To address this humanitarian crisis, the World Bank -together with the United Nations and the Islamic Development Bank, created the GCFF, an innovative financing mechanism to support countries hosting large numbers of refugees and bridge the humanitarian-development divide.

Though short-term humanitarian relief is needed in these situations, the average length of time that people remain displaced continues to increase, requiring host countries to adapt their infrastructure, and social service delivery to meet the needs of the incoming population. The GCFF helps to bridge this humanitarian-development gap by providing an affordable and sustainable means of coping with the long-term development cots of hosting large numbers of refugees.