CALLS Network
Promoting refugee agency in humanitarian action
OUR VISION
Our name reflects our vision: we Call for Agency, Locally-Led humanitarian action inclusive of refugees and Solidarity with refugee-led organisations in the Global South. We strive for a world of solidarity between grassroots communities in Europe and refugees in the Global South to promote refugee agency in humanitarian action.
OUR VALUES
Humanity
We focus on our common humanity – what connects people across places, cultures and religions, as well as the living world around us. We believe humanitarian action creates common goods that benefit us all. We acknowledge our shared responsibilities, particularly towards those persecuted and marginalised, and we affirm our commitment to a more just humanitarian system.
Inclusion
We champion a “localisation” agenda inclusive of refugee-led organisations, and locally-led humanitarian responses inclusive of organisations led by forcibly displaced women, youth, and persons with disabilities.
Agency
We stand for agency, not charity, and advocate for a shift of power to refugees and their organisations within the humanitarian ecosystem. We believe that refugees are not passive beneficiaries of assistance but frontline responders in humanitarian action.
Solidarity
We believe in solidarity as a transformative relationship able to challenge the established structures of humanitarian action and a powerful force that can reshape the humanitarian ecosystem. We develop new ways of equitable partnership with refugees in the Global South.
OUR MISSION
We promote refugee agency in humanitarian action and create civic spaces for solidarity with refugee-led organisations in the Global South.
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We connect refugee-led organisations in the Global South with local solidarity groups, volunteers and donors in the Global North to build transformative solidarities that help shift power in humanitarian action.
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We mobilise solidarities and resources in support of refugee-led organisations and their initiatives.
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We support refugee-led organisations to strengthen their systems and capacities, build refugee leadership, support innovative partnerships, and build a solid evidence basis to scale up the approach in humanitarian action.
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We advocate for the recognition of refugees as key actors in humanitarian action, their inclusion in locally led responses and their access to adequate resources.
OUR APPROACH
How we work is just as important to us as the changes we aim to effect in the humanitarian ecosystem:
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As a not-for-profit civil society organisation, we have a networked governance, and we create a civic infrastructure that fosters grassroots solidarity. We are equally a resource provider and a donor. We work at the intersection of what exists to co-create new and inclusive platforms for engagements.
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We bridge three ecosystems by combining humanitarian response, social innovation, and civic power. We connect actors who rarely meet, including humanitarian-development-peace actors, social innovators, civic society activists, volunteers, donors and others concerned in the Global North, with refugee communities in the Global South to co-create transformative forms of solidarity.
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We focus on the most invisible refugee-led organisations, those led by women, youth and persons with disabilities, that are left out of existing funding mechanisms.
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We leverage the power of our network across Europe and the Global South to connect diverse people across continents and across different legal statuses, genders, ethnicities, faiths, social classes, political positions and roles.
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We turn solidarity into systems change, linking local solidarity groups in the Global North with refugee-led organisations in the Global South to create spaces in the Global North for meaningful engagement beyond individual donations.
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We combine our support to community-led approaches and local solidarity groups at grassroots level with advocacy for system change at the global, regional and national level.
CALLS Network's crossectoral approach
OUR THEORY OF CHANGE
Our theory of change shows how we drive system change, from strengthening refugee agency and refugee-led organisations on the ground to reshaping the humanitarian architecture.
THE CO-FOUNDERS
Fadela Novak-Irons is a humanitarian leader from New Zealand with close to 30 years of experience advancing refugee protection, women and girls’ empowerment, and meaningful participation across Africa, the Middle East, Asia/Pacific, Latin America, and Europe. A former senior official at UNHCR, she has helped shape operational policies on violence against women and girls, refugee education, refugee inclusion in national systems, durable solutions for displaced people, and the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.
Anne Bathily is a humanitarian and migration practitioner with over 15 years of experience working alongside refugee and migrant communities in Europe and Africa. Rooted in a deep commitment to community-led action, she has spent her career building bridges between affected communities, civil society, and institutions — while consistently pushing for refugee voices to shape the responses that concern them. She currently coordinates the Humanitarian Hub in Brussels.
Marie Pétré is a Belgian attorney that has practiced law in an international setting for over two decades. She is a member of law firm Cattwyk, supporting organisations on strategic, legal and compliance questions in the area of sustainability, especially value chain/supply chain regulations, responsible business practices and collaborative initiatives. She previously worked as the general counsel of the global office of a supply chain standards organisation, and as an attorney in international law firms, advising companies in the life sciences and tech sectors on corporate and commercial law issues.