The Global Refugee Leaders Forum (GRLF) was founded to support, protect, and empower refugee leaders who play vital roles in their communities. Refugee Leaders provide essential services, information, and guidance, yet they often face challenges without the resources or recognition they deserve. GRLF focuses on the individuals at the forefront, believing that empowered leaders uplift entire communities.
Before a refugee reaches to any office, he/she has received the very first services from Refugee Leaders in their Communities, these refugee leaders often times forget about their situation of carrying the burdens of others.
Our Story
GRLF began in Uganda, addressing gaps in resources and protection for refugee-led initiatives. Recognizing similar challenges across borders, we established GRLF to connect refugee leaders globally, provide support, and advocate for better policies and opportunities. Now based in Goma, DRC, we continue our work, expanding to include former refugees and allies in host communities worldwide.
Who is a Refugee Leader?
A Refugee Leader is any individual who provides support, guidance, or services to refugees within their community, including clan leaders, group organizers, community advocates, and others offering their skills and knowledge to benefit others. We also have Refugee Human Rights Defenders who are both refugees and those who are not refugees who are committed towards supporting refugees everywhere. They are all part of our key target.
GRLF seeks therefore to empower refugee leaders and refugee human rights defenders in order to serve better refugees in their communities.
Leadership at Global Refugee Leaders Forum
As per now, the Global Refugee Leaders Forum is managed by the Executive Director who supervises the work of his team composed of the Secretariat, and the country focal points. Each country has refugee leader who is appointed the Focal person, and he/she also appoints representatives in each part of the country.
Areas of intervention
- Networking:
Our aim is to federalize refugee leaders refugee leaders at all levels: Local, national, regional and international through connection and sharing of experiences. This will help to drive a common refugee agenda right from the refugee communities, at local, national and international levels. Networking will explore and connect refugee leaders to available opportunities with other stakeholders at local, national and international levels, our approach for networking will also link refugee leaders to development partners and at the same time enable all stakeholders to be fully informed about what refugees are doing in their communities.
2. Professionalization
This programme seeks to empower refugee leaders in order to become experts in specific thematic rather than having leaders who embarrass everything. Refugee leaders will choose areas in which they want to venture in order to build a strong career which will benefit much more the communities,
3. Capacity building
We shall train refugee leaders basing on their areas on interventions, actually trainings are core of all our activities. We shall general trainings focusing on general information about refugees which normally each leader should know such as policies, refugee governance, refugee rights, leadership, civic education, and peace and conflict resolution, among others.
4. Research and Advocacy
This programme will empower skilled refugees to navigate on various issues in order to push for change, this will require specialized refugee leaders,
5. Activism
In some areas and countries strong activism may be viewed as the most effective approach, this will need to have in place refugee activists who may push for what they want to be achieved, again this will require specialized refugee activists,
6. Service delivery
A section of refugees should be supported and empowered in their areas of intervention through services to fellow refugees such as education, health, livelihood activities, counselling and guidance, sports, culture, music, among others,
7. Protection
This programme will focus on the protection of Refugee Leaders and will put in place activities aiming at security risks reduction, legal aid, urgent appeal, relocation, and other social support to refugee leaders in difficult situation.
Main offices
The Global Refugee Leaders Forum is based in Goma, North Kivu, the Democratic Republic of Congo which coordinates all the activities of the network globally.
Representations
The Global Refugee Leaders Forum is currently represented in the following countries:
Kinshasa: The Democratic Republic of Congo
Kampala: The Republic of Uganda
Nairobi: The Republic of Kenya,
Bujumbura: The Republic of Burundi
Dar-es-Salam: The Republic of Tanzania,
Lusaka: The Republic of Zambia,
Pretoria: The Republic of South Africa,
Mogadishu: The Republic of Somalia,
Doula: The Republic of Cameroon,
Brazaville: The Republic of Congo,
Juba: The Republic of South Sudan,
Bangui: Central African Republic
Focal points
We also have key refugee contacts in Rwanda, Guinea, Egypt, Tunizia, Ghana, Tchad, Mozambique, and Angola.