limited access to U.S. humanitarian protection pathways, blocked access to territory for asylum seekers, and deployed inhumane treatment as a mode of deterrence. Combined with the marked increase in forced displacement in Mexico and Central America and a reduction of U.S. aid to the region, these policies have severely exacerbated the preexisting humanitarian crisis.