Ten years ago, we sent our first shelters to Nepal and to countries across Europe. 65 million people were displaced then. Today, that number has doubled, yet global aid budgets are shrinking.
As a young designer, I noticed that the emergency shelters available, built under intense time and budget pressure, were great for the first critical weeks but weren’t designed for the years-long reality many families face. At the same time, I learned that displacement often stretches not just months, but decades. Together with the IKEA Foundation and UNHCR, we developed a modular shelter that is durable, easy to assemble, and adaptable with local materials.
Since then, we have delivered nearly 100,000 shelters to the world’s largest crises in 90 countries.
We’ve learned that shelter is never just about walls and roofs. In eastern Chad, one of our shelters is now a film club. In northwest Syria, more than ten thousand families adapted temporary shelters into lasting homes, which are often unrecognisable. And many of them are now returning home, since the regime fell in late 2024. Some bring their shelters and rebuild them next to their old homes, so they have somewhere to live while they restore their homes.
These stories show what happens when people are given the tools and the agency to shape their own lives.
Yet my heart is heavy. Crises continue to escalate in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to name just a few.
We need to do more to support those who have been forced to flee, and we must do it now.
We have to do more, and we have to do it now.
Finally, we proudly renew our commitment to the UN Global Compact and the Sustainable Development Goals. You can see the progress in our 2024 Annual Review.
Johan Karlsson, managing director and co-founder, Better Shelter
From the Global compact communication on progress, January 1 to December 31, 2024
