ReliefWeb

Arash Bordbar, Global Youth Advisory Council Coordinator

Foni Joyce Vuni, Global Youth Advisory Council Coordinator

Kate Mahoney, Senior Program Officer, Women's Refugee Commission

The current COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated risks to vulnerable populations around the world. It has shone a light on inherent inequities, from access to information to health care services. It also has revealed what so many of us have known for years – refugees, especially refugee youth, are innately capable, innovative, and ready.

In many locations, international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that typically distribute food and non-food items, monitor the protection situation, program activities, and conduct outreach in urban and camp refugee situations have had to restrict the movement of their national and international staff as a result of the pandemic. In some locations this has seen a significant reduction in all of the services that these actors normally provide. Into this vacuum have stepped young refugees around the world who have assessed the needs of their communities and taken action to address those needs.

Refugee youth-led responses to COVID include:

• Accessing, translating, and sharing information to inform the community about how to avoid spreading COVID.

• Providing online training about verifying and disseminating accurate information about COVID.

• Making and distributing hygiene kits with tippy taps, soap, and masks.

• Identifying and addressing protection concerns, such as girls at risk of child marriage, transactional sex, and domestic violence.

• Organizing discussions and trainings on child protection and parenting during the pandemic.

• Distributing condoms and having discussions with young people about how they can and should protect themselves during times of COVID.

• Engaging people with disabilities in community protection efforts.

• Raising funds to purchase food and hygiene items to distribute to vulnerable members of their communities.

• Providing psychosocial first aid to other refugees in their mother tongue.

• Making and sharing videos to highlight the skills and contributions of refugee and displaced youth to respond to the pandemic.

• Organizing weekly online conversations with refugee doctors in different languages.

As travel restrictions ease and NGOs go back into the field, it is essential that the humanitarian community acknowledge and recognize the work that young refugees have been doing.

It is long past time for the humanitarian community to stop thinking of refugee youth as beneficiaries, but rather embrace them for the contributors and essential partners they are. Forcibly displaced young people are ready and willing to contribute to developing and implementing solutions.

Refugee youth – young forcibly displaced people aged 15-24 years – have historically been overlooked and underfunded. It is imperative that in the post-COVID humanitarian response, international NGOs create space for young refugees to tackle the challenges and fill the gaps that they see in their communities, recognize their efforts, and support them further. Young refugee leaders understand the needs of their communities because they are also experiencing similar challenges and have been working within their communities to tackle them.

Working in partnership means facilitating space so the voices of young refugees can be heard and supporting them to develop their advocacy skills. Working with refugee youth means listening to them, trusting them, and supporting them to develop their skills and capacity along the way. This does not suggest abandoning them to work in isolation, but rather working together side by side.

And when necessary, taking a step back so they can practice their agency.

First, support youth groups to develop their organizational capacity and their initiatives so they can become actors in community-based projects. In particular, support youth initiatives that facilitate cross-cultural understanding and respect amongst refugees, internally displaced people, and the host community.

Second, facilitate funding that refugee-led organizations can access without complicated bureaucracy and support them to develop financial and project management skills.

Third, enable transparency and accountability in programming in order to create real partnerships with young people. Access is also key for meaningful partnership and collaboration: access to information, resources, and key stakeholders. This also helps build accountability.

Finally, ensure sustainable partnerships by creating an enabling environment with opportunities for continuous learning and funding so young refugees can grow and sustain their engagement. There needs to be a trust mechanism where young people have the space to deliver.

The response by young refugees to the COVID crisis demonstrates how they are identifying and responding to the struggles that their neighbors are facing. They are fully present, engaged, and empowered. We are proud of these efforts and hope that all humanitarian actors will recognize and reinforce their work. Working in partnership with refugee youth has huge potential to leverage effort and investment. This is an opportunity for international humanitarian agencies and organizations to transform how they partner with refugee youth-led initiatives in order to advance joint efforts during this global crisis, and beyond.

The Global Youth Advisory Council (GYAC) serves as a consultative group on issues relating to the protection and development of young people who are refugees, internally displaced, stateless, and their communities.

The Women's Refugee Commission’s mission is to improve the lives and protect the rights of women, children, and youth displaced by conflict and crisis. We research their needs, identify solutions, and advocate for programs and policies to strengthen their resilience and drive change in humanitarian practice.