Core Sectors

We work globally providing support and solutions for refugees and displaced people within five core sectors. Learn more about the five core sectors and our work within each of them.

Protection

DRC advocates for the rights of refugees and displaced people and works to ensure protection of the most at-risk and marginalised people. We work to prevent and respond to the risks and consequences of violence, coercion and deprivation, including through legal assistance, child protection, prevention and response to gender-based violence and psycho-social support. We support people affected by conflict and displacement and their ability to claim and enjoy their human rights. We do this in an inclusive, rights-based and empowering manner. We work with communities and civil society to strengthen capacities, while supporting and holding states and non-state actors to account.

Economic Recovery

DRC supports refugees, people affected by displacement and those who host them to once again provide for themselves in a dignified and sustainable manner in the wake of a crisis. Conflict and displacement often force people to leave their jobs or forego other sources of income and subsistence, while also severely limiting alternative opportunities. We help address immediate unmet needs through direct assistance, which can involve distributing cash grants and food supplies. However, the overarching ambition is that affected individuals rebuild their self-reliance in meeting essential needs, with a specific focus on achieving food security, restoring decent and sustainable livelihoods, and improving financial inclusion.

Humanitarian Disarmament & Peacebuilding

DRC works to clear land contaminated by landmines and unexploded ammunition in some of the world’s most conflict-ridden areas and supports efforts to lower the risks from small arms and light weapons. We work to create awareness, restore trust, facilitate dialogue, and ensure collaboration to prevent and reduce conflict and violence as well as support local peacebuilding efforts. DRC’s support to communities threatened by conflict and its aftermath, include advocating for civilians’ rights in conflict, and against indiscriminate attacks and the proliferation of weaponry.

More about Humanitarian Disarmament & Peacebuilding

Shelter & Settlements

DRC works to ensure that refugees and internally displaced persons have access to shelter and basic services that enable them to live in dignity and safety through emergency situations and in cases of protracted displacement crises. Whether people have sought protection and refuge in formal refugee camps or informal settlements, we provide temporary shelter, help repair damaged dwellings and infrastructure, and reconstruct permanent homes. To support immediate needs, we offer cash grants and distribute non-food items (NFIs), such as hygiene kits, emergency bedding, cooking utensils and other critical supplies.

Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM)

DRC helps construct and manage refugee camps and strives to establish the best possible protective environment for the displaced and those hosting them. In situations of large-scale displacement, affected populations may seek temporary protection in a camp. We advocate that camps are only a temporary measure and support the pursuit of durable solutions. When we coordinate and manage camps, we work to build on the affected populations’ own priorities and capacities, we encourage and sustain dialogue and maintain positive relations between the involved communities.