The Aropa Initiative for International Solidarity
Your Organizational Partner in Humanitarianism, Development, and Human Rights
The Aropa Initiative for International Solidarity (AIIS) is Aropa Consulting’s specialized suite of services, designed to partner with leaders seeking real, practical, and sustainable systemic change across the humanitarian, development, and human rights sectors.
We support a broad spectrum of organizations—from donors, UN agencies, and governments to international NGOs and community-based groups—to transform complex challenges into opportunities for shared learning, innovation and lasting impact.
Our team brings joy, excellence, and care to the hard work of building stronger, grounded institutions.
Our Services
Services for Donors & International Organizations
-
Consulting on and designing grantmaking processes that are equitable, community-led, and responsive to local needs.
-
Helping donors support grantees in building strong systems and processes that demonstrate impact and ensure sustainability beyond the funding cycle.
-
Facilitating and strengthening relationships between international and local organizations to share knowledge, build networks, and create learning opportunities that drive systemic change.
-
Guiding organizations and conducting research that actively involves community members and local leaders, moving beyond top-down methods to generate actionable insights.
-
Providing expert support to embed equity into core organizational practices, including hiring, policy revisions, and restructuring, with a focus on refugee participation and equitable partnerships.
Services for Community-Based & Refugee-led Organizations
-
Providing tailored guidance and support on key operational areas — finance, human resources, governance, and technology — to strengthen the internal foundation of CBOs and RLOs.
-
Helping local organizations build reputation, communications, influence strategies, and fundraising capacity to engage partners effectively and secure vital resources.
-
Collaborating with local organizations to design and implement culturally and contextually relevant Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) frameworks that measure impact in a meaningful way.
Our Approach
Our support is rooted in co-design, flexibility, and hands-on collaboration—whether drafting documents, shaping strategies, or addressing urgent needs—and always grounded in local realities. We focus on the infrastructures that shift power, from organizational structures to accountability systems, enabling groups to access funding and decision-making spaces.
At the heart of our work are honest, culturally aware relationships that value local knowledge, prioritize the well-being of local leaders, and challenge gatekeeping practices that limit community leadership.
Why AIIS?
We get it.
At Aropa Consulting, we believe that truly transforming global systems requires a commitment to equity, excellence, joy, and care at every level. Our work is informed by our diverse, firsthand experience navigating complex global systems and our deep expertise in localization and Meaningful Refugee Participation. We are here to ensure that your pursuit of mission is both impactful and equitable. We work in English, French, Arabic, Malay, and Spanish.
AIIS Clients
Resources from AIIS
Aropa served as expert strategist, author and/or editor for several sectoral learning guides, initiatives and publications related to equity in humanitarianism.
Cohere’s Five Organisational Pathways for Enabling Meaningful Refugee Participation: A Step-by-Step Implementation Guide. (strategist and lead author)
Global Refugee-led Network’s Meaningful Refugee Participation Guidelines (Co-author and strategist)
Asylum Access’s Equitable Partnership Guidelines (V2) and its corresponding Accountability Toolkit (Editor)
Cohere’s Interactive Worshop Series Building Organizational Pathways towards Meaningful Participation and Refugee Leadership (Strategist and Moderator)
The RRLI-commissioned Metasynthesis of Five External Impact Evaluations covering programs run by RLOs (Researcher and author)
Forced Migration Review 74, Financing displacement response. Lessons from the Resourcing Refugee Leadership Initiative’s grant-making model (Researcher and Co-Author)
ODI Global Funding refugee-led organisations: six strategic steps for government donors (Author)
The New Humanitarian How to End Tokenism and Embrace Real Refugee Participation (Author)
The New Humanitarian Rethinking Humanitarianism Podcast How to step aside to promote change (Speaker)