Barri Shorey
Senior Program Officer, Refugees, Disasters and Aviation
Lauren Post Thomas
Senior Advocacy Officer, Refugees and Safe Water
This article originally appeared in Alliance Magazine in March 2025
The world’s refugee crisis has long been framed as a problem to be solved through compassion, financial aid, and emergency relief. However, to create lasting, sustainable change, the global community must fundamentally rethink how refugees are engaged in the solutions that affect their lives. For too long, displaced individuals have been treated as passive recipients of aid, rather than as active participants in shaping the policies and practices that influence their futures. It is time for a radical reimagining of refugee inclusion – one that places the voices and expertise of refugees at the heart of decision-making.
Over the past several years, the call for genuine refugee participation has gained momentum, with refugees themselves leading the charge. Humanitarian organizations and governments have made ambitious pledges to enhance refugee involvement, but real action has been slow and incremental. This is where philanthropy can play a critical role. Philanthropic organizations, unencumbered by the bureaucratic inertia that often stifles government action, have the flexibility to invest in innovative solutions and set an example for the broader sector. By doing so, they can demonstrate not only the importance of refugee inclusion but also its transformative impact.
A pioneering initiative by the Asia Pacific Network of Refugees (APNOR) offers a clear blueprint for how organizations can elevate refugee voices in their policies and practices. The Meaningful Refugee Participation Index (MRPI), developed by refugees and experts with lived experience, is a robust framework that challenges organizations to go beyond superficial inclusion and engage refugees as genuine partners in decision-making.
Let us embrace a future where refugees are recognized as leaders, innovators, and indispensable partners in shaping a more just and inclusive world.
The MRPI allows organizations to assess their current practices, identify areas for improvement, and create tailored plans for meaningful change. It focuses on five critical dimensions: organizational development, data collection, workplace diversity, equity and inclusion, grant-making policies, and communications and outreach. The tool includes 28 specific indicators, ranging from assessing whether an organization’s board of directors includes someone with lived refugee experience, to evaluating how well refugee-led initiatives are supported in project development and grantmaking.
An organization using the MRPI performs a self-assessment against the scorecard, awarding themselves a score for each category, and must also provide documentation to support their evaluations. APNOR then reviews the score and provides a final score based on the self-assessment and a rigorous review process. The review also generates feedback, which informs a tailored improvement action plan. The MRPI is not simply a diagnostic tool; it fosters a continuous learning process, pushing organizations to make real, substantive improvements towards meaningful inclusion.
In a landmark collaboration, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s refugees initiative partnered with APNOR in 2024 to implement the MRPI. This was not merely an exercise in self-assessment, but a bold statement of intent – a commitment to leading the philanthropic sector towards a future defined by equity, inclusion, and shared humanity. The Hilton Foundation’s decision to adopt this tool reflects a recognition that real change requires both introspection and the humility to learn from those with lived experience.
The partnership between APNOR and the Hilton Foundation was marked by a highly iterative approach, ensuring the MRPI’s scorecard was contextualized for philanthropic organizations. Both organizations worked closely together to align the scorecard with the Hilton Foundation’s mission while adhering to the highest standards of meaningful refugee participation. Through this process, both organizations engaged in deep discussions about the broader philanthropic sector and its current practices, confronting tough questions and opening new paths for collaboration.
The Hilton Foundation’s engagement with the MRPI resulted in a score of 47 out of 100, highlighting areas where the foundation exceeded expectations, such as its direct support to refugee-led organizations through flexible grantmaking, but also indicating significant room for improvement, particularly in workforce diversity. This process was not just about scoring; it was a reflection of the Hilton Foundation’s genuine commitment to change. The MRPI revealed critical gaps, which will catalyze actions towards a transformation within the foundation’s refugees initiative and beyond.
The Hilton Foundation’s partnership with APNOR marks a significant step for the philanthropic sector. It proves that refugee inclusion is not just a lofty ideal; it is an achievable goal. As more philanthropic organizations follow the Hilton Foundation’s lead and adopt the MRPI, they will help redefine how the sector approaches funding, partnerships, and refugee inclusion. The MRPI provides a framework not only for self-improvement but driving systemic change within the sector.
This collaboration also offers broader lessons for the international community. It challenges the tendency to view refugees as victims in need of charity, urging us to recognize them as active agents in their own futures. The MRPI demands that organizations move beyond tokenism and engage refugees as co-creators of solutions. It calls for a deeper, more substantive form of inclusion that reshapes power dynamics and fosters long-term, sustainable change.
The Hilton Foundation’s partnership with APNOR has already proven transformative, both for the foundation and for the broader philanthropic sector. But this is only the beginning. As organizations reflect on their practices and embrace the MRPI, they will be better equipped to not only support refugees but to empower them as leaders, innovators, and key contributors to shaping a more just and inclusive world.
In a moment when global displacement is at unprecedented levels, the stakes could not be higher. The MRPI offers a compelling vision of how the philanthropic sector can—and must—do more to listen, learn, and act in partnership with displaced communities. This is not just a call for better practices; it is a call for a new paradigm of engagement, one where refugees are recognized as integral players in the search for lasting solutions.
There is a history of philanthropic actors enabling meaningful inclusion, but we need to do more and the time for that is now. Let us move beyond traditional models of aid and charity. Let us embrace a future where refugees are recognized as leaders, innovators, and indispensable partners in shaping a more just and inclusive world. The MRPI is the guide, and it can create a more inclusive equitable present and future.
Barri Shorey
Senior Program Officer, Refugees and Disasters at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
Lauren Post Thomas
Senior Advocacy Officer, Refugees and Safe Water at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
Najeeba Wazefadost
Founder and Executive Director at Asia Pacific Network of Refugees (APNOR)
Thomas Gillman
Advocacy and Engagement Officer at Asia Pacific Network of Refugees (APNOR)