Ockenden International Prizes for Refugee Projects

Overview

Ockenden International believes that all refugees and displaced people have a right to live with dignity and to be supported in seeking to achieve self-reliance. They recognise that self-reliance can be promoted in many different ways and we seek to make our support similarly flexible. Ockenden’s resources are deployed in two key ways:

The Ockenden Prizes Ockenden seeks to support locally-based and/or refugee-led organisations that work directly with refugees and displaced people to advance self-reliance. Small-scale local organisations have the ability to be agile, well-targeted and highly cost-efficient. However, external funding can be hard to access, and is often tied to a particular project.

Refugee experiences are varied and complex, so Ockenden seeks to allow prize-winners to direct the award according to their own priorities rather than theirs.

The prizes are unrestricted grants and will be awarded on the basis of initiatives that promote self-reliance among refugees and/or displaced people, with measurable evidence of outcomes that have led to real improvement in the lives of refugees or displaced people. Sound financial governance will also be a factor.

The Joyce Pearce Junior Research Fellowship Ockenden sponsors the Fellowship in partnership with the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre and Lady Margaret Hall. The aim is to support research, expand expertise in refugee studies and enhance the international understanding of refugee self-reliance. In this way Ockenden can, in a small way, act locally and think globally.

What do they mean by ‘self-reliance’?

The term “self-reliance” suggests characteristics of self-sufficiency and independence: the ability to rely on one’s own resources and/or to make decisions for oneself. In terms of international development and refugee protection, it may also be associated with living independently of aid.

Ockenden supports a concept of self-reliance that recognises the agency, dignity and autonomy of refugees and forced migrants. However, they also recognise that nobody is truly self-reliant. We all rely on others for support, whether that is family, faith, community, or government. Displaced people often have particularly acute needs for support, because they have lost their previous resources. Their understanding of “refugee self-reliance” therefore recognises that displaced people are likely to have a continuing need of support from local, national and international agencies, but that this is not incompatible with the pursuit of self-reliance.

How is self-reliance achieved?

There are multiple dimensions to achieving “self-reliance”, including:

• Skills for coping and adaptation Coping with displacement requires skills, knowledge and access to information. This might include language skills, cultural understanding of the host society, an understanding of legal and other rights and information about available sources of support. These skills and sources of information help displaced people access shelter and basic subsistence in the immediate aftermath of displacement. But they are also essential for securing employment and longer-term life opportunities in a context of protracted displacement.
• Access to services Displaced people need access to basic services, particularly education and health care. Without these basic services, it is very difficult to achieve any further self-sufficiency or self-reliance.
• Status, security and protection Access to refugee status determination can be an important component of promoting self-reliance, by providing a recognised status, a defined package of rights and (in some contexts) pathways to durable solutions. More broadly, displaced populations’ capacity for self-reliance is affected by the availability of effective policing, legal aid and access to justice.

Ockenden considers programmes in any of these areas to be consistent with a goal of promoting self-reliance, even if the recipients of these services do not immediately become self-reliant. Other programmes consistent with promoting refugee self-reliance include the provision of skills-training, capital, access to markets and other income-generating projects.

Funding Notes

There are five £25,000 cash awards to be won in the 2025 prizes, which reward the most effective refugee self-reliance projects. Four of the Prizes will reward projects advancing the self-reliance and independence of refugees and/or displaced people anywhere apart from the United Kingdom. The addition of a new, 5th annual prize, is for a project or program successfully developing the self-reliance and independence of refugees and/or asylum-seekers living in the United Kingdom, which goes to the very core of Ockenden International’s objectives since its inception in Woking, England, almost 75 years ago.

The prizes are unrestricted grants. Sound financial governance will also be a factor.

What do they mean by ‘self-reliance’?

The term “self-reliance” suggests characteristics of self-sufficiency and independence: the ability to rely on one’s own resources and/or to make decisions for oneself. In terms of international development and refugee protection, it may also be associated with living independently of aid.

Ockenden supports a concept of self-reliance that recognises the agency, dignity and autonomy of refugees and forced migrants. However, they also recognise that nobody is truly self-reliant. We all rely on others for support, whether that is family, faith, community, or government. Displaced people often have particularly acute needs for support, because they have lost their previous resources.

Their understanding of “refugee self-reliance” therefore recognises that displaced people are likely to have a continuing need of support from local, national and international agencies, but that this is not incompatible with the pursuit of self-reliance.

Eligibility

Ockenden International is looking for projects, activities and/or programmes (each ‘a project’) which advance self-reliance among refugees and/or displaced people (and/or asylum seekers living in the UK). You can enter a project run by your non-profit organisation or you can nominate a project managed by a non-profit partner or affiliated organisation. In these Entry Rules, ‘the organisation’ refers to the not-for-profit organisation which manages the project.

Entry Rules

The project – for refugees and/or Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and/or asylum-seekers – should be the entire focus of your entry, which must be completed in English. Financial information must be in either USD or GBP. The online interactive Entry Form is preferred but if it is not possible for you to enter the contest via the Internet, please print, fill and post the hardcopy form to:

2025 Ockenden Prizes, c/- Context Graphics Limited, 1 Savernake Court, Old Church Lane, Stanmore, Middlesex, HA7 2RJ, United Kingdom, to be received no later than Saturday, November 30, 2024.

The five Ockenden International Prizes are open to not-for-profit organisations, registered with their relevant official national and/or local government bodies.

• All entries – and supporting documentation, including financials and accounts – must be in English and USD or GBP.
• Organisations may submit one entry only in each prize year. Unsuccessful organisations are welcome to reapply in future years.
• Winners of Ockenden International Prizes are ineligible to enter for the following three years.
• The not-for-profit organisation must be able to demonstrate the effectiveness of its entered program/project, preferably with measurable evidence of positive outcomes.
• The project/program entered must be up-and-running before March 1, 2024: i.e. it must have been established and operational for a minimum of six months.
• Entrants must include a copy of the entered project’s latest audited accounts with their application.
• Organisations must have high standards of financial and administrative governance.
• During the short-listing process, entrants may be asked to provide references or other evidence of the project and their financial and administrative governance.
• All short-listed entrant referees will be asked to provide references and any other evidence related to the organisation entering and/or the entered project.
• The two nominated referees required by all entrants must be third-party, relevant external observers.
• Prize money for each of the five awards will only be paid to a bank account held in the entered organisation's name. In no circumstances will prize money be paid to a personal bank account. Ockenden International will not be responsible for any bank fees.
• Prize money must only be used to help refugees and/or displaced persons and/or asylum-seekers in need and Ockenden International is required to ensure that prize money is used by a winning organisation in furtherance of Ockenden International’s charitable purposes. It is anticipated that, in general, prize money will be used to continue or extend the project referred to in the entry or for a similar future project run by the organisation.
• Prize winners will be required to provide information to Ockenden International about the projects and the use of prize money which Ockenden International may share on its website, social media platforms and in other communications.
• The jury’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

Judging Criteria

The judges will, in particular, look for:

• Projects that promote self-reliance among refugees and/or displaced people.
• These may be projects that are led by or have a high level of participation from displaced people themselves; projects providing education, legal assistance and/or livelihood assistance; or any other programs that help refugees and/or displaced people build stable, independent lives.
• Projects that have proved to be highly effective in improving the lives of refugees and/or displaced people.
• Projects that have led to real change in the lives of refugees and/or displaced people.
• Effective initiatives, with measurable evidence of outcomes.
• All entries entered – subject to the Entry Rules – with projects or programs deemed to be benefiting refugees and/or asylum-seekers living in the United Kingdom will be considered for the new UK Prize.