Agriculture and Food security

South Sudanese farmers who are part of a cooperative of refugees and hosts get ready to head home after a morning of harvesting at Biringi settlement. As humanitarian assistance to South Sudanese refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) does not always meet basic needs, UNHCR supports refugees to earn their own income.

Many refugees originate from rural areas and hold valuable agricultural skills as crop producers, livestock keepers or fishermen. Given the right support and assets, they have the potential to not only feed themselves and their families but enter lucrative markets and prosper. They could contribute to local economic development, benefiting refugees and host communities alike.

UNHCR helps refugee farmers to be economically empowered and food secure through sustainable, climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive agricultural livelihoods.

Our work is focused on supporting refugee farmers to improve their production efficiency and access viable markets, as well as to become more resilient against risks such as extreme weather conditions and market shocks. Our goal is to see farmers and host communities become economically empowered and food secure through sustainable, climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive agricultural livelihoods.

To achieve this, we collaborate with development actors and specialized agencies in agriculture:

Our joint strategy with the World Food Programme sets the framework for collaborative initiatives to enhance food security and self-reliance by synchronizing livelihoods interventions and food assistance in a sequenced and protection-sensitive strategy.
We are strengthening our cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN through joint agriculture development programmes for refugees, including value chain development for livestock, forage, crops and vegetables.
We partnered up with the World Bank to conduct a study on new agricultural approaches that can be adopted in refugee contexts.
We are working to mainstream climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive agriculture in new funding opportunities including with private sector donors such as the IKEA Foundation.

Further resources:

Joint strategy by World Food Programme and UNHCR: Enhancing Self-Reliance in Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Refugee Situations
Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations: Climate smart agriculture
Building economic ties between Refugees and Kenyan Host communities (FAO, 2016)
Vegetable and staple food production in refugee settlements in Uganda (FAO, 2017)