Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees Exceeds Goal to Fund 22 Cities by 2022 With New Chapter to Support Children and Caregivers
Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees Exceeds Goal to Fund 22 Cities by 2022 With New Chapter to Support Children and Caregivers
A joint $3,000,000 commitment from the Bernard van Leer Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation will support cities delivering solutions for migrant and displaced children and their caregivers.
The Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees has now expanded support to 28 cities worldwide, exceeding its goal to fund 22 cities by 2022.
New York City, December 16, 2022 — In the run-up to International Migrants Day, the Mayors Migration Council (MMC) announced a new joint $3,000,000 commitment from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the Bernard van Leer Foundation towards the Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees (GCF). The new multi-annual contribution will bring the fund to $8,000,000 and 28 city grantees worldwide, exceeding the MMC’s goal to raise funding for 22 cities by the end of 2022. With this new commitment, the GCF will support cities delivering solutions for migrant and displaced children and caregivers.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), about 36.5 million children were forced to move due to conflict by the end of 2021, and over 50 million children were displaced due to climate change by the end of 2019. With one in every five international migrants living in just 20 cities and 70 percent of the world’s displaced seeking refuge in urban areas, more and more children are looking to cities as a space for safety, development, and learning.
Mayors from around the world are taking action to create inclusive, safe, and nurturing environments for these children and their caregivers. For example, Medellín in Colombia is providing families at risk of homelessness with both temporary housing and shared daycares, while Accra in Ghana is providing a care center for the children of frontline migrant workers. But cities often have limited access to the finance they need to do this work at scale.
By directly funding city governments to implement inclusive programs of their own design, the GCF builds precedents of fiscal feasibility in city governments that are often disregarded by donors with low risk tolerance.
“The Hilton Foundation is proud to continue our investment in the Mayors Migration Council’s Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees and lead a philanthropic movement to directly fund city governments,” said Peter Laugharn, President and CEO, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, “Properly resourced, cities can keep migrant and displaced children safe and help them realize their potential as future change-makers.”
The MMC will launch a call for proposals in early 2023. Cities interested in applying are invited to express their interest here. This is the first time the GCF will be open to cities of all income levels and from all regions of the world. Proposals will be evaluated by a Selection Committee of subject-matter experts.
“There is no better way to lay the foundation for inclusive and prosperous urban communities than to invest in children’s physical and mental health, well-being, and learning capacity,” said Michael Feigelson, Chief Executive Officer of the Bernard van Leer Foundation. “We join the Mayors Migration Council and mayors worldwide in investing in migrant and displaced children as future innovators and entrepreneurs that will make their cities thrive.”
“In record time, the GCF has grown from one to five donors, from $1,000,000 to over $8,000,000, and from five to 28 city grantees helping thousands of people around the world,” said Vittoria Zanuso, Executive Director of the Mayors Migration Council. “But real success is a world where it’s business as usual for national, multilateral, and private donors to invest directly in cities. So our ask to the international community is simple: drive more money directly to more cities so they can help more people.”
The GCF is led by the MMC and key Strategic Partners: the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40 Cities), Metropolis, the UN Migration Agency (IOM), United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN- Habitat), and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Learn more about the Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees: Children and Caregivers here and contact fund@mayorsmigrationcouncil.org to become a partner.
For press inquiries, contact Jake Adler, Head of Communications at the Mayors Migration Council, at jadler@mayorsmigrationcouncil.org.
Visit www.mayorsmigrationcouncil.org/gcf and follow #GlobalCitiesFund on social media for more information. For general background and inquiries, visit www.mayorsmigrationcouncil.org.
Background:
About the Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees
The Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees (GCF) is the Mayors Migration Council’s (MMC) response to the unmet needs of cities as they support migrants, refugees, and internally displaced people (IDPs) in the face of pressing challenges, from global pandemics to the climate crisis.
By directly funding cities to implement inclusive programs of their own design, the GCF builds precedents of fiscal feasibility in city governments that are often disregarded by donors with low risk tolerance. The GCF is led by the MMC in partnership with six key Strategic Partners: the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40 Cities), Metropolis, UN Migration Agency (IOM), United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Beginning in 2021 with a $1,000,000 seed investment to support five cities, in less than two years the GCF has become an $8,000,000 fund supported by five donors with a pipeline of 28 city grantees. These cities directly support thousands of migrants, refugees, and marginalized residents across three thematic chapters: Inclusive Climate Action, Inclusive Pandemic Response, and Children and Caregivers. With the support of our Strategic Partners and our key donors — the Bernard van Leer Foundation, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the IKEA Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and the Robert Bosch Stiftung — the GCF has exceeded our goal to raise funding for 22 cities by the end of 2022.
A Paris Peace Forum 2022 Scale Up Project and a Fast Company 2022 World Changing Idea, the GCF has created a marketplace of investment-ready, city-led solutions for migrants and refugees with the potential to shift humanitarian and development responses to those best placed to deliver them: cities.
To learn more, visit the GCF website.
About the Mayors Migration Council
The Mayors Migration Council (MMC) is a mayor-led coalition that accelerates ambitious global action on migration and displacement. With most of the world’s migrants and displaced people living in cities, our mission is to use the power of city diplomacy and practice to create a world where urban migrants, displaced people, and receiving communities can thrive.
To fulfill our vision, we help mayors and the cities they lead: i) influence policy decisions at the national and international level; ii) secure financial and technical resources to implement local solutions; iii) advance global action on emerging policy frontiers; iv) raise awareness among global audiences; v) generate and share knowledge grounded in local experiences; vi) build relationships with local and global champions.
Created by mayors for mayors, we are a nimble team of political advisors and urban practitioners led by a Leadership Board of global city leaders, including the mayors of Amman, Bristol, Dhaka North, Freetown, Kampala, Milan, Montevideo, Montréal, and Zürich. We are managed as a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and operate with the institutional support of the Open Society Foundations, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the IKEA Foundation, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the Robert Bosch Stiftung, in addition to other project-based donors.
To learn more, please visit our website and Climate Migration Resource Hub or follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
