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Found 199 matches for Refugee Economies
Refugee Economies Programme: Activities and Impact 2016-2021
This report provides an overview of the work of the Refugee Economies Programme during the last five years. Its aim is to offer accessible summaries of the Programme’s publications and other activities. It highlights the ways in which the Programme has collaborated with other organisations in order to ensure its research has impact. And – above all – it thanks all of the many contributors to this research during that period, including the 290 research assistants who worked with the Programme in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda, without whom all the work would not have been possible.
Refugee economies in Kenya: preliminary study in Nairobi and Kakuma camp
This working paper is based on preliminary fieldwork in Kenya conducted as part of ‘Refugee Economies’ research led by the Humanitarian Innovation Project based at the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC). The research strand of refugee economies at the RSC is driven by an imminent need to better understand and support the economic lives of refugees. Given today’s daunting challenges, with more people displaced than at any time since the Second World War, it is imperative to rethink refugee assistance and to seek ways to promote refugees’ economic potential. Pioneering work has already taken place, drawing attention to and describing key aspects of the economies that exist in refugee camps and urban areas. However, more theoretical approaches are required. Against this backdrop, the concept of refugee economies has been developed to nurture a better understanding of refugees’ economic lives and to explain variation in economic outcomes for refugees (Betts et al., forthcoming 2016). Between 2013 and 2014, the Humanitarian Innovation Project completed a pilot case study across four research sites in Uganda. Although Uganda’s treatment of refugees is not perfect, it does offer refugees a relatively high level of socio-economic freedom through its Self-Reliance Strategy. For comparative purposes, we have selected Kenya as our second case study country, since it neighbours Uganda but has more stringent refugee policies that restrict socio-economic freedom. Through a comparative analysis of Uganda and Kenya, our ultimate aim is to deepen our understanding of the economic lives of refugees vis-à-vis different regulatory environments and to accumulate more data on variation in economic consequences for refugees. We conducted initial research in Kakuma refugee camp and Nairobi in March and April 2016. This initial fieldwork focused on the most prevalent nationalities of refugees in each site, namely Somali and Congolese refugees in Nairobi, and South Sudanese, Somali and Congolese refugees in Kakuma camp. Given the limited duration of the fieldwork, its focus was on gathering qualitative data primarily from Somali, Congolese and South Sudanese refugees, exploring the following two research questions: 1. What types of livelihoods strategies are employed by refugees living in Nairobi and Kakuma refugee camp? 2. What are the potential factors that differentiate refugees’ economic lives from local host communities and amongst different refugee populations?
Refugee Economies in Kenya
This report from the Refugee Economies Programme compares socio-economic outcomes for refugees and the surrounding host communities. Kenya hosts nearly half a million refugees and limits refugees’ right to work and freedom of movement. This new research is based on 4366 survey responses and covers both Nairobi and the Kakuma refugee camp. The report compares and tries to explain refugee and host outcomes in three areas: livelihoods, living standards, and subjective well-being. In Kakuma camp, refugees are better off than the surrounding host population. For example, even though they have comparable employment levels, working refugees’ self-reported median income is almost three times higher than for the local Turkana. Despite the gap, the Turkana hosts benefit immensely from the refugee presence. In Nairobi, although refugees are better off than they would be in camps, they are worse off than the local host population across almost all metrics. Four sets of factors seem to explain these gaps between refugees and hosts: regulation (how you are governed), networks (who you know), capital (what you have), and identity (who you are).
Building economies in refugee-hosting regions: lessons from Dollo Ado
Between 2011 and 2018, the IKEA Foundation invested around $100m USD in supporting infrastructure and livelihoods programmes in, and around, the remote Dollo Ado refugee camps in the Somali region of Ethiopia. It worked collaboratively with UNHCR and the Ethiopian Government. Between June and December 2019, the RSC’s Refugee Economies Programme undertook a retrospective evaluation of the impact of the interventions. In addition to leading to measurable improvements in socio-economic outcomes for the population, the programmes were pioneering in their attempt to build the economy of a remote refugee-hosting region. The lessons learned from the programmes have wider policy implications for building economies in other remote refugee-hosting regions. As part of the evaluation of the Foundation’s programmes, we developed a five-stage Sustainable Refugee Economies Framework, intended to highlight the pre-conditions for building sustainable economies in remote refugee-hosting borderlands. The elements of the framework are: 1) political will, 2) infrastructure, 3) cultural relevance, 4) comparative advantage, and 5) external inputs. The achievements and challenges faced in Dollo Ado offer an unprecedented opportunity to learn about the conditions for building sustainable refugee economies in other remote regions, within Africa and globally. Crucially, learning from the Dollo Ado experience teaches us that if refugee self-reliance is to be sustainable, livelihood programmes must also be accompanied by wider economic transformation within refugee-hosting regions.
Building Refugee Economies: An evaluation of the IKEA Foundation’s programmes in Dollo Ado
From 2012–2018, the IKEA Foundation invested nearly 100 million USD in UNHCR operations in the five refugee camps of Dollo Ado in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. This is the largest private philanthropic donation that the UN Refugee Agency has ever received. The Refugee Economies Programme at Oxford conducted an evaluation of the multi-year investment to understand how the funding has impacted refugee and host communities in this borderland area. Qualitative and quantitative findings report on the performance of highly visible cooperatives and business groups that have transformed the economic and social landscape of Dollo Ado through projects relating to agriculture, renewable energy, environmental conservation, and the livestock value chain. The evaluation also explores the influence of IKEA Foundation's programmes on broader institutional and policy changes, considering the ways that Ethiopian authorities, UNHCR offices, and other stakeholders have adapted to better support sustainable livelihoods in remote, less-developed, refugee-hosting regions. Findings inform a broad set of conclusions and recommendations for stakeholders that are undertaking similar development-oriented programming in challenging humanitarian contexts worldwide.
Refugee Economies: Rethinking Popular Assumptions
In the words of UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, we face ‘the most serious refugee crisis for 20 years’. Recent displacement from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, and Somalia has increased the number of refugees in the world to 15.4 million. Significantly, some 10.2 million of these people are in protracted refugee situations. In other words, they have been in limbo for at least 5 years, with an average length of stay in exile of nearly 20 years. Rather than transitioning from emergency relief to long-term reintegration, displaced populations too often get trapped within the system. This report aims to challenge the current model of donor state-led assistance, drawing on ground-breaking new research on the economic life of refugees. By attempting to understand the economic systems of displaced populations, we hope to generate new ideas which can turn humanitarian challenges into sustainable opportunities.
Research in Brief: Refugee Economies
There is a global displacement crisis. Around the world more people are displaced than at any time since the Second World War, and there are around 20 million refugees. Yet alongside this trend of rising numbers, governments’ political willingness to provide access to protection and assistance is in decline. In the face of these challenges, the existing global refugee regime is not fit for purpose. It tends to view refugees and displacement as a uniquely humanitarian issue. When people have to leave their homes or cross borders, the conventional response is to meet their immediate needs in terms of food, shelter, clothing, water, and sanitation. The approach is broadly effective for providing emergency relief, but in the long run, it can lead to dependency. Over half the world’s refugees are in protracted refugee situations, having been in exile for at least 5 years. For these people, the average length in exile is around 17 years. From Kenya to Thailand, many are hosted in refugee camps in which they do not have the right to work or freedom of movement. Effectively, they are ‘warehoused’ pending an opportunity to return home, with significant implications for human rights and international security. This conventional approach is unsustainable. Host countries are closing borders; international donors are less willing to indefinitely support large numbers of refugees within camps; and refugees embark on dangerous journeys in search of protection. In this context, there is a need to rethink refugee assistance. Existing approaches too often ignore the skills, talents, and aspirations of refugees themselves. Yet refugees have capacities. They need not inevitably be a ‘burden’ on host states but have the potential to contribute economically as well as socio-culturally. Around the world, even under the most constrained circumstances, and sometimes under the radar, refugees in camps and urban areas engage in significant economic activity, and in doing so often create opportunities for themselves and others. Development-based solutions have for a long time been recognised as one way to overcome the worst consequences of protracted refugee situations. There has been a longstanding debate on the transition from ‘relief-to-development’ in refugee work. However, such approaches have historically suffered from a range of weaknesses. They have generally been state-centric, relying upon the presumption that donor governments might provide additional development assistance to induce host states to commit to self-reliance or long-term local integration for refugees. What has been lacking is a focus on the market-based activities of refugees themselves.
Refugee Economies: Forced Displacement and Development
Refugees have rarely been studied by economists. Despite some pioneering research on the economic lives of refugees, there remains a lack of theory and empirical data through which to understand, and build upon, refugees' own engagement with markets. Yet, understanding these economic systems may hold the key to rethinking our entire approach to refugee assistance. If we can improve our knowledge of the resource allocation systems that shape refugees' lives and opportunities, then we may be able to understand the mechanisms through which these market-based systems can be made to work better and turn humanitarian challenges into sustainable opportunities. This book adopts an inter-disciplinary approach, based on original qualitative and quantitative data on the economic life of refugees, in order to begin to build theory on the economic lives of refugees. It focuses on the case of Uganda because it represents a relatively positive case. Unlike other governments in the region, it has taken the positive step to allow refugees the right to work and a significant degree of freedom of movement through it so-called 'Self-Reliance Strategy'. This allows a unique opportunity to explore what is possible when refugees have basic economic freedoms. The book shows that refugees have complex and varied economic lives, often being highly entrepreneurial and connected to the global economy. The implications are simple but profound: far from being an inevitable burden, refugees have the capacity to help themselves and contribute to their host societies - if we let them.
Nolosha Dhaqaale ee Qaxootiga ku Nool Dollo Ado [Somali translation of ‘Refugee Economies in Dollo Ado’]
This report, in Somali, examines the economic strategies of Somali refugees in the cross-border economy of Ethiopia’s Somali region. The five Dollo Ado refugee camps were created between 2009 and 2011 in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. According to UNHCR registration data, they host around 220,000 almost exclusively Somali refugees within a semi-arid and isolated border district within which refugees outnumber the host population. The camps and host community have benefited significantly from the IKEA Foundation’s €75m investment in the camps over a seven-year period. This globally unprecedented level of private sector investment has created a range of new opportunities in education, entrepreneurship, energy, agriculture, the environment, and livelihoods. [Report translated into Somali by Maimuna Mohamud.]
Refugee Economies in Uganda: What Difference Does the Self-Reliance Model Make?
Uganda gives refugees the right to work and freedom of movement through its self-reliance model. The model has been widely praised as one of the most progressive refugee policies in the world. New research by Alexander Betts, Imane Chaara, Naohiko Omata, and Olivier Sterck explores what difference the self-reliance model makes in practice. Which aspects work, under what conditions, and for whom? In order to answer these questions, they compare outcomes for refugees and host community members in Uganda and Kenya, neighbouring countries with contrasting refugee policy frameworks. They identify four major advantages to Uganda’s regulatory framework: greater mobility, lower transaction costs for economic activity, higher incomes, and more sustainable sources of employment. Nevertheless, there are some limitations to Uganda’s assistance model, notably in relation to the viability of its land allocation model in rural settlements, the inadequacy of access to education in the settlements, and the ineffectiveness of urban assistance. Overall, the research offers a strong endorsement of the value of allowing refugees the right to work and freedom of movement, but calls for a more nuanced view of the strengths and weaknesses of refugee assistance in Uganda.
Refugee Economies in Addis Ababa: Towards Sustainable Opportunities for Urban Communities
This report examines the precarious economic lives of refugee communities in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, and their interactions with the host community. Addis Ababa has only 22,000 registered refugees, out of a national refugee population of 900,000. They comprise two main groups: 17,000 Eritreans and 5000 Somali refugees. Based on qualitative research and a survey of 2441 refugees and members of the proximate host community, we examine the economic lives of the refugee communities and their interactions with the host community. We draw upon the data to consider the prospects for a sustainable urban response in the context of Ethiopia’s adoption of the new Refugee Proclamation in 2019, which appears to provide refugees with the right to work and freedom of movement.
Refugee Economies in Dollo Ado: Development Opportunities in a Border Region of Ethiopia
This report examines the economic strategies of Somali refugees in the cross-border economy of Ethiopia’s Somali region. The five Dollo Ado refugee camps were created between 2009 and 2011 in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. According to UNHCR registration data, they host around 220,000 almost exclusively Somali refugees within a semi-arid and isolated border district within which refugees outnumber the host population. The camps and host community have benefited significantly from the IKEA Foundation’s €75m investment in the camps over a seven-year period. This globally unprecedented level of private sector investment has created a range of new opportunities in education, entrepreneurship, energy, agriculture, the environment, and livelihoods.
Cash transfer models and debt in the Kalobeyei settlement
This research brief from the Refugee Economies Programme focuses on the use of cash transfers in the Kalobeyei settlement in Kenya. It summarises the findings of a report by the same name published in August 2020. The use of cash transfer programmes in humanitarian contexts is growing. In comparison to in-kind assistance, cash transfers are widely praised for enhancing autonomy, reducing costs, and boosting local markets. There are various kinds of cash transfer, from food vouchers to mobile money, and cash. Yet, evidence on the relative merits of these different models is scarce. Using first-hand data from 896 refugee households in the Kalobeyei settlement, the authors make use of a ‘natural experiment’ to study the relative effects of restricted versus unrestricted cash transfers to refugees.
Refugee livelihoods in Kampala, Nakivale and Kyangwali refugee settlements: patterns of engagement with the private sector
Drawing from preliminary fieldwork undertaken between February and March 2013, this working paper presents provisional findings regarding refugees’ livelihoods and interactions with the private sector and markets in Kampala, Nakivale and Kyangwali refugee settlements in Uganda. The paper sketches out the diversity of livelihoods strategies employed by the refugees, and reveals their different patterns of engagement with local and national markets. In particular, the paper shows that refugees’ economic activities at all three sites are deeply nested in the multiple layers of the host economies. These initial observations, furthermore, illustrate the vital role played by personal and community social networks in linking refugees with private sector actors in Uganda and sub-regions. As a way forward, the paper concludes by identifying several intriguing themes to be investigated in continuing field research.
Refugees’ Right to Work and Access to Labor Markets – An Assessment. Part I: Synthesis
For refugees, the right to work is vital for reducing vulnerability, enhancing resilience, and securing dignity. Harnessing refugees’ skills can also benefit local economic activity and national development. But there are many obstacles. Based on a sample of 20 countries hosting 70 percent of the world’s refugees, this study investigates the role and impact of legal and normative provisions providing and protecting refugees’ right to work within the 1951 Refugee Convention as well as from the perspective of nonsignatory states. Three metrics analyze the principle determinants of the right to work and labor market access: refugee and employment law, policies and practices that facilitate or constrain the right to work, and mediating socioeconomic conditions. Overall the study finds remarkable diversity in legal provisions and constraints on refugees’ right to work. A restrictive approach to the right to work prevails, and most states are reluctant to ease these restrictions. The majority of refugees work in the informal sector, but under much less satisfactory and more exploitative conditions compared with nationals. Informal labor markets are also constrained in countries with fragile economies which often host large numbers of refugees. Based on its findings, the study concludes that more national and international coordination is required, multiple actors should share in the responsibility to deliver decent work, labor market policies as well as training and education should be harnessed to support sustainable livelihoods, and refugee social capital should be more effectively engaged.
Refugees’ Right to Work and Access to Labor Markets – An Assessment. Part II: Country Cases
For refugees, the right to work is vital for reducing vulnerability, enhancing resilience, and securing dignity. Harnessing refugees’ skills can also benefit local economic activity and national development. But there are many obstacles. Based on a sample of 20 countries hosting 70 percent of the world’s refugees, this study investigates the role and impact of legal and normative provisions providing and protecting refugees’ right to work within the 1951 Refugee Convention as well as from the perspective of nonsignatory states. Three metrics analyze the principle determinants of the right to work and labor market access: refugee and employment law, policies and practices that facilitate or constrain the right to work, and mediating socioeconomic conditions. Overall the study finds remarkable diversity in legal provisions and constraints on refugees’ right to work. A restrictive approach to the right to work prevails, and most states are reluctant to ease these restrictions. The majority of refugees work in the informal sector, but under much less satisfactory and more exploitative conditions compared with nationals. Informal labor markets are also constrained in countries with fragile economies which often host large numbers of refugees. Based on its findings, the study concludes that more national and international coordination is required, multiple actors should share in the responsibility to deliver decent work, labor market policies as well as training and education should be harnessed to support sustainable livelihoods, and refugee social capital should be more effectively engaged.
Impacts and Costs of Forced Displacement: Phase II. A Critical Evaluation of Methodological and Analytical Progress on Designing Development-led Strategies and Interventions in Forced Displacement
Significant progress has been made by intergovernmental organisations and donors in designing and implementing macro- and micro- economic policies, strategies, programmes and tools to mitigate the socio-economic impacts of forced displacement and to promote longer term sustainable development and resilience strategies for refugees, IDPs and host populations. However there has been little evaluation of the tools and methodologies to support these initiatives. The study addresses this gap. Commissioned by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, researched by the Refugee Studies Centre University of Oxford and facilitated by the Fragility, Conflict and Violence Group of the World Bank, this study investigates and assesses the strengths and limitations of the methodological and analytical apparatus that supports current World Bank development-led strategies and interventions in humanitarian crises. The study briefly assesses trends in addressing the development challenges of forced displacement crises and extant econometric research on the cost and impacts of forced displacement. Following discussion of the purpose and scope of the extant evaluations, and using a desk study method, the core of the paper provides a critical assessment of World Bank methodologies and analytical and diagnostic tools deployed to measure the socio-economic impacts and costs of forced displacement on: a) national economies; and b) affected populations – refugees, IDPs and local communities. The study examines the methodologies used for quantifying and modelling economic impacts focusing on the partial equilibrium modelling (PEM) methodology which has been used. The study then explores then explores the challenges in quantifying and modelling the impacts on affected populations. Here the focus of the study is on tools for poverty, vulnerability and welfare (PVW) measurement. Next the study examines some of the cross cutting methodological challenges: these include dealing with counter factuals and exogeneity and the quality and scope of data that is available to undertake impact measurement. The study concludes by reviewing the key findings, the main lessons learned and highlighting the remaining methodological and analytical gaps in current praxis.
Thrive or survive? Explaining variation in economic outcomes for refugees
In the context of protracted refugee situations, there has been a revival in concern among policymakers to transcend the so-called humanitarian-development divide and create greater opportunities for self-reliance. Yet, these discussions too often neglect an analytical focus on refugees’ own economic lives, and their own interactions with markets.Despite a growing literature on the economic lives of refugees, much of that work has lacked theory or data. The work that has been quantitative has generally focused on the economic impact of refugees on host countries rather than explaining variation in economic outcomes for refugees. In order to explain variation in economic outcomes for refugees, this paper asks three questions about the economic lives of refugees: 1) what makes the economic lives of refugees distinctive from other populations; 2) what explains variation in refugees’ income levels; and 3) what role does entrepreneurship play in shaping refugees’ economic outcomes?In order to answer these questions, the paper draws upon extensive qualitative and quantitative research conducted in Uganda by the Humanitarian Innovation Project at Oxford University. The quantitative data set is based on a survey of 2,213 refugees in three types of contexts: urban (Kampala), protracted camps (Nakivale and Kyangwali settlements), and emergency camps (Rwamwanja). It supplements this with qualitative research from other parts of Africa and the Middle East. The economic lives of refugees are argued to be distinctive not because refugees are any different qua human beings but because they often occupy a distinctive institutional space. Following new institutional economics, the paper argues that “refugee economies” represent a distinctive analytical space insofar as refugees face different formal and informal institutional barriers and distortions in their economic lives compared to nationals or other migrants.
Self-Reliance in Kalobeyei? Socio-Economic Outcomes for Refugees in North-West Kenya
This report from the Refugee Economies Programme compares the socio-economic situation of South Sudanese recent arrivals (post-2015) living in the new Kalobeyei settlement (set up under a ‘self-reliance model’) to the situation of recent arrivals living in the old Kakuma camp (under an ‘aid model’). It examines three central questions: How can we measure self-reliance for new arrivals in both contexts? To what extent is self-reliance greater in the new Kalobeyei settlement compared with Kakuma camp? And how can self-reliance be enhanced in such a difficult environment? In addition to outlining a methodologically innovative study, the report also proposes policy recommendations.
Economies: rights and access to work
When people are forced to leave their homes, they usually also leave behind their means of economic activity and subsistence. In their new location, they may not be able, or permitted, to work to support themselves. This has wide-ranging implications for their earning capacity and well-being and also for community relations, economic development and the capacity of future generations to lead fulfilling lives. This issue of FMR explores the complex interactions of the constraints and opportunities involved, highlighting the roles of new actors, new technologies and new – or renewed – approaches. This issue includes 22 articles on the main feature theme of Economies: rights and access to work. It also includes two ‘mini-features’, one on Refugee-led social protection and one on Humans and animals in refugee camps.