In this special issue, we aim to lay the groundwork for statistical support for refugee populations. We hope this special issue will serve as a valuable resource for the statistics community. We also want to highlight the broader value of statistics and data science for public good– this issue serves as a compelling example of how our discipline can contribute meaningfully to long-term societal change. The papers in this special issue are based on longerform academic papers written by graduate and undergraduate students in Duke University’s Bass Connections program, which focused upon the Middle East and North Africa.