June 12, 2024 — Today, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is pleased to announce a new report “Resilient Futures: Building Towards Economic Resilience for Conflict-Affected Populations.” This report, which was made possible with support from the Citi Foundation, reflects on seven years of progress to date and outlines key recommendations for practitioners and policymakers on how to support conflict-affected youth to rebuild their livelihoods. The report draws on learnings from Resilient Futures – IRC’s initiative focused on supporting people affected by conflict and crisis to get back on their feet with business training and start-up grants.
Launched in 2017, with funding from the Citi Foundation and expertise from the IRC, Resilient Futures was designed to focus on supporting conflict-affected urban youth to enter their local labour markets, pursue self-employment and entrepreneurship and positively contribute to local economies. Resilient Futures began in 2017 in Greece, Nigeria and Jordan and in 2019, it expanded to include Germany, Cameroon and Lebanon.
As of April 2024, seven years on, the program has trained almost 3,000 individuals through the IRC’s Learn to Earn curriculum, provided nearly 1,500 young people with business mentorship or grants to expand their businesses, supported more than 1,400 individuals to enter the job market and reached almost 2,500 people through community engagement events.
Today, as we approach World Refugee Day, there are more than 100 million people forcibly displaced across the globe, including more than 34 million refugees and over 62 million internally displaced persons (IDPs). With the majority of displaced people living in urban settings, people affected by humanitarian crises continue to struggle with high rates of unemployment, social stigmatisation and difficulties integrating into their new communities.
“We need smart, long-term initiatives like Resilient Futures to stop crisis and conflict preventing people around the world from reaching their full potential. By combining the IRC’s technical expertise with resources in Citi and the Citi Foundation’s global network, we’re supporting tomorrow’s business owners and employees to kick-start their futures.”
After seven years of Resilient Futures, we have not only pioneered new approaches to supporting conflict-affected people in urban settings, we have also provided a roadmap for our peers on how to create impact at scale for displaced people across the globe,” said David Miliband, President & CEO of the IRC
“Citi and the Citi Foundation have been long-time supporters of the IRC’s emergency relief efforts around the world,” said Brandee McHale, Head of Community Investing and Development at Citi and President of the Citi Foundation. “Resilient Futures, supported through the Citi Foundation’s Pathways to Progress job skills-building initiative, has demonstrated the importance of additional long-term, flexible economic recovery solutions that help individuals and families impacted by conflict rebuild for a brighter future.”
In “Resilient Futures: Building Towards Economic Resilience for Conflict-Affected Populations,” experts involved with Resilient Futures have outlined crucial learnings and key recommendations that have timely relevance for donors, implementers and policymakers in the sector and beyond.
Key recommendations from the new report include:
- Assess the local context: Through establishing an ongoing practice of assessing the local economic environment, practitioners can understand the relative opportunities associated with employment versus entrepreneurship and self-employment in the local context. By understanding the holistic needs of local populations, implementers can ensure adjacent needs such as access to social capital and networking, mentorship and mental health support are used to support economic empowerment initiatives.
- Invest in research: Research and evidence generation enables stakeholders to understand the costs and impacts of specific economic opportunity interventions over the short and long-term. As our world becomes increasingly reliant on technology, investing in research that explores access and usage patterns of technology-enabled programming and services is key.
- Fund multi-location, multi-year solutions: Funding investments focused on multi-location, multi-year projects allow implementing teams the space to respond to changing contexts and create impact at scale. Multi-location, multi-year commitments also enable the creation of evidence-based approaches that can deliver sustainable impacts.
- Engage with diverse stakeholders: For policymakers, engaging with diverse stakeholders can highlight whether there are specific aspects of the labour market or small business regulation policies that create inequitable access for vulnerable populations. In regional contexts where local governments are providing services to conflict-affected populations, engaging at the local level can provide an understanding of regulations that program participants may need to be aware of before starting a business or registering for employment permits.