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.
From Response to Resilience: Working with Cities and City Plans to Address Urban Displacement
This paper argues for an improved humanitarian response to urban displacement crises by working directly with municipal authorities and through a resilience lens. It draws on the International Rescue Committee (IRC)’s collaboration with 100 Resilient Cities – Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation (100RC) and engagement with two municipal authorities, the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) and the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA). The IRC first worked with Amman, a member of the 100RC network, to support their city resilience planning. While Kampala is not in the 100RC network, the IRC replicated its approach in Amman with KCCA to support their own plans and strategies and bring an urban resilience lens to displacement within Kampala. By discussing these relationships and the process behind them, this paper highlights how humanitarian-municipal partnerships can achieve the following benefits: 1. Strengthening coordination, sustainability, and impact of multi-stakeholder responses to urban displacement; 2. Linking humanitarian programming to long-term development goals of the city; 3. Improve the understanding of municipal authorities in relation to the needs and preferences of urban displaced; and 4. Ensure the inclusion of displaced and marginalized residents in municipally-provided public services. Urban displacement cuts across city and humanitarian sectors. It is the collective responsibility of the international community and the localities we serve to strengthen city resilience in the face of urban displacement, and we cannot do so without relying on both humanitarian and municipal actors. Whereas humanitarians have the expertise to respond to crises, municipal actors have the mandate to build from them. Urban resilience asks for both; that we learn to not only respond to displacement crises and aid the communities they affect in equal measure, but, in doing so, to improve those communities to be better prepared for future crises and have a higher overall quality of life; especially for displaced and marginalised city residents.
Dangerous ground: Syria's refugees face an uncertain future
As the military situation changed in Syria, and against a backdrop of increased anti-refugee rhetoric and policies across the world, governments began in 2017 to openly contemplate the return of refugees to the country. In this report, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children, Action Against Hunger, CARE International, the International Rescue Committee and the Danish Refugee Council warn that the situation in Syria is far from safe, however, and that the prevailing interest in securing the return of refugees is undermining their safety and dignity in neighbouring countries, creating push factors and increasing the likelihood of forced returns in 2018. It also threatens to limit the options for making a life beyond the region through resettlement or other safe and legal routes.
Public service delivery in contexts of urban displacement
This paper discusses how humanitarian actors may help strengthen existing service delivery infrastructures and assist local service providers to meet increasing demand from displaced populations.
Transitioning to a government-run refugee and migrant response in Greece: A joint NGO roadmap for more fair and humane policies
More than 2,000 unaccompanied children are on the waiting list for safe shelters in Greece, according to a new report by 12 organizations, including the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The chronic shortage of accommodation for children is just one of the gaps in services that is worsening as the Greek Government prepares to take full control of the refugee response.
Protecting and empowering adolescent girls from gender-based violence in emergencies
Violence is a daily reality for many adolescent girls around the world, largely due to deeply entrenched social norms and practises that perpetuate gender inequality.
No Safe Place: A lifetime of violence for conflict-affected women and girls in South Sudan
More than half the girls in South Sudan reported domestic violence, which is exacerbated by the ongoing conflict
A safe place to shine
To respond to the specific needs of adolescent girls in humanitarian settings and to address the gap in evidence of what works to promote the health, safety and empowerment of adolescent girls, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has invested in a robust adolescent girl programming and research agenda. As part of this effort, the IRC partnered with Columbia University over a three year period (2014–2017) to develop, implement and evaluate the Creating Opportunities through Mentoring, Parental Involvement and Safe Spaces (COMPASS) program, funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). COMPASS was implemented with refugees living in camps on the Sudan/Ethiopia border, conflict-affected communities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and displaced populations in north-west Pakistan.
Lake Chad's unseen crisis: voices of refugees and internally displaced people from Niger and Nigeria
The violent seven-year conflict originating in Nigeria has intensified in the last three years and spread across borders into Niger, Chad and Cameroon, causing a growing humanitarian crisis in a region known as the Lake Chad Basin.
Parenting in displacement adapting Vroom for displaced Syrian families
Over 3.7 million Syrian children have been born into violence, poverty and displacement since the brutal war in Syria began over six years ago. Conflict and displacement dismantle social services, economic systems and family units with profound effects on the wellbeing of caregivers. Under these conditions, too many children lack stable, nurturing and enriching environments – including frequent interactions with caregivers that promote learning, and development. This case study provides a look at the process of adapting and piloting Vroom for Syrian refugee parents and families. Vroom empowers parents and caregivers of young children to turn everyday moments into brain-building moments. While group-based parenting programs have been shown to be effective in a range of low-resource settings, such interventions are costly and logistically challenging in large-scale humanitarian crises where populations are dispersed across a range of contexts.
IRC and Relief International report reveals dire needs of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
The International Rescue Committee and Relief International carried out a multi-sector assessment to understand the urgent needs of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Only the second needs assessment of the Rohingya refugee crisis to be completed, it reveals the scale of the crisis faced by the estimated half a million people arriving in Bangladesh, fleeing conflict in Rakhine State.