Barri Shorey
Senior Program Officer, Refugees, Disasters and Aviation
As the refugee sector embraces inclusion as a guiding principle, the Hilton Foundation’s Refugees initiative set out to evaluate how well that principle is reflected in practice. To advance our strategic goal of enhancing meaningful refugee participation in leadership, advocacy and decision-making, we partnered with the Asia Pacific Network of Refugees (APNOR), a refugee-led organization spearheading the global MRPI initiative, to pilot the Meaningful Refugee Participation Index (MRPI).
The MRPI is a self-assessment tool, a first of its kind global accountability tool designed and led by refugees, that helps philanthropy, government donors, international NGOs and local organizations evaluate refugee inclusion across key areas—governance, advocacy, grantmaking and communications.
The Foundation scored 47 out of 100, highlighting our strengths in grantmaking and communications and areas for growth, including data alignment by standardizing tools for collecting and utilizing refugee input in strategic planning and advocacy strengthening, by partnering with advocacy groups to amplify refugee voices and publicly track impact and success.
In response, we’ve reflected deeply on our MRPI experience and developed a two-year implementation plan. The report outlines short- and long-term actions to improve our score and, more importantly, to shift from inclusion in principle to inclusion in practice. These efforts aim to:
We’ve also shared reflections on the MRPI self-assessment process as part of our commitment to reporting on our progress.
We invite philanthropic peers, government donors, international NGOs and local organizations to take the MRPI assessment and join us in building a more inclusive, responsive and equitable future.
If you’re interested in taking the self-assessment, please reach out to Thomas Gillman at APNOR for more information about the process.