Challenge: Forcibly displaced youth face many challenges that significantly impact their mental health and wellbeing, including stress, trauma and social isolation. This is compounded by linguistic and cultural differences, and limited access to education, basic services, and psychosocial support. 

Solution: An innovative, psychosocially informed digital solution, designed in collaboration with displaced youth and artists, to actively involve their peers in digital arts literacy, engage in community projects for artistic and emotional development, and connect across regions through virtual reality meet-ups.

Expected results: 100 young refugees connect with each other and gain digital, creative, and emotional literacy skills, for greater social connection, self-expression, and overall wellbeing. A further 2,500 individuals benefit indirectly as a result of enhanced community resilience.

Challenge: Refugees with disabilities, particularly those with visual impairments, struggle to access critical information via online channels extensively used by humanitarian and governmental actors, undermining their ability to access social and protection services.

Solution: Establish a refugee-led observatory to advise humanitarian and other actors on how to improve online community engagement – with a particular focus on refugees with visual impairments – based on best practices and current information accessibility as experienced by refugees.

Expected results: 38,000 Ukrainian refugees with visual impairments in Poland could benefit from improved access to digital information and, as a result, services. Evidence-based tools developed and shared will ensure accessible communications going forward.

Challenge: UNHCR receives a high volume of communications and requests from forcibly displaced and stateless persons, which are currently processed and answered manually. This is labor intensive, time consuming, and not conducive to providing timely assistance. 

Solution: Develop an efficient mechanism to process requests using digital petition boxes equipped with AI-supported processing and analysis of text and audio submissions, leading to improved response rates. The centralized system will identify duplicates and extract data that could help UNHCR respond more efficiently.

Expected results: Improved response time to requests, resulting in more effective delivery of services, potentially directly benefiting 650,000 refugees and asylum seekers. Enhanced data-driven decision making provides broader benefits to communities we work with and for.

Challenge: Refugees can struggle to access traditional employment due to their legal and documentation status. Digital livelihoods offer opportunities for economic empowerment, but refugees often lack the necessary skills, experience and digital access to take advantage of these opportunities.

Solution: Establish a phased digital livelihood strategy to facilitate learning-to-earning pathways, building on findings from a recent project. This will include training in IT skills, internships with identified partners that are crucial for future employability, and connections to work opportunities in third countries.

Expected results: 160 refugees benefit directly from the training programme, with greater access to livelihoods and labor mobility options. Peer-to-peer learning and acquisition of skills that are highly sought after in receiving countries amplify chances of success.

Challenge: Despite the huge audience and relevance of video games worldwide, humanitarian organizations have very limited engagement with video games as a potential tool to empower and include forcibly displaced and stateless people both socially and economically.

Solution: Unlock the potential of gaming as a vehicle for digital livelihoods, wellbeing, and integration through game-design workshops, a game-development festival, and an incubator programme for selected teams to develop prototypes. 

Expected results: Informed by an existing feasibility study and robust community engagement, the “RefJam” project will empower around 500 displaced and stateless gaming enthusiasts to tell their stories, build community, develop digital skills, and access digital livelihoods.

Challenge: As part of efforts to enhance the self-reliance of refugees and host communities in Rwanda, huge investment has been made in start-up grants for entrepreneurs. Thousands of refugees have started small businesses, but they often rely on manual bookkeeping tools which can hinder productivity and slow growth.

Solution: Adapt and roll out a digital financial management tool designed specifically to help refugee-owned businesses streamline their operations, with features like cash-flow tracking, inventory management, customer credit book, analytics, and more. Training provided for refugee users. 

Expected results: Around 2,000 refugees who own small businesses benefit from streamlined digital management of their finances. Implementation via existing local partners Inkomoko and Kayko enhances chances of app uptake and success. 

Challenge: Displaced people are at high risk of exposure to mis/disinformation, cybercrime, and cybersecurity risks, due to the increased collection of identifiable personal information, data breaches, and targeted attacks. Capacity among humanitarians and displaced communities to mitigate these digital risks is lacking. 

Solution: Develop an educational programme (available as a web app) to build the capacity of humanitarian actors, refugees, and migrants in the areas of cybersecurity, cyber threats, and digital protection. These cybersecurity champions will cascade learnings across communities.

Expected results: 200 humanitarian staff members and more than 1,000 refugees and migrants directly benefit from strengthened digital skills and awareness to prevent and mitigate online risks like fraud, extortion, phishing, and more, spreading skills and awareness more widely.

Challenge: In Brazil, Warao refugees often face linguistic and cultural barriers to accessing information and essential services, including healthcare. A lack of specialized interpreters at clinics can result in workarounds that compromise security and confidentiality. 

Solution: Expanding and enhancing interpretation services provided by the mobile app LUA (developed by Nacional University of Brasilia with the support of UNHCR and partners) to cover Belém municipality’s health sector. Enlarge the pool of Warao interpreters and build the capacity of health workers to improve intercultural dialogue. 

Expected results: By addressing both linguistic and cultural barriers, the project aims to ensure displaced Indigenous communities can safely enjoy their rights and access essential services, resulting in improved health and social protection outcomes.

Stay tuned for more details!

Challenge: There is no comprehensive internal guidance or tool for human rights due diligence in UNHCR’s use of digital technology, which results in gaps or inconsistencies in applying UNHCR’s existing policies and tools and may lead to human rights risks not being adequately identified or mitigated.

Solution: Strengthen guidance and explore, in partnership with the Global Digital Service, how a user-friendly, efficient digital tool can support UNHCR colleagues to apply strengthened human rights due diligence processes to digital projects, by identifying risks and treatments as well as pointing colleagues toward relevant resources and support.

Expected results: A digital human-rights due diligence tool and stronger guidance to help all digital projects meet the principles of UNHCR’s Digital Transformation Strategy. This streamlined and standardized approach will effectively identify potential adverse human rights impacts, enhance protection outcomes, prevent/mitigate risks of harm, and support innovation.

Challenge: Forcibly displaced and stateless people often struggle to access legal services. Delivering such services to these scattered communities is tough in a context of limited resources and challenging protection needs. Civil society legal actors’ digital endeavors have not necessarily been guided by the needs of the legal community and refugees.

Solution: Assess the needs and challenges of forcibly displaced people, in remote and urban areas, in accessing legal support, as well as the needs, capacity, and digital expertise of legal actors. Insights will inform future work on digital tools to enhance access to legal services and strengthen an emerging regional network of practitioners. 

Expected results: Robust evidence generated to shape digital solutions addressing the identified needs and gaps, ensuring the trustworthiness, efficiency, and contextual appropriateness of these solutions. Access to legal services enhanced, and capacity of legal practitioners boosted.

Challenge: Document requirements, financial constraints, language barriers, complex application processes, and identifying appropriate scholarships all present hurdles to refugee students – including Afghan women and girls – in accessing education pathways. For UNHCR, community engagement and communications are also challenging in this context.

Solution: Bridge information gaps to empower Afghan refugee students to access overseas study opportunities, through online sessions with successful scholarship holders and a digital mentorship programme. The online modality will enhance outreach to these communities.

Expected results: Around 600 refugee students benefit directly from information dissemination and mentorship, helping them better prepare for scholarship applications to postgraduate programmes abroad and opening up education pathways.

Challenge: Safe and easy access to financial services is a significant challenge for refugees in the Bidibidi settlement, which is one of the least banked settlements in Uganda. More information is needed to understand whether smart agent banking and digital financial tools could be feasible solutions.

Solution: Initially, run a feasibility study to explore whether solar-powered kiosks (operated and eventually owned by refugee entrepreneurs) could effectively provide a range of digital financial services to customers, with accompanying trainings on using digital financial services and identifying and mitigating digital financial risks. 

Expected results: Key information gleaned from the feasibility study to inform implementation of activities that could ensure refugees and host community members enjoy easier and safer access to digital financial services, while benefiting from skill acquisition and enhanced livelihoods.

Challenge: In Rwanda, refugees and members of other vulnerable groups often suffer from significant mental health issues. UNHCR and local authorities struggle to provide the necessary services, while also facing outreach challenges due to the social stigma around mental health. 

Solution: Develop interactive mobile campaigns and pioneer online platforms for mental health services. Wanji Games, an interactive audio adventure, will deliver mental health information via mobile phones without the need for internet connectivity, while an interactive voice response (IVR) system will offer tailored mental health support to callers.

Expected results: This initiative could benefit more than 113,000 forcibly displaced people (80% of the displaced population in Rwanda), in addition to many host community members, with improved access to mental health services and, as a result, better outcomes.

Challenge: UNHCR Hungary faces challenges in addressing the increased activity within online communities of Ukrainian refugees. Current manual monitoring methods are resource heavy and prone to errors and language issues. As online-generated content increases, a more efficient approach is needed to engage with voices of refugees in online communities.

Solution: Explore, in collaboration with refugees, ways of using AI to follow online conversations, and gather and analyze information shared by/targeted at forcibly displaced people. Finding ways to use generative AI safely and ethically will help identify patterns and keywords, enabling UNHCR to accurately detect emerging needs and potential threats.

Expected results: Enhanced digital engagement and inclusion with refugee communities online, ensuring timely and effective intervention strategies. By working with 150 refugees directly and potentially reaching up to 11,000 more, the project will find ways for UNHCR to gain understanding of refugees’ needs and challenges based on their digital interactions.

Challenge: The 2 million internally displaced people living in Nigeria’s northeast states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe are increasingly affected by misinformation, disinformation and hate speech. They, like other people forced to flee, experience a lack of agency in the narratives told about them. 

Solution: Equipping young internally displaced Nigerians with digital storytelling skills, specifically in photography and videography, to boost their media literacy, empower them to tell their own stories, and enhance social connections, improving their mental health and wellbeing. 

Expected results: 30 young people with lived experience of displacement receive digital storytelling skill-building. Through a training-of-trainers model, these skills are cascaded to up to 150 people within one year, boosting resilience and social cohesion across these communities. 

Challenge: Young people in Kakuma camp face high unemployment and are eager to build their digital skills to connect with the outside world, share their stories, and access online livelihoods. Youth have specifically identified a need for enhanced content creation and digital marketing skills to compete in this growing sector of the digital economy. 

Solution: Upskilling young refugee and host community members in the areas of digital content creation, marketing, entrepreneurship, and employability skills, as well as providing them with access to necessary infrastructure and devices (for instance, cameras and editing software), and pathways to job opportunities in creative industries. 

Expected results: Led by two local partners, Film Aid Kenya and Kakuma Ventures, this training and mentorship programme will support 300 young people to grow their skills and access opportunities in the expanding digital media market of Kenya and beyond.  

Challenge: The scattered distribution of displaced people, along with restrictions on humanitarian organizations, connectivity, and online platforms, make it challenging for UNHCR to share vital information that can easily be consumed by users in Iran. This, in turn, hinders the protection and empowerment of refugees.

Solution: Enhancing discoverability and accessibility of information by incorporating gamification mechanics into non-game settings – such as websites, online communities, local platforms, networks or information sharing activities – to facilitate greater engagement with content essential for forcibly displaced people. 

Expected results: The project will strengthen information sharing for improved protection outcomes, with the direct engagement of more than 600 refugees and asylum-seekers, and the potential to benefit a wider public audience.

Challenge: Refugees have limited access to digital devices due to cost barriers, while e-waste is a growing environmental concern. In addition, displaced communities face challenges gaining the skills they need to access technology-related livelihoods.

Solution: With the support of civil society initiative Doniraj Kompjuter, UN sister agencies, the private sector and local universities, UNHCR is training refugees and host communities to refurbish digital devices, which can then be provided free of charge to refugee and stateless communities, as well as other vulnerable people.

Expected results: Improved livelihood opportunities for community members, easier access to digital devices, enhanced connectivity and social inclusion, and reduced electronic waste. More than 20 individuals benefit directly from the programme, while more than 200 indirectly benefit.

Challenge: Forcibly displaced people face social and economic inclusion challenges, with few opportunities to build large-scale communities or develop skills that could help them access work in creative digital industries.

Solution: UNHCR is exploring ways to organise a game jam (an event/digital space where developers build a game from scratch) co-designed with refugees, to elevate the voices of the displaced, build community, and provide opportunities for skill and livelihood development in the gaming space.

Expected results: The feasibility study will suggest ways to deliver an impactful, refugee-driven game jam, to empower the displaced to tell their stories, link game designers with creative industries, and foster empathy and understanding. The study will advance UNHCR’s knowledge of digital leisure and livelihoods and identify opportunities for engagement with the video-game and related industries.

Challenge: Indigenous people from the Warao, Taurepang, E’ñepá and Kamarakoto communities displaced from Venezuela produce handcrafted items to generate income, but these refugee artisans – mostly women – have difficulty selling their products due to the limited market and cost barriers to acquiring a physical space.

Solution: UNHCR together with Serviço Jesuíta a Migrantes e Refugiados will engage 20 existing and early-stage businesses led by displaced Indigenous people, providing training on using online marketplaces and managing digital risks.

Expected results: Increased livelihood opportunities in digital marketplaces with the scale-up of existing businesses of displaced Indigenous people, as well as the development of handbooks and methodologies to guide similar projects in other UNHCR operations. The initiative will indirectly benefit around 150 people.

Challenge: In Guayaquil, limited connectivity and livelihood opportunities – in a context of increasing insecurity and violence – drives communities to negative coping mechanisms and prevents them accessing digital education, livelihood, and protection opportunities.

Solution: Using blockchain technology, UNHCR will facilitate a decentralised, innovative, low-cost, community-based internet service that can be managed by community members to facilitate access to digital livelihood opportunities. Nonprofit Girls in Tech has trained 30 young community members to strengthen their digital skills and familiarize themselves with this service.

Expected results: 150 people benefit from affordable, community-managed connectivity services, enhanced digital inclusion, skill-acquisition, and sustainable livelihoods, with a business model that could potentially be scaled up. A further 10,000 people indirectly benefit.

Challenge: Lack of familiarity with documentation for displaced Venezuelans in Peru, combined with inability to apply past work experience and technical training to Peru’s job market, prevents highly qualified individuals from accessing decent livelihood opportunities, resulting in low wages and often exploitative conditions.

Solution: In close collaboration with Union Venezolana and Talent Beyond Boundaries, UNHCR will create an online national registry to facilitate links with opportunities in the labour market for refugees, asylum-seekers, and migrants. The registry will allow profile-matching with labour needs identified by employers.

Expected results: Increased opportunities for Venezuelans to access formal employment according to their profiles, skills, experience, and interests while easing the recruitment process for employers. More than 1,000 people benefit directly, and a further 4,500 benefit indirectly.

Challenge: Encampment policies for refugees and asylum-seekers in Malawi limit access to socioeconomic opportunities and exacerbate poverty. These issues are compounded in the Dzaleka settlement by the shortage of skilled workers in the community.

Solution: UNHCR is providing 50 community members with digital skills mentorship and onboarding onto digital labour platforms, as well as connectivity and laptops to facilitate freelance work online.

Expected results: Enhanced self-reliance and improved online livelihood opportunities, as well as economic and social inclusion (with project participants assisted to open bank accounts and secure identity cards). The project will indirectly impact 400 individuals.

Challenge: Limited access to computers, internet connectivity, digital skills, and information about existing opportunities prevents refugees, especially young people, from accessing online scholarships and jobs.

Solution: An online job and scholarship help desk run by digital careers counsellors, to help refugees navigate job boards and scholarship websites, and to develop and submit applications. 32 forcibly displaced people will be trained to serve as counsellors.

Expected results: Livelihoods opportunities for 32 community members trained as counsellors, as well as increased opportunities for other refugees with technical skills and/or academic backgrounds to secure jobs and scholarships. More than 6,000 people indirectly benefit.

Challenge: Low levels of digital literacy prevent refugees and asylum-seekers from accessing services, receiving relevant information, and using digital tools, particularly following the COVID-related shift to remote service provision.

Solution: UNHCR will co-create a digital literacy curriculum with refugee groups and explore ways to deliver digital literacy training through a community-based, refugee-led approach. The initiative will identify priority digital literacy needs to inform the design of the curriculum. A specific module has been developed on security and safety concerns, such as theft, fraud and cyber-bullying.

Expected results: Development of training materials, upskilling of a diverse group of 80 trainers, improved ability to access digital services, curriculum adopted by refugee-led learning centres for cascading impact. Up to 1,500 people indirectly benefit.

Challenge: Numerous online groups and social media channels have been created to offer support to Ukrainian refugees, but limited safeguards coupled with widespread use has increased refugees’ exposure to risks when looking for support or work online.

Solution: UNHCR will strengthen or establish a community-based vetting system for suspicious or malicious posts and develop refugee and social media administrator’s skills to identify and report such posts.

Expected results: Refugees’ exposure to online risks reduced, increased community engagement around this issue. 50 people will directly benefit from the programme, with up to 50,000 indirectly affected.

Challenge: Refugees in Tunisia face many barriers to accessing livelihood opportunities, due to a lack of documentation and marketable skills.

Solution: UNHCR will provide training on high-demand digital skills – such as web development and full stack development – to facilitate livelihood opportunities and increase prospects for complementary pathways in the tech sector.

Expected results: Refugees and their families will benefit from skills development and enhanced livelihood opportunities and self-reliance in Tunisia’s growing information and communications technology sector.