CALLS Network
Refugee-Led Organisations
“An organization or group in which persons with direct lived experience of forced displacement play a primary leadership role and whose stated objectives and activities are focused on responding to the needs of refugees and/or related communities.”
UNHCR definition built on consultations with organizations led by displaced and stateless persons, NGOs and academics and field-tested by RLOs in 14 country operations.
Who we work with
CALLS Network engages in equitable partnership with Refugee-Led Organisations (RLOs) in refugee-hosting countries in the Global South, in particular refugee women-led organisations, youth-led organisations and organisations or self-help groups led by persons with disabilities. In some contexts, refugees may also be stateless persons as is the case for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
Depending on the humanitarian context, CALLS Network also partners with organisations led by displaced and/or conflict-affected persons who have not left their country of origin and are responding to the humanitarian crisis from inside their own country, like in Sudan.
Likewise, CALLS Network may partner with community-based organisations led by members of the refugee hosting community engaged in activities that foster peaceful coexistence and resilience, and address humanitarian needs shared by both the refugee and host communities.
Our partners are individuals that work together through collective action as either formal or informal, registered or unregistered, or virtual or physical entities, initiatives or networks.
How we work with our partners in the Global South
CALLS Network works with refugee-led organisations as equal partners, not implementing intermediaries.
Our support is shaped by RLOs’ self-identified priorities. We provide direct, flexible and multi-year funding, including core costs, through simplified grant processes that reduce administrative burden and share risk. We connect RLOs with partners in the Global North and support enhanced communication. We offer tailored system and capacity strengthening, peer-to-peer learning, and coaching and mentoring. We work together to strengthen organisational resilience and ensure RLOs have the resources, capacity and visibility to lead humanitarian action in their communities.
We also seek to partner refugee-led organisations with local solidarity groups.Through our LSGs, we offer safe spaces for exchange, learning and co-creation of solidarity initiatives with RLOs in the Global South.
Where we engage
The refugee-led organisations, organisations led by displaced and stateless persons and community-based organisations with whom we work are located in the Global South. They operate in refugee camps typically established in rural areas, and in urban centres to which refugees often move in search of work and a sense of normalcy, away from the potentially restrictive environment of a camp.
CALLS prioritises humanitarian responses in protracted situations, where large groups of refugees have been in exile for five years or longer in Middle- and Low-Income Countries. These situations often involve a state of intractable limbo with restricted movement, lack of access to legal employment, education, or land, leading to reliance on external assistance and no immediate solutions.
Prioritised refugee-hosting countries include (but are not limited to) Bangladesh, Chad, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritania, Peru, Sudan and Uganda.