In 2024, the Women’s Refugee Commission proudly marked a major milestone—our 35th anniversary. For three and a half decades, WRC has been at the forefront of advancing gender equality and transforming humanitarian systems to better serve women, children, youth, and other marginalized groups forced to flee their homes due to conflict and crisis.

Today, the humanitarian landscape stands at a pivotal juncture. Global funding cuts and the growing backlash against women’s rights are threatening critical, lifesaving services—from sexual and reproductive health care to gender-based violence prevention and support for adolescent girls’ education and empowerment.

In the face of these growing challenges, our commitment is stronger than ever. We remain unwavering in our mission to protect the dignity, safety, and rights of women and girls affected by crisis. By working directly with displaced communities, we ensure that our programs and advocacy reflect their lived experiences, amplify their voices, and strengthen their resilience. This people-centered approach has guided our work since the beginning—and remains at the heart of everything we do.

Our impact is made possible through powerful partnerships. We work hand in hand with governments,the Unit ed Nations, civil society, women- and refugee-led organizations, media, and generous supporters like you. These collaborations enable us to scale local solutions, drive policy change, and ensure that global action aligns with the priorities of the communities we serve.

In 2024, we achieved meaningful progress in advancing gender equality and inclusion, strengthening humanitarian policy and practice, and developing innovative tools to support displaced women and girls. Together with our partners and the extraordinary resilience of crisis-affected women and youth, we made real strides toward a more just and inclusive future.

In this report, I invite you to explore highlights from the past year—milestones made possible by your unwavering support.

The road ahead will be challenging. But with your continued partnership, WRC will continue to champion the rights of displaced women and girls—ensuring their voices are heard, their needs are met, and their potential is realized.

With gratitude,

Sarah Costa
Executive Director

Our vision is a world where all people displaced by conflict or crisis are welcomed with dignity; are safe, healthy, and self-reliant; have their human rights and agency respected; and get the support and resources they need to rebuild their lives.

Our mission is to improve the lives and protect the rights of women, children, youth, and other people who are often overlooked, undervalued, and underserved in humanitarian responses to displacement and crises.

We work in partnership with displaced communities to research their needs, identify solutions, and advocate for gender-transformative and sustained improvement in humanitarian, development, and displacement policy and practice.

As conflicts and crises continue to displace people worldwide and displacement lasts longer, meeting the basic needs and ensuring the fundamental human rights of refugees becomes even more challenging.

Business-as-usual approaches are failing displaced women and girls. To address this issue, we need to change how humanitarian and development work is done. We must help displaced women, children, and youth become more resilient and better prepared for future crises. This requires new, evidence-based approaches, with local communities taking the lead in deciding what resources are needed.

The Women’s Refugee Commission’s 2025-2030 strategic plan aims to use evidence and advocacy to promote gender equality for displaced people. Our plan focuses on improving how humanitarian aid is given and advocating for policies that protect the rights of displaced people.

Our strategic priorities are:

• Make emergency response more considerate of gender differences.
• Improve the quality of humanitarian programming and practice for the most overlooked and underserved crisis-affected populations, especially women and girls.
• Ensure fair systems, policies, and practices that respect the rights of women and girls and other overlooked groups affected by conflicts and crises.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been embroiled in a severe conflict that has displaced 11 million people within the country, while another 2 million have fled to neighboring countries. The crisis has had a devastating impact on women and girls, who face heightened risks of violence and economic hardship. Yet women and girls are resilient and are working to support their families and their communities. Their stories of leadership, innovation, and organizing, however, are seldom heard.

To amplify these voices, the Women’s Refugee Commission partnered with the Sudan Family Planning Association and the Gender in Emergencies Group to gather stories from women in the grip of the conflict. These narratives—from mothers, grandmothers, nurses, teachers, students, and community workers aged from 18 to over 70—form the body of our report, In Her Own Words: Voices of Sudan.

We shared the women’s stories through various platforms, including social media, publications, and events, to raise awareness and foster solidarity with Sudanese women.

“I hope to fill the emptiness inside me and to improve our circumstances. I want to instill beautiful values in the children and help rebuild our country for the next generation. Change starts with women.” – B.H.F., government employee

Watch our video.

Adolescents, especially adolescent girls, are frequently marginalized and overlooked by humanitarian actors. They often lack access to sexual and reproductive health information and services, opportunities to develop critical skills for future employment, and the chance to develop social networks. Moreover, their voices are generally not included in the development of programs meant to benefit them.

To address these issues, WRC developed the I’m Here approach in 2016. This set of guidelines helps humanitarian organizations identify where adolescent girls live, understand their needs, and assess the availability of services and resources for them. The I’m Here approach serves as an entry point to engage directly with adolescent girls themselves to develop programs to improve their safety, health, and well-being from the first days of a crisis.

In 2024, we worked with Tiempo de Juego (TdJ), a youth development organization based in Colombia, to implement I’m Here in Santa Marta. Santa Marta is home to a large number of Venezuelan migrants and Colombians affected by the decades-long civil conflict.

As a result of our partnership, TdJ identified more than 150 girls aged 10 to 19 who were previously unknown to them. Information gathered in a household survey will guide future engagement and ensure that programs are better tailored to meet the needs of adolescent girls, including girls cohabiting with a partner and those with children.

“This process is particularly significant because, for the first time, we’re applying a scientific method to measure the impact of an intervention or programming with these characteristics. We now have a baseline for Santa Marta and Cienaga, supported by a set of rigorous tools, and we’re set to measure the outcomes effectively.

“What’s especially exciting is that this isn’t just about data. It’s about how the data informs our program design in combination with active participation from the community. It’s been incredibly rewarding to begin working—or rather, to enhance our work—in such a collaborative and evidence-driven way.”

— Camilo Isaza, TdJ

In 2024, the WRC led the field in identifying threats to migrant women and girls, as well as securing meaningful protections for their health, safety, and rights. For instance, early in the year, WRC helped secure protections for unaccompanied girls who need access to sexual and reproductive healthcare. The Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Unaccompanied Children’s Program Foundational Rule, which governs the treatment of unaccompanied minor children, contains many of our recommendations around securing access to essential sexual and reproductive healthcare services. The resulting policy has led to meaningful access to healthcare for pregnant and parenting girls who arrive at the Southern border without their parents.

WRC was also at the forefront of public education, alerting the public about the threats facing migrant women and families. We alerted the public to the catastrophic harm to migrant women and families from Project 2025’s proposed immigration policies, highlighted the structural inequalities facing migrant mothers in Mexico, and advocated for recognition of abortion as a migrant women’s issue.

After the election of President Donald Trump to a second term, WRC was once again on the forefront, alerting policy makers and the public to the unique and disproportionate harms to women and families from many of his incoming administration’s proposed policies. Our work drew attention to the critical impacts to women and girls that were often less visible; for instance, we were the first organization to address how the repeal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Protected Areas policy (also known as “sensitive zones”) would allow immigration enforcement officers to enter domestic violence shelters to arrest and deport women fleeing abusive situations.

From 2021 to 2024, the Women’s Refugee Commission worked with local organizations in Jordan, Lebanon, Niger, and Uganda to try a new approach to helping women and girls displaced by conflict and crisis find employment opportunities. Financial independence not only provides safety and security but reduces gender-based violence, including sexual violence, domestic violence, and sexual exploitation and abuse, and helps survivors heal. Without economic opportunities, survivors can get trapped in abusive situations just to survive.
In collaboration with the Danish Refugee Council, we brought together local actors, international NGOs, UN agencies, and government ministries to create action plans to reduce GBV and improve the economic well-being of survivors by addressing their unique challenges. In 2024, pilot programs in each country showed that women’s economic empowerment, particularly when combined with mental health services, legal aid, and community awareness raising, can aid GBV survivors in their recovery. WRC is furthering the development and delivery of this programming to reduce GBV and support survivors.

As conflicts around the world proliferate and last longer than ever before, we will continue to find new ways—based on research and evidence of what really works—to end conflict-related violence against women and girls and create innovative pathways to safety and economic security.

“I was hopeless before the training, but now I’m confident of myself. I can get my own money, buy food, clothes, [and] educational materials for my kids. I now know that what a man does, I can do and even better.” – South Sudanese refugee woman, 25 years old

“The program had a positive impact on my life, as I gained new skills that boosted my self-
confidence and improved my work performance. I became more aware of how to take advantage
of the opportunities around me and started applying what I learned in my daily life. This helped
me enhance my relationships and develop ideas for small projects.” – Lebanese woman and GBV
survivor, 39 years old