Rethinking the refugee crisis

What is the cost of a refugee crisis? Across the globe, each day, people are forced to flee their homes in the face of persecution, discrimination and insecurity. Families are split, livelihoods ruined and incomes and official identities lost. The human cost is incalculable. Yet for those determined to support the world’s refugees, it is essential to understand the scale of the task at hand if they are to source and allocate the resources needed to return people to dignity, stability and eventual prosperity. 

Today, 85% of the world’s displaced population are in the developing world, where fragile economies struggle to support those in need and underdeveloped infrastructures creak beneath growing environmental threats. Organisations from the UN to the World Health Organisation predict that by 2050 environmental changes alone could drive hundreds of millions from their homes. Finance will play a critical role in avoiding disaster here, from simple financial inclusion schemes to bold plans to boost national infrastructures and underpin economic stability. None of this will come cheap, but it is surely a price worth paying.