Updated October 2026: this post was first published in November 2017 to share the event report. We have expanded it with a summary drawn from the report, which is now hosted on our website with the event materials.
Self-reliance has become a central aim of refugee responses in East Africa, but it only works if humanitarian and development actors, governments, the private sector and refugees themselves pull in the same direction. On 5 October 2017, ReDSS, the Rift Valley Institute (RVI) and IGAD, with support from Danida, convened a half-day learning event on self-reliance and resilience for displacement-affected communities. It brought together 63 participants from government, development and humanitarian agencies, refugee communities, academia and the private sector to discuss how these approaches can best be applied in displacement contexts, and how to avoid parallel systems. Wherever refugees are expected to support themselves, access to finance, documentation and markets decides whether they can, which makes these lessons relevant well beyond the three countries discussed.
Refugees’ own experience
In line with our commitment to putting displacement-affected communities at the centre, the event opened through the eyes of refugees. A documentary by the SPARK livelihoods programme in Kakuma, Kenya, showed refugees’ skills and aspirations and the importance of social cohesion with Turkana host communities. Two refugee entrepreneurs then described arriving with little and starting small with borrowed money, grants or donated goods; growing through training, markets and support from agencies; struggling to get bank loans; and relying on legal documentation, the right to work and community savings groups.
What the panel discussed
A panel chaired by the BRCiS consortium in Somalia brought together Uganda’s Office of the Prime Minister, BRAC Uganda, Equity Bank and Concern Worldwide. Uganda’s progressive refugee policy, backed by political goodwill and the generosity of host communities, includes refugees in its second National Development Plan. BRAC’s graduation approach had a 2016 baseline of 1,650 households in Kiryandongo, with costs of USD 300 per beneficiary in Bangladesh against USD 1,400 in Uganda, and a monthly stipend of around USD 30 for 18 months. Equity Bank offered services in Kakuma, Dadaab and urban areas of Kenya, and in Kakuma five NGOs had formed a collaboration in 2016. Concern’s self-help group model in Somalia runs for up to four years and has led to community-led literacy training and emergency distributions. Participants then split into five discussion groups to explore how to apply these lessons.
Key findings
Participants agreed that refugees have capacities as well as vulnerabilities, and that programmes should build on them. Because refugees often lack assets, lenders treat them as high-risk borrowers, and partners could share that risk through guarantees. An enabling legal environment, including documentation, freedom of movement and access to microcredit, is critical, and competition between NGOs leads to disjointed efforts. Market assessments and analysis of local impact should inform programme design.
Recommendations
The report recommends strengthening government leadership and national systems, involving line ministries and district governments from the start within a whole-of-government approach; risk-sharing guarantees to improve refugees’ access to credit; using CRRF secretariats as starting points for coordination, backed by multi-year funding; documenting and sharing local good practice and strengthening the collection of evidence; reducing barriers to business registration, drawing on Kenya’s Huduma Centre model; letting communities co-design and co-manage projects, including through community-led contracting; and recognising civil society as more than a service delivery partner.
Read the full event report and the agenda. Related resources shared at the event: self-reliance and resilience in Somalia and our brief and talking points on Uganda.
References
Rift Valley Institute, ReDSS and IGAD (2017). Self-reliance and resilience for displacement-affected communities: learning event report. October 2017. https://www.regionaldss.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ReDSS-RVI-IGAD-self-reliance-resilience-learning-event-report-2017.pdf
