LERRN is the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network. We are a team of researchers and practitioners committed to promoting protection and solutions with and for refugees. Our goal is to ensure that refugee research, policy and practice are shaped by a more inclusive, equitable and informed collective engagement of civil society. Through collaborative research, training, and knowledge-sharing, we aim to improve the functioning of the global refugee regime and ensure more timely protection and rights-based solutions for refugees.
Our work is focused in the global South, which hosts 85% of the world’s refugees, and responds to the needs and opportunities identified by our partners in major refugee-hosting countries.
We are generously supported by a Partnership Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, along with many contributions from our partner organizations. Our Partnership Secretariat is based at Carleton University, with our programs developed and implemented by Geographic Working Groups in Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon and Tanzania, along with Thematic Working Groups focusing on Protection, Solutions, and Diversity/Intersectionality.
The project officially launched in October 2018, following a three-year process of dialogue and collaboration between the research and practitioner communities. The project is expected to run until December 2025.
Our Partnership:
LERRN aims to better understand and enhance the role of civil society in responding to the needs of refugees in the global south. Civil society plays a large role in developing innovative responses to refugee situations and has the power to be a driver of change within political communities.
The Partnership’s goal is to enhance the understandings of the global refugee regime and empower society to directly contribute to the improved function of the regime, thereby ensuring more predictable protection and solutions for refugees and enhancing their lived experience. The project officially launched in October 2018 and will run until December 2025.
Our Vision: All refugees have timely and reliable access to protection and rights-based solutions
Our Goal: Refugee research, policy and practice are influenced by the collective action of an informed, inclusive, equitable and sustained network of civil society actors
Our Strategic Objectives:
- Realize new knowledge and critical understandings on the conditions affecting refugees
- Support civil society actors to affect change for refugees in local, national and global context
- Influence research, policy, and practice to advance the well-being of refugees
- Sustain and expand scholarly dialogue and effective civil society networks within and between affected countries