FabLabs, or digital fabrication laboratories, are a global network of local labs, enabling invention by providing access to tools for digital fabrication. They also enable engagement and empowerment for youth in challenging circumstances.
Meraki Labs is supporting Terre des Hommes to utilise FabLabs in humanitarian, migration and development settings, and develop use cases focusing on youth empowerment and engagement.
Cash transfers in Yemen, delivered through humanitarian actors and social protection systems, offer great opportunities for beneficiary impact and alignment with donor priorities – but this potential is not fully utilized due to fragmentation within the system. Fragmentation may affect the degree to which cash programs in Yemen can be scaled up.
Meraki Labs, on behalf of the Cash and Learning Partnership, conducted independent research into the barriers and opportunities to harmonise humanitarian and social protection cash programs. The end result is a paper which presents options to the HCT and donors.
In Iraq, state social protection programmes are a critical component of household income. For the last seven years, communities have also benefited from ongoing humanitarian cash-based support to meet emergency needs. As the humanitarian response to the ISIL crisis winds down, several initiatives for linking humanitarian and social protection systems have been initiated, but none have been sustained or gained sufficient buy in from all stakeholders. The Covid-19 crisis has added a layer of urgency in finding a solution to poverty-focused cash-based social protection initiatives in Iraq.
Meraki Labs supported humanitarian, development, and government actors in understanding the extent to which humanitarian cash assistance and government-led social protection programmes overlap in Iraq, to determine a way forward to support vulnerable households in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, while considering the importance of ongoing recovery from conflict.
Approximately 70,000 migrants pass through Djibouti on the road from the Horn of Africa to Gulf countries. Most are youth; many have limited education and limited opportunities to engage with their local communities.
Meraki Labs supported Terre des Hommes and IOM in establishing a digital fabrication laboratory in Djiboutiville, ensuring that young migrants engaged with the lab, and ensuring that young migrants gained digital skills through the intervention.
Danish Refugee Council has a presence in 40 countries, with a budget of approximately 400 million USD. The organisation uses a beneficiary-centred framework based on a holistic understanding of the stages of displacement that allows a flexible approach to individual country programmes. As a result, DRC works across 13 sectors humanitarian sectors.
Meraki Labs conducted a strategic evaluation of DRC’s global level programming and supported the organisation in streamlining its programmatic approach. Meraki Labs conducted an in-depth analysis, engaged with senior management and developed a set of options for the global Senior Management Team.
Iran currently hosts over 1 million registered Afghan refugees, and up to 2 million unregistered Afghans. The Government of Iran has made significant advances in providing education and health care to refugee populations, but most are still subject to stigma, discrimination, and protection risks.
Meraki Labs supported Relief International in identifying key protection issues and developing priorities for programming, ultimately resulting in a revised Country Protection Strategy. Meraki Labs worked closely with Relief International to support capacity of staff to implement the strategy, including training and engagement with protection and complimentary sector staff.
