On September 20, RefugePoint and the Women’s Refugee Commission in cooperation with the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative organized Better Lives Now: Leveraging Refugees’ Talents, a side event to the UN General Assembly, to launch the Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative. The event was also produced in partnership with Club de Madrid, Mercy Corps, The B Team, Refugees Deeply and The Government of Canada. Watch a highlight video of the event:

Keynote speaker Kim Campbell, Former Prime Minister of Canada and current member of Club de Madrid, along with panel speakers Per Heggens, CEO of the IKEA Foundation, Vartan Gregorian and Noubar Afeyan, Co-Founders of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, discussed the importance of supporting refugees to achieve self-reliance.

The event was organized by RefugePoint and the Women’s Refugee Commission with the support of the Aurora Prize. Event partners included Club de Madrid, Mercy Corps, The B Team, Refugees Deeply, and UN Canada.

We were also excited to share this collaboration with our fellow members of the Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative: Asylum Access, Christian Aid UK, Danish Refugee Council, HIAS , the IKEA Foundation, International Rescue Committee, the JIPS – Joint IDP Profiling Service, Mercy Corps, Oxford Refugee Studies Centre, RefugePoint, Regional Durable Solutions Secretariat, Samuel Hall, Save the Children US, Trickle Up, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, U.S. Department of State: Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, and The WANA.

To get involved, add your name to the #BetterLivesNow pledge and support self-reliance opportunities for refugees worldwide.