Learning Journal · Issue 01
WHO GETS TO BE SEEN AS A LEADER?
Some of the most important leadership is happening where few people are looking
Published September 30, 2026
Over the past three months, we’ve spent time listening, visiting, and learning alongside refugee women-led organisations and their communities. These experiences are helping us understand what enables locally led solutions to grow, and where investment, partnership, and support can make the greatest difference.
We’ve brought together a few of the highlights, lessons, and nuggets that stayed with us. We hope they give you a glimpse into what we’re seeing on the ground, spark new thinking, and perhaps inspire you to see where you might connect, contribute, or get involved.
Fuse at WIDRC
One of the organisations we have the honour of partnering with is WIDRC, whose work with girls, young women and their communities demonstrates what becomes possible when solutions begin with listening. By engaging girls, parents, community leaders, schools and health workers, WIDRC has responded to interconnected challenges including teenage pregnancy, child marriage and limited access to sexual and reproductive health information, while also developing livelihood initiatives to support young mothers and vulnerable households.
FUSE at Little Star
Another organisation in our growing network of locally led partners is Little Star Foundation. What began as a nursery school serving 12 children has grown into a learning space serving 350. Its growth has been shaped not only by its leaders and teachers, but also by parents and community members whose participation, labour and commitment have helped strengthen the learning environment.
Through these partnerships, we continue to see that the strength of locally led organisations lies not only in what they deliver, but in the leadership, trust and commitment that sit behind their work. Little Star’s growth from 12 children to 350 is one example of what can happen when community commitment is matched with a clear vision and intentional financing. Across our network, we are seeing similar potential, solutions that are already creating meaningful impact, often without ever making it into boardrooms, conferences or the spaces where funding decisions are made. We believe this impact can grow exponentially when we are intentional about finding these leaders, listening to their ideas, and creating the right conditions for them to grow.
Leadership is not always found in formal titles, polished presentations or boardrooms. Sometimes it looks like women quietly bringing their communities together, making collective decisions, managing resources and building solutions that people trust. Our role is to become better at recognising these forms of leadership, and creating the conditions for them to be seen, supported and scaled.
Innovation doesn't always announce itself
Some of the most creative solutions we encounter are being built quietly, outside traditional spaces of innovation.
Trust is a system
What may look informal from the outside can contain sophisticated systems of accountability, decision-making and collective responsibility.
What solutions are we missing because we are not looking beyond the usual places, languages and networks?
Are we funding organisations based on what they can present, or on what they are already achieving?
How do we create funding and partnership models that meet women where they are, rather than asking them to first fit our systems?
What would become possible if we intentionally sought out the leaders who are not already in the room?
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