Refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) often struggle to integrate the labor market. Even where they have the unrestricted right… Read more to work their labor market outcomes lack behind those of other groups, at least in the short- to medium-term. This literature review brings together two strands of research to inform the design of successful job interventions in this context: the evidence on how forced displacement impacts those forcibly displaced in their economic lives and the existing knowledge on jobs interventions for refugees and IDPs. The specific challenges that those forcibly displaced face on the labor market are linked to the loss of assets and separation from family members; the lack of skills required on the host labor market; the impacts of forced displacement on their physical and mental health and their economic behavior (in terms of prospects and aspirations, risk-aversion and time horizon); their legal situation; a lack of social networks and discrimination as well as a high likelihood of excess supply on the labor market at destination. Rigorous quasi-experimental or experimental evidence on jobs interventions for this target group is scarce and mainly focused on high-income countries. A review of the existing literature points to the importance of conducting thorough assessments of the demand and supply side of the labor market, including the legal situation of those forcibly displaced and their perceptions and aspirations, before designing intervention. Read less ...

In 2016, the Kalobeyei refugee settlement was created, just 3.5 kilometres from the Kakuma camps in Kenya. In a departure from… Read more Kenya’s policy of not allowing refugees to work, its aim was to provide self-reliance to refugees and greater refugee–host interaction. But are refugee policies and programmes in Kalobeyei really different from those in Kakuma? If so, what are the differences? And do these differences actually translate into different self-reliance outcomes for refugees? Drawing upon a mixed-methods approach, we compare aid models, self-reliance enabling factors and self-reliance outcomes between Kalobeyei and Kakuma. After just 15 months, we find that self-relianceenabling factors—such the environment, assets, networks, markets and public goods—remain similar across both sites and, in some cases, are better in Kakuma. The major differences between the sites are in the aid model: Kalobeyei’s cash-assistance and agricultural programmes. We find improved nutritional outcomes and a greater perception of autonomy in Kalobeyei, both of which may be attributable to differences in the aid models. These findings have implications for how we conceptualize the institutional design of self-reliance in Kalobeyei and elsewhere. Read less ...

The quantity of literature on the livelihoods of refugees is increasing, yet there is a lack of com-parative analysis of… Read more their strategies in this regard vis-à-vis their host communities and living locations. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in the city of Nairobi and Kakuma Camp in Kenya in 2016–17, this paper narrows the gap by presenting an examination of the economic activities in which refugees in different contexts engage, and highlighting some of the institutional factors that distinguish refugees’ economic lives from those of members of the host community. The find-ings suggest that while some Kenyans are encumbered by challenges comparable to those faced by refugees, the myriad political, legal, and policy factors that characterise refugeehood are none-theless particular in the ways that they influence livelihoods. By emphasising the multiple actors and aspects that shape refugees’ economic strategies, this paper also reveals the political economy within which refugee livelihoods are embedded. Read less ...

We use a randomized experiment to compare a workforce training program to cash transfers in Rwanda. Conducted in a sample… Read more of poor and underemployed youth, this study measures the impact of the training program not only relative to a control group but relative to the counterfactual of simply disbursing the cost of the program directly to beneficiaries. While the training program was successful in improving a number of core outcomes (productive hours, assets, savings, and subjective well-being), cost-equivalent cash transfers move all these outcomes as well as consumption, income, and wealth. In the head-to-head costing comparison cash proves superior across a number of economic outcomes, while training outperforms cash only in the production of business knowledge. We find little evidence of complementarity between human and physical capital interventions, and no signs of heterogeneity or spillover effects. Read less ...

In the Sahel subregion, which extends over Central and Western Africa, low labor productivity poses a challenge to poverty reduction,… Read more economic growth, and social stability. Social Safety Net Projects target the poorest households who derive their livelihoods from low-productivity activities. As such, they have the potential to improve labor productivity. As part of the Sahel adaptive social protection program (ASPP), the World Bank supports the design and implementation of productive accompanying measures for safety nets beneficiaries. This report sets out the results of a qualitative assessment of the constraints to productive employment that was conducted in the Social Safety Net Project areas, across five of the six countries covered by the ASPP: Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Chad. This assessment identified the main challenges to productivity growth in farm and nonfarm sectors and, jointly with other surveys and local and regional consultations, helped define accompanying measures to safety nets programs aimed at increasing current employment productivity and generating more productive jobs. Read less ...

This scoping paper documents current practices used by Graduation Program practitioners to produce meaningful and sustainable improvements in women’s wellbeing.… Read more To do so, it builds on the theory of change in Rao and Kelleher (2005) and adapted by Hillenbrand (2015) and identify practices that affect change along two dimensions: from individual to community levels and from the formal to the informal. We document a number of ways in which such programs attempt to affect change beyond the more traditional aims of alleviating resource and liquidity constraints. Indeed, organizations are increasingly concerned with improving women non- economic outcomes by incorporating empowerment components in their programming and by engaging men and boys in the household and the community. These efforts are in recognition of the need to challenge traditional gender norms to maximize the potential and sustainability of anti-poverty initiatives. Read less ...

This report is the main output from the second round of a three-year research project, commissioned by Concern Worldwide Bangladesh, which… Read more monitors the livelihoods of selected participants of the Irish Aid-funded programme ‘Improving the Lives of the Urban Extreme Poor’ (ILUEP) in Chattogram and Dhaka. By delivering a comprehensive package of livelihood support, training in business management and coaching in a range of life skills, the ILUEP aims to move 9,000 pavement dweller, slum dweller and squatter households out of extreme poverty and improve their overall wellbeing. Read less ...

Given the millions of lives at stake, we must pinpoint where social services are most needed and ensure that the… Read more social protection programs are evidence-based and inclusive. Research from the International Growth Centre, directed by the London School of Economics and University of Oxford, shows that while social assistance is the main tool to lift people out of poverty, most of the lowest-income people are left behind due to mistargeting and low data quality. Furthermore, social protection systems must be multifaceted, moving beyond short-term help and instead support people to lift themselves from poverty for the long run. “What idea is bigger than the idea that the poorest of the poor have enough talent to be self-sufficient, that if you give them a push, they’ll stay up?” Abhijit Banerjee said in his Nobel Prize lecture in 2019. Solutions like holistic anti-poverty interventions and rapid assessments are most likely to be effective when local governments are involved in both consultation and implementation. Read less ...

COVID-19 is accentuating the risks facing an increasing number of poor and vulnerable individuals and households in a myriad of… Read more ways. In many countries, the pandemic and associated lockdowns have had devastating impacts across several dimensions, including health (e.g. increased mortality and morbidity), economic (e.g. job/livelihood loss or reduced earnings, and some supply shortages), and social (e.g. negative coping mechanisms, disruptions to services such as education, immunisation and other healthcare). These impacts have motivated many governments across the world to use social protection, including social assistance, as a short-term measure to help poor and vulnerable households meet basic needs. As the effects of the crisis evolve, many actors are considering whether and how to complement social assistance measures with additional inputs, components and linkages – including economic inclusion approaches – to help mitigate the impacts of the pandemic and move towards early economic recovery. This paper therefore explores the opportunities and challenges of economic inclusion approaches alongside social assistance responses in the COVID-19 context. It shows how evidence can inform the design of measures to help people recover from the impacts of the pandemic over the medium- and longer-term through the lens of government-led economic inclusion programmes which leverage national social protection systems. Read less ...

This paper studies the long-run effects of a "big-push" program providing a large asset transfer to the poorest Indian households. In… Read more a randomized controlled trial that follows these households over 10 years, we find positive effects on consumption (0.6 SD), food security (0.1 SD), income (0.3 SD), and health (0.2 SD). These effects grow for the first seven years following the transfer and persist until year 10. One main channel for persistence is that treated households take better advantage of opportunities to diversify into more lucrative wage employment, especially through migration. Read less ...