Kenya - Achieving global reach for refugee entrepreneurs: A Dadaab story

Zawya

29-01-2025

In Kenya's Garissa County, the Dadaab refugee complex has long hosted refugees from other countries in the region, particularly from Somalia but also from Ethiopia, South Sudan, and several others.
In place for over three decades, the complex now has three main camps in operation. Some people have spent their entire lives in the Dadaab complex.
For the people living in Dadaab, finding sources of income can be particularly challenging. Refugees, for instance, may run into difficulties accessing consistent electricity or internet sources in their camps, or may lack identification cards that employers, including freelancer websites, may require.
That is why the International Trade Centre (ITC) has had an active presence in the area for several years, including under its Refugees Empowerment Through Markets Initiative (REMI). This project involves refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), returning migrants, local communities, and their businesses. It is also informed by ITC's extensive research on what it means to support small businesses in fragile and conflict-affected settings.
One of the organizations that ITC works with in Dadaab is Nyota Farsamo Artisanal Collective, a Somali-Kenyan artisan collective which helps women refugees to start and build their businesses. They focus on handicrafts and provide women with support to strengthen their entrepreneurship skills. They are also responsible for creating a network among these women-led businesses.
ITC has worked with Nyota Farsamo over several years, even before the launch of REMI, thanks to the support of the European Union under projects such as the Area Based Livelihoods Initiative–Garissa (ABLI-G), and also via other multi-funder projects such as the Refugee Employment and Skills Initiative (RESI), supported by Japan, the EU, the Norwegian Refugee Council and the Danish Refugee Council. One of the recent milestones for Nyota Farsamo came in 2023, when they began a collaboration that will allow them to join the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) MADE51 initiative in 2024. That initiative now spans 23 countries and counting.
'By now Dadaab has second, even third generations of displaced persons, and it is not clear for them if there is a chance to go back,' Athir Hajir Adbi, Nyota Farsamo's chair, told ITC's Trade Forum magazine. 'Our collective also stands for support and belonging in a home away from home. With a little money in their pockets, women are empowered to leave abusive relationships, or buy basic needs such as water, food, and clothes—so the economic effect trickles down to leading a dignified life as a human being.'
Being part of MADE51 means accessing social enterprise partners from across world regions, along with opportunities for seed funding and other resources. It also means that artisans can access new buyers for their products, drawing on the strong reputation that the initiative has built since its inception. The Nyota Farsamo collective is now looking to build on this success to set up market outlets in Dadaab, Garissa, and Nairobi.
Nyota Farsamo is one of many such stories of collectives that ITC and its partners are working with, and as ITC works in more fragile and conflict-affected settings, it is engaging closely with partners in the humanitarian and development space to ensure that every intervention is tailored to a given situation's nuances. That includes, as the situation requires, undertaking conflict-sensitivity assessments and other analyses. ITC is currently developing guidelines for these assessments.
ITC has also made pledges under the Global Refugee Compact in both 2019 and 2023, outlining its plans for scaling up its work, and co-hosted a Global Refugee Forum-linked event in December 2023.
The most recent pledges feature a commitment to continue taking a partnership-driven approach, connecting the private sector and humanitarian initiatives, to tackle challenges refugees face when participating in the local and global economy. Over time, these efforts will not just change the economic possibilities for refugees themselves, but also change the wider business and policy ecosystem accordingly.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of International Trade Centre.