Responding to the Global Refugee Crisis: How market assessments can enhance the impact of livelihood interventions for refugees

An intervention model for joint efforts of UNHCR and ILO to integrate refugees into the labour market of host countries

Briefing note | 14 December 2015
Contact(s): Merten Sievers, sievers@ilo.org; Nadja Nutz, nutz@ilo.org
This 2-pager outlines a new approach to livelihood interventions for refugees, which has been tested in cooperation with UNHCR in Costa Rica, Egypt, Zambia and South Africa. The document argues that traditional approaches to improve refugees’ livelihoods through supply-side interventions focused on skills development can be enhanced through market assessments and analyses in specific sub-sectors or value chains with potential. These analyses help to better match skills development interventions with labour market needs and propose complementary demand-side interventions to remove obstacles for refugees in promising sub-sectors or value chains.