Listening, Learning, and Advocating in Partnership, Around the World

This fall has been particularly busy for WRC. We want to share a few highlights of our recent work in our core focus areas. Take a look: 

• Protecting Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: Our Associate Director of Research, Julianne Deisch, just returned from the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) in Bogotá, Colombia. She showcased WRC’s work to address critical gaps in sexual and reproductive health and rights in humanitarian settings and strategized with long-time colleagues and important new connections. Drawing on WRC research in Pakistan and Sudan, Julianne presented on expanding family planning services in refugee settings and led a session on the impact of humanitarian crises on women’s access to contraception and reproductive autonomy. Learn more about our work on sexual and reproductive health and rights. 

• Fighting for Migrant Rights and Justice: WRC and Physicians for Human Rights traveled to Honduras this week to meet with women recently deported from the United States and with the psychologists, doctors, and other service providers who help them reintegrate when they arrive in Honduras. Pregnant women are being detained and deported, mothers are being separated from their babies, and many are traumatized by their arrests, detention, and deportation. Our findings and recommendations will inform policy makers and the public about the lasting impact of these harms and the urgent need for policy solutions that protect the health and safety of mothers, respect their rights, and keep families together. Learn more about our work on rights and justice. 

• Preventing and Responding to Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: A resurgence of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), coupled with US humanitarian funding cuts, has deeply impacted women, girls, and women-led organizations in the regions of North and South Kivu. To better understand the situation, WRC worked with Congolese women researchers to interview internally displaced women and leaders of women-led organizations about their experiences, and to report on their research findings. The report will be released in the coming weeks. Learn more about our work on sexual and gender-based violence. 

• Supporting Economic Empowerment and Self-Reliance: The Global Refugee Forum Progress Review in Geneva in December is a UNHCR-led conference for international actors to collaborate on improving protections for refugees and responses to humanitarian crises. WRC is co-hosting a session on how municipal leaders can advance urban refugees’ inclusion. WRC recently co-authored a policy brief on this issue and called for an “urban first” approach to refugee response to address the needs of refugees increasingly living in urban settings (as opposed to refugee camps). 

• Promoting Gender and Social Inclusion: Also at the Global Refugee Forum Progress Review in Geneva, our partners at the Global Refugee Youth Network (GRYN) are co-hosting an event on how refugee-led movements can shift power and create change. WRC is co-sponsoring an event called “Resourcing Resilience.” The session will spotlight women-led approaches to protection, inclusion, and sustainable solutions that advance the Global Compact on Refugees’ objectives.  

We are proud to share these highlights with you. Even in these challenging times, there are rays of light, the brightest of which are the people around the world working in so many ways to improve the lives of people displaced by conflict and crisis. We have met and collaborated with many of them this fall in our travels, and thank you for your partnership in this work.