Many of the world’s biggest companies are constantly under fire in the media over issues like tax evasion, obscene profits and over-generous executive remuneration.

But some have made headlines recently for their efforts to help refugees.

Google is a case in point. Its name is caught up in recent debates about multinational companies’ tax affairs; thus the term ‘Google-tax’.

But it is also building an information hub for refugees by installing low-cost WiFi in refugee camps and helping to design and launch a mobile website to provide information to refugees in their journey.

Google is also developing a new application that frontline relief workers can use to communicate with refugees in multiple languages.

Meanwhile, LinkedIn is using its corporate assets to help refugees network for jobs through “Welcome Talent’; and Ikea is supporting a number of initiatives, including accelerating its support for ‘Better Shelters’ in its partnership with the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Efforts to help refugees are not just restricted to the tech sector wunderkind.

Traditional corporate players are also contributing. Companies such as Western Union, UPS, British Telecom, Telefonica and Microsoft are in sectors that either have helpful expertise in things like communication, information, and logistic services.

Other active companies are the US yoghurt company Chobani, the Dutch clothing company C&A, and retail-focused Swedish holding company Axel Johnson.

And there are some encouraging systemic trends in the corporate response to the refugee crisis.

There has been the formation of some powerful partnerships such as the ‘Roundtable for Refugees’, a diversity initiative of several large German companies.

Also, the International Tent Alliance, inspired by Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya and launched at the 2016 World Economic Forum in Davos, which brings together a number of companies that joined philanthropic funds for a $1 million rapid impact challenge.

It aims to hire more refugees and adjust their value chains. But maybe more importantly, the Tent Alliance wants to go beyond a pure private sector partnership and collaborate more with NGOs and governments.

Other initiative such as ‘The Partnership for Refugees’, in which 15 large companies followed the Obama administration’s call to action, the ‘Private Sector Supporters’ group at the United Nations Human Rights Council as well as the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development’s increasing focus on economic development and working more closely with the private sector, all point in a promising direction.

Because the underlying problem of integration is a complex one, it cannot be solved by single actors or bilateral partnerships.

What is needed is cross-sector action, clear cross-sector integration goals and a joint roadmap for how to reach them.

With 20 million people currently categorised as refugees and another 40 million displaced from their homes, the complexity of this situation requires new solutions beyond traditional governmental responses.

The private sector could have a much more important role to play than we realise.

Laurie Nowell
AMES Australia Senior Journalist