Understanding refugee resilience and the inclusion of refugees in markets

The Strengthening Host and Refugee Population, Ethiopia (SHARPE) programme commissioned a study in 2024 to better understand whether its market systems development approach had contributed to building economic resilience amongst refugees.

The research was conducted in two regions to cover the two culturally and economically different refugee groups that SHARPE worked with. Respondents were selected to compare findings across diverse businesses and to contrast between those who received SHARPE support and those who did not.

The research used the country-wide suspension of food aid that occurred between June – October 2023 as a shock to measure the response against, and understand individual resilience.

The evidence is presented using detailed refugee profiles to showcase the key attributes and conditions that lead to building an individual refugee’s overall economic resilience.

The report draws conclusions from the analysis to identify the forms of capital refugees bring with them - such as skills, knowledge and networks- and the types of support systems must provide to strengthen their resilience.

This is presented through a practical framework that categorises individual refugees based on their cultural, social, and financial capital into four resilience tiers, ranging from highest to lowest. The categorisation helps to identify the distinguishing elements of each tier and, in turn, the type of support needed from the system to increase their resilience.