AMERA is a UK charity, which focusses on providing assistance to refugees. AMERA was founded by Dr. Barbara Harrell-Bond OBE, who founded the Refugee Studies Centre in Oxford. She formed her main operational centre in Cairo, where AMERA had several offices.

Since AMERA was processing so many asylum cases, she looked around for a streamlined system to manage refugee cases. She selected RIPS, and was funded by Comic Relief to extend RIPS with new functionality.

RIPS was extended to specifically address:

• UNHCR registration processes
• asylum claims
• legal services including litigation
• unaccompanied minors
• detainee services
• SGBV case management
• psychosocial service
• trafficking and slavery
• outreach services

AMERA’s office in Cairo were forcibly shut down by government militia and Barbara has died, but one of her legacies was a very powerful case management system.