Danish Refugee Council: Annual reports
Executive summary
Founded in 1956, DRC has worked for 70 years to support refugees and displaced people in their pursuit of a dignified life. As Denmark’s largest humanitarian NGO and a leading international organisation, we work across displacement journeys – from acute crisis to long term solutions – assisting, protecting and empowering people forced to flee.
In 2025, that mission remained as urgent as ever. Across the world, conflict, climate shocks and protracted crises continued to force millions of people to flee from their homes. 2025 was another year of an alarming erosion of respect for International Humanitarian Law. Wars and armed conflicts became more protracted and intense, with widespread disregard for the protection of civilians, humanitarian personnel, and civilian infrastructure. All of this increases humanitarian needs while challenging our humanitarian space to operate.
At the same time, the humanitarian sector is undergoing a structural transition. Needs are rising faster than resources. Major reductions in funding for humanitarian assistance fundamentally impacted humanitarian organisations – including DRC. In particular, the funding cuts from the U.S. government, which accounted for about 20% of DRC's overall funding, forced us to make very difficult decisions and painful prioritisations in 2025. As a result, we are closing our operations in six countries – Burundi, Central African Republic, Georgia, Kosovo, Mexico, and Tanzania – leaving DRC operational in 28 countries and have had to reduce our global workforce from approximately 7 500 to 5 800.
In this challenging year, we managed to land a solid operational performance with a revenue of DKK 3,451 million. Foreign exchange fluctuations had the most significant financial impact during 2025 resulting in DKK 49 million losses and combined with other operational related losses and costs associated with the necessary organisational restructuring contributed to the -DKK 46,5 million results.
Despite these profound changes and challenges, DRC continued to provide emergency humanitarian assistance and protection in the world’s worst humanitarian crises, while supporting durable and sustainable solutions for displaced families and communities. In Sudan, where conflict escalated dramatically in 2025, we rapidly mobilised emergency responses in Darfur, supporting families with cash assistance, protection services and access to basic needs in a highly volatile context. In Afghanistan, after a major earthquake in August, we provided earthquake-resistant housing, livelihood inputs and legal aid, helping communities stabilise and rebuild. In the Gaza Strip, we scaled up partner-led site management across dozens of displacement sites, improving coordination, access to services and information for hundreds of thousands of displaced people in one of the world’s most constrained operating environments. In countries such as Cameroon, Nigeria and Lebanon, we supported displaced people to strengthen self-reliance through livelihoods, legal assistance and community-based solutions. Through anticipatory action, we used forecasting and early warning models to act before crises escalated, reducing displacement risks and avoiding higher humanitarian costs.
As we approach our 70th anniversary in 2026, our commitment remains unchanged: to protect people forced to flee and support them towards a dignified life. The challenges ahead are significant, but so too is our collective responsibility as part of the broader humanitarian sector – and our shared capacity – to meet them.
None of this work would be possible without the dedication of our staff, the trust of communities, our partners, donors, and volunteers around the world.
Your support allows DRC to remain present in difficult places and principled in complex contexts.