Encourages social cohesion

Most refugees and forcibly displaced people come from fragile and conflict-affected states, where social contracts have been undermined. Establishing structures that the local community trusts, as well as strengthening local governance, are both key to peace-building. Cooperatives and other SSE entities are well positioned to address the needs of both refugees/displaced people and host populations, because of their ability to combine practical assistance and support through collective action.

Economic empowerment

The SSE and cooperatives provide a platform for refugees and host communities to engage in income-generating activities. By forming cooperatives or associations, small-scale farmers and agricultural producers can pool resources, increase market access and facilitate sales for members. This collective action allows them to use their combined power to tackle issues such as access to land, negotiating prices with buyers and improved access to infrastructure.

Strengthens local governance

Cooperative structures strengthen local governance by promoting participatory decision-making and community ownership of development initiatives. The SSE and cooperatives establish trusted structures to localize service delivery. Cooperatives add value by localizing these services and adapting them to be relevant for the community they serve.

Improves access to wider services

Cooperatives act as entry points for delivering essential services like financial education, healthcare, and training in labour rights and child protection. They also facilitate access to finance. Forming a cooperative can serve as a guarantee mechanism for accessing financial services, such as opening commercial bank accounts for refugees who lack individual collateral or documentation.

Enhances resilience

Cooperatives enhance the resilience of communities by providing safety nets during crises and promoting sustainable development. Linking cooperatives to finance, such as through VSLAs providing revolving loans (Uganda) or facilitating access to commercial bank accounts (Ethiopia), helps pool and sustain financial resources, contributing to long-term resilience, independent of external support.

Agile and responsive in economic downturns

BDS can be agile, quickly responding in periods of crisis and economic downturn by adopting more short-term approaches, such as business grants and shifting programming towards business continuity. For example, in Lebanon and Uganda, during the currency crisis and pandemic lockdowns, the BDS approach pivoted from supporting business start-ups to focusing on business continuity and resilience. During these unforeseen crises, direct financial assistance in the form of grants and vouchers became necessary.

Builds on existing economic entities

The majority of businesses in PROSPECTS countries are MSMEs. These are characterized by low productivity and vulnerability to shocks. Support to strengthen BDS has a direct benefit by addressing such challenges and, given the size of the MSME sector in PROSPECTS countries, it can also translate into local economic development.

Supports refugees as employees and customers

While business registration procedures, documentation and capital requirements introduce challenges for refugee entrepreneurs in starting businesses in host countries, refugees are also customers and employees of MSMEs. In contexts where refugees were not able to register their businesses, PROSPECTS worked with MSMEs to generate employment and deliver services in refugee-hosting areas – as was done, for example, with the Jordan Chamber of Industry and agri-food MSMEs. 

Tangible outputs in the short term

While a development-led approach may take time to show results, Employment-Intensive Investment Programmes (EIIP) delivers improved infrastructure, employment opportunities and income in the short term. This can be useful to demonstrate value addition to national stakeholders and members of the local community.

Locally based and community owned

Consultations with local stakeholders promote buy-in and ownership as well as providing  guidance on relevant, in-demand occupations. Local communities taking ownership and learning to manage the site/system helps build community resilience.

Scalable through public works and national employment programmes

EIIP provides a tool to enhance employment outcomes of public investments. In Kenya, Ethiopia and Iraq, the PROSPECTS teams endeavoured to have EIIP included in public procurement processes and linked to public employment programmes or development plans. Unlike training for technical staff and contractors, this training focused on employment priorities set out in national and local development plans.

Social cohesion

EIIP brings members of communities together to work on shared infrastructure. Because the work is physical and requires collective effort to perform, the level of interaction between workers of different backgrounds working on the same project site is higher.
 

Tailored service for refugee areas 

PROSPECTS helped expand the reach of employment services downstream into remote, rural, and refugee-hosting areas where PES capacity was weak or absent, as shown in Uganda. This was done by supporting the construction of new centres or upgrading existing infrastructure (via EIIP). It builds the capacity of service providers to effectively support both refugees and host community members, ensuring they understand complex labour laws, use tools for skills profiling, and actively engage with local employers to identify genuine labour market demand.  

Strengthens worker-employer reach and trust

Employment service pilots can serve as proof of concept to introduce sector-specific approaches in strengthening reach to refugee and host communities. Accessible services bring job-seekers and employers together to build trust and buy-in on both sides.

Sector-specific approaches

PROSPECTS engages employers to identify needs and labour market vacancies in their areas of work. The example of focusing on the agriculture sector in Jordan shows the level of adaptation needed to serve certain groups of workers and sectors of work.  

Flexible programme that works in many scenarios

WBL programmes can offer different entry points based on the history and culture of apprenticeships in the country. It is flexible in its format, able to include formal and informal work and different learning durations to bridge education and employment.

Strengthens national systems and recognition

When WBL is linked to national policies, qualifications frameworks, and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems, it helps translate national ambitions into practice, increases government ownership, and facilitates national recognition or certification of the training, thus contributing to sustainability.

Collaboration with workers and employers

WBL takes account of the interests of both workers and employers; instead of seeing apprentices as a source of unpaid labour, it supports apprentices’ learning outcomes and supplies in-demand skills for businesses.

Capacity building for government counterparts and partners

It offers the opportunity to build the capacities of government counterparts, training providers, employers, instructors and workplace supervisors to co-create a WBL process that integrates well with national priorities, such as those expressed in  employment and education policies. 

Versatile application for various contexts

RPL enhances the quality and credibility of national skills recognition frameworks by developing standardized assessment processes and certification standards with inputs from employer and sector experts. Anchoring the RPL process in national policy and implementation plans ensures coherence across policies, allocation of national resources, and implementation at both local and national levels.  

Accessible assessment and certification processes

The way and place in which assessments are administered can have implications for participation by refugee and host communities. For example, PROSPECTS facilitated an agreement to allow a TVET centre in Kenya to serve as an RPL examination venue, so as to save candidates’ travel costs. Furthermore, in Kenya, Jordan and Uganda, PROSPECTS helped digitalize part of the RPL process, reducing the need for applicants to travel to centres to submit their applications or sit full courses.

Promotes inclusion and access to the labour market

By providing standards that apply to all RPL applicants, regardless of refugee status, gender, age or disability, RPL can support a more level playing field. It allows individuals to gain recognition of skills, regardless of whether they were acquired formally, non-formally or informally. This is especially important for refugees who may not have formal qualifications or whose credentials are not recognized in their host country.