Failure and Hope

This book documents how global advocacy on behalf of refugees has failed, and proposes a new strategy using social entrepreneurship.

This book documents how global advocacy on behalf of refugees has failed, through in-depth fieldwork in seven conflict zones and a comprehensive study of advocacy around all 61 refugee crises worldwide. It proposes a new way forward using social entrepreneurship to advance the rights of the forcibly displaced.In 2015, sixty million people were displaced by violent conflict globally - the highest since World War II. National and international policy prevents the displaced from working or moving freely outside the camps set up to 'temporarily' house them. This policy has left the displaced with no right to work and move while they remain displaced for years, if not decades. Based on data on all 61 protracted displacement crises worldwide, fieldwork in seven conflict zones around the world, and in-depth interviews with over 170 humanitarian aid workers, government officials and refugees, this book systematically details the barriers to effective advocacy at every level of governance and shows that failure is the norm. Unlike many academic monographs, it goes further and proposes an alternative way forward that capitalizes on social entrepreneurship, crowd-funding and micro-finance to improve the lives of those that have been forced to flee their homes to find safety.