Business Models for Building Refugee Resilience
Kakuma refugee camp in Northern Kenya is one of the largest and longest-standing refugee settlements in the world, and to many, it is the epitome of an intractable displacement crisis and an endless drain on the world’s aid budgets.
Yet this past summer, the International Finance Corporation published a landmark study revealing that the Kakuma camp and surrounding neighborhoods represent a $56 million market opportunity. It found what refugees and those who work with them have always known: that entrepreneurship and markets for consumer goods, real estate, education, telecommunications, and many other goods and services are flourishing in the area, despite significant practical and legal constraints.