Session 1: Sustainable economic inclusion for forcibly displaced people: Lessons from recent experience

Over the past decade, the number of forcibly displaced people (FDPs) has continued to rise year on year, to about 122 million by mid 2024. Other forms of displacement, linked to climate change and natural disasters, are also on the rise. In both cases, people increasingly live in protracted, long-term displacement situations (including an estimated 75% of FDPs. It is therefore critical to provide them with sustainable livelihoods where they stay to avert long-term dependence on humanitarian aid and reduce pressures to move on to third countries.

This session will explore the lessons from a growing body of experience that systemic approaches are effective to empower and include forcibly displaced people in local economies

➔ Kahin Ismail, UNHCR: Catalysing Private Sector Development in Displacement and Return Contexts

➔ Luana Ayala ILO: Building Inclusive Markets and Decent Work for Syrian Refugees and Lebanese Host Communities with the BOUZOUR Project

➔ Ben Beuchel, ITC: Digital Freelancing as a Solution to Protracted Displacement? Insights from ITC’s work in Kenya

➔ Ferhan Abdulkadir Yassin: How Horn Afrique Enables Somali Refugees to Become Commercial Poultry Farmers (company supported by the SHARPE programme)

➔ Moderator: Harald Bekkers, DCED Secretariat