Durable Solutions for Refugees

In response to COVID-19, the Government of Kenya, much like other governments around the world, initiated lockdowns of businesses and schools and implemented curfews to help curb transmission. Despite these measures, in just a few weeks, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Kenya almost doubled, bringing the total at the time of writing to…

All of Gabriel Ndayishimiye’s hard work over the past few years has recently paid off. This summer, he graduates with a B.A. Honours degree in globalization studies from Huron University in London, Ontario. Originally from Rwanda, Gabriel came to Canada in 2016 through the Student Refugee Program. He will be attending Columbia University in September…

In November 2019, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and WUSC (World University Service of Canada) brought together stakeholders with an identified interest or active engagement in developing education opportunities for refugees as complementary pathways for admission in third countries. The two-day international conference…

In 2019, the Inter-Agency Network on Education in Emergencies (INEE) released a new Gender Guidance Note, a document designed to equip policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and civil society organisations with the knowledge and tools to deliver education that is relevant to the needs of girls and boys. This Guidance Note is tailored to people working in…

Today marks the start of the first-ever Global Refugee Forum (GRF), hosted by the UNHCR. The Forum takes place at a crucial time, when the refugee population is higher than it has ever been, at over 25 million worldwide. In the last decade, the global population of forcibly displaced people has grown from 43.3 million…

WUSC’s Student Refugee Program (SRP) transforms the lives of many — especially formerly sponsored students. After their studies, formerly sponsored students (or SRP alumni as they are known) have gone on to do many diverse things in Canada and globally. These range from ordinary — working and supporting a family — to extraordinary — playing…

By: Arianne Leclerc, Local Committee alum, and Rhoda Philip, SRP alum Recently, WUSC representatives took part in the second annual event: Engaging Student Voices to Support the Global Compacts, held by the University Alliance for Refugees and at Risk Migrants UARRM at the George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. Student leaders, policy makers, practitioners, and post-secondary education leaders came…

Today, there are more refugees in the world than at any other time in history. The scale of displacement and the duration of displacement is also consistently increasing – from 43.3 million in 2009 to 70.8 million in 2018, a record high – according to UNHCR. WUSC is committed to supporting solutions and increasing the…

Introducing the new INEE Guidance Note on Gender by Nora Fyles & Dean Brooks This blog post was originally published by the Global Partnership for Education. As civil war engulfed her home country Somalia, eight-year-old Fatuma fled with her family to Dadaab, Kenya, site of one of the world’s largest refugee camps. With the support…

One of the most important innovations in anti-poverty policy in the last couple of decades has been the scale-up of conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs. A typical CCT will transfer cash to a poor household conditional on children attending school and receiving health check-ups regularly. While CCTs have often been promoted as an effective means…