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.

Our Call to Action