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The Economic Recovery and Development (ERD) unit at the ̽����ѡ works to ensure that those we serve have their most basic survival needs met and have the combination of assets and income to prosper.

The ̽����ѡ's women's economic empowerment programs improve women’s financial wellbeing, so they can support themselves and their families.

The ̽����ѡ’s enterprise development and employment (EDE) programs prepare crisis-affected populations for employment and self-employment opportunities, support the growth and creation of businesses, improve people’s skills, and increase people’s access to financial services.

Evidence shows that in many contexts, cash relief is a more efficient and cost-effective solution in crisis settings than food, clothing and in-kind donations.

To support agricultural recovery in long-term or post-crisis locations, the ̽����ѡ works with communities to restore agricultural assets, upgrade skills and practices, and build disaster preparedness to better protect and improve their livelihoods.

This paper aims to articulate why markets are at the core of the ̽����ѡ’s programming in economic recovery and development and beyond and how the ̽����ѡ does and should engage with markets across sectors.

While the global economy is predicted to have a “soft landing”, countries like Sudan are facing a cost-of-living catastrophe.

In partnership with the IKEA Foundation, the ̽����ѡ (̽����ѡ) launched Refugees in East Africa: Boosting Urban Innovations for Livelihoods Development (Re:Build) in 2021. The initiative targets 20,000 refugees and host community members to help them sustainably reach economic self-reliance and social cohesion. From 2022-2023, a three-armed randomized controlled trial (RCT) tested the effectiveness of mentorship on economic well-being and social cohesion on 1,570 of the Re:Build clients. All clients received a cash grant to start or improve a small business, i.e., a micro-enterprise. The program paired one-third of the youth with experienced entrepreneurs who served as business mentors. Another third received business mentorship and engaged in perspective-sharing exercises to build trust and social cohesion. The Best Use of Resources (BUR) team measured the cost-effectiveness of improved economic outcomes among the treatment arms evaluated through the RCT. The cash-only treatment costs €731 per client, while mentorship treatment arms cost €1,133. Most expenses went to program supplies and activities for all treatment arms. In contrast, mentee support costs drove additional costs required for the mentorship treatment arms, which covered transport and mentor stipends. Of the total €1,623,629 spent on the project, 10% of the project costs went to HQ and internal cost recovery. Impact evaluation results for the randomized controlled trial will be available in May of 2024, at which time we will update this brief to complete the cost-effectiveness analysis results.

This report explores how refugees navigate financial and livelihoods obstacles, and the strategies that enable them to manage their finances, access financial services, and attain some measure of financial health and sustainable livelihoods.

The ̽����ѡ produced this labor market assessment in East Mosul, Iraq, to provide insights into the market context for the purposes of humanitarian and early recovery response.