Making aid work for displaced women: Integrating Islamic philanthropy and the international humanitarian system to improve outcomes for women

‘Making aid work for displaced women’ is an interdisciplinary research initiative which explores how Islamic philanthropy can be leveraged to improve humanitarian work and achieve more effective outcomes for women. Connecting humanitarian, migration and religious systems, it seeks to develop innovative conceptual and financing solutions to support displaced women through integrating different aid paradigms.

Alarmingly, the number of forcibly displaced people continues to increase yearly with many displacement emergencies becoming protracted. Resources, capacity, political will, and governance models to protect displaced people have fallen woefully short of needs in often feminised displacement emergencies. There is a massive need for a more inclusive humanitarian policy to address the complex and intersecting needs of displaced women and children. It is estimated that over half of the world’s forcibly displaced people are hosted in Muslim-majority countries, yet the principles of Islamic philanthropy, such as zakat (obligatory charity), sadaqah (voluntary charity) and waqf (endowment) have received little attention in terms of their potential to support forcibly displaced women, lacking integration into policy and humanitarian discourse.

Although religion is often avoided in the humanitarian system, humanitarian agencies increasingly turn to Islamic philanthropy tools to bridge funding gaps and address critical needs. Therefore, the growing role of Islamic philanthropy in humanitarian action requires investigation, especially in relation to how it can be leveraged to support displaced women to unleash effective solutions.

The project builds on Dr Sandra Pertek’s research, policy and practical experience to date at the intersection of gender, religion and forced migration. While evidence shows religion matters for displaced women as a protective and risk factor and engaging religious resources is essential for improving outcomes for displaced populations, little is known about how Islamic philanthropy can support the complex and intersecting needs of displaced women. Therefore, the ‘Making aid work for displaced women’ initiative critically analyses various aid paradigms and works towards integrating different approaches to enhance their coordination and effectiveness in the context of global forced displacement. Specifically, it investigates how the (dis)connections between the international humanitarian system and Islamic philanthropy actors shape humanitarian commitments and responses to women in conflict and forced migration. In doing so, the project seeks to negotiate gender-sensitive Islamic philanthropy models, linking these with the ethics of women’s protection within the humanitarian system.

Making aid work for displaced women’ is a multi-methods and multi-country research initiative with a strong policy and capacity-building component to help strengthen responses to women in displacement in Muslim-majority contexts. The initiative involves a global analysis and case studies in some of the largest Muslim-majority and minority refugee-hosting countries, focusing on some of the most protracted displacement crises, including Bangladesh, Kenya, Türkiye, and the UK, where Islamic philanthropy operates transnationally.

Project objectives
•To develop a better understanding of key Islamic philanthropy principles and ethics related to displaced women’s protection and inclusion
•To examine the (dis)connections between Islamic philanthropy actors and the international humanitarian system
•To generate evidence on what works in Islamic philanthropy to strengthen displaced women’s protection and inclusion
•To facilitate multi-stakeholder knowledge exchange and policy engagement

Work packages
1.‘Investigating (dis)connections between Islamic philanthropy and the international humanitarian system, and faith ethics’ includes literature review, stakeholder mapping, gender policy analysis and Islamic ethics analysis.
2.‘Understanding the lived experiences of displaced women receiving humanitarian assistance’ includes in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with forced migrant communities, semi-structured key-informant interviews with humanitarian policymakers and practitioners, and a global consultative workshop for interim feedback.
3.‘Policy impact and innovation: Integrating Islamic philanthropy and international humanitarian system’ includes policy dialogues and workshops, a guidance note, “Making Islamic philanthropy work for displaced women”, and pilot training.


Partner organisations include the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS, Doha), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC, Geneva), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB, Jeddah), World Humanitarian Action Forum (WHAF, London/Dubai), Turkish Red Crescent Academy (Kızılay Akademi, Ankara).

‘Making aid work for displaced women’ initiative works towards a range of academic outputs, policy impacts and capacity building of diverse humanitarian actors.