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Innovation journey: Ideas to impact
UNHCR Innovation turns ideas into real-world solutions, supporting innovators through incubation, acceleration, and learning to improve protection and inclusion for people forced to flee.
Discover our journey
Innovation at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a journey from ideas to lasting change. We nurture promising concepts through incubation, acceleration, learning, and capacity building, working closely with partners and communities to scale impact. Together, we create the conditions for humanitarian innovation to thrive.
Our journey starts by supporting early-stage ideas so they can take root and be tested
Incubator
The UNHCR Innovation Incubator is where new ideas take root, through four Innovation Funds: Digital Innovation, Data Innovation, Environment and Climate Action Innovation, and Refugee-led Innovation. We help teams and partners design, test, and refine innovative approaches that respond to real challenges faced by displaced communities.
Through mentorship, technical guidance, and targeted support, we build the confidence and capacity of innovators to experiment and learn. Successful concepts emerging from the Incubator often go on to influence programmes, partnerships, and global practice.
Once ideas are validated, we help teams strengthen and grow their solutions
Accelerator
Building a culture of innovation
Innovation is not a single step. Itâs a journey of iteration, learning, and growth. As promising solutions emerge from the Incubator, teams engage in cycles of testing, reflection, and improvement, supported by mentorship, peer learning, and evidence generation.
Through continuous learning and validation, ideas mature into tested models that can be replicated, integrated, or scaled within UNHCR and beyond.
Innovation grows when people are empowered. UNHCR Innovation invests in strengthening the skills, confidence, and networks of colleagues and partners through learning pathways, mentoring, and community building.
From hands-on workshops to global learning programmes, weâre cultivating a culture of innovation across humanitarian operations.
Together, these three programmes create the conditions for innovation to scale
Our scaled initiatives
A multilingual digital platform providing reliable, country specific information to asylum seekers and refugees, now active in over 130 countries, enabling people to access critical services and guidance wherever they are.
Innovative two-way communication app making vital information more accessible to refugees. Now scaled and feeding into UNHCR's Digital Gateway initiative.
Partnerships enable this scale – amplifying impact and expanding reach
Our partnerships for impact
Innovation is built on collaboration. We work with refugees, UNHCR operations, governments, NGOs, the private sector, academia, and others to co-create and scale solutions that deliver meaningful impact.
These partnerships bring new expertise, perspectives, and resources, ensuring that innovation is inclusive, sustainable, and grounded in the needs and ideas of displaced communities.
