About this topic
For refugees and displaced persons, digital tools can support access to services, livelihoods, and connections to community.
There are over one hundred million refugees and internally displaced people around the world, and supporting people during and after displacement is a key tenant of the international system. UN Sustainable Development Goal 10 (SDG – Reduced Inequalities) emphasizes the need to “empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all,” explicitly including refugees. SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) requires ensuring access to justice and providing legal identity for all, including refugees and displaced persons. Yet, despite decades of effort, displacement remains one of the world’s most complex development challenges—driven by conflict, climate change, and economic instability.
Digital technology plays a double role in this context. It can exacerbate exclusion, or it can expand access to economic opportunity and legal protection. But these benefits are not guaranteed. Weak legal protections, misaligned digital systems, and gaps in access can reinforce marginalization. Ensuring that digital systems serve displaced populations requires intentional, inclusive design, and deep understanding of the lived realities of migration and exile.
Caribou works with several key institutions in the sector:
- We collaborated with the International Finance Corporation to facilitate cross-border data sharing—including traditional credit histories—to expand financial access for forcibly displaced people in Uganda.
- We developed, with the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub, use cases for Earth Observation in humanitarian response.
- We supported the UNHCR in stocktaking its digital identity approaches for refugees.
- We convened a multi-institutional conversation on Identity in the Age of Migration for the Robert Bosch Foundation.
