How science can improve communications about refugees and humanitarian innovation

“We’re experiencing a darkening sky for nonprofit organizations and for the social sector, and for people all across our global society, and there is a real risk that those points of light will begin to wink out because they do not have the support to exercise the moral leadership that they know they need to in order to be relevant players in our society,” said Grant Oliphant, President at The Heinz Endowments.

When I heard this part of a speech Grant gave last year, I immediately stirred and honed in on every word that followed next. I had also been feeling an unprecedented heaviness in the grave challenges he spoke of. It was hard to deny the darkness referred to that day in my own work at UNHCR. We had witnessed the rise of old hatreds and xenophobic rhetoric towards refugees, immigrants, Muslims, and many other minority groups across the world. We had observed the disquieting trends as borders become more unyielding and communities question more deeply whether to support refugee communities. A shift that innately reflects the world in which UNHCR operates.