Challenge: Farmers in Uganda’s Nakivale refugee settlement are struggling with low yields due to infertile and eroded soil. Many farmers continue to use environmentally harmful techniques that exacerbate the problem, threatening the ecosystem and their livelihoods.

Solution: UNIDOS will adopt a systemic approach that prioritises complementary ecological and socioeconomic interventions to enhance regenerative agriculture practices in and around Nakivale. The team proposes vermicompost as an entry point to promote better practices.

Expected results: 1,080 individuals from the settlement and host community will be trained in regenerative farming techniques, with 30 farmers trained to produce, sell, and distribute vermicompost. More sustainable livelihoods, healthier food, enhanced soil quality.

Challenge: The arrival of forcibly displaced populations had resulted in waste-management issues and expanded landfills, creating severe sanitation issues in the city of Timbuktu.

Solution: Association Gouna-Thieré will work to clean up the living environment of displaced people with a community-based, cash-for-work programme to collect plastic waste and recycle it into artwork and paving stones.

Expected results: 250 people, including 150 forcibly displaced women, benefit from improved livelihood opportunities as waste collectors and art /paving stones makers, with 250 tonnes of plastic waste recycled into beautiful and useful materials.

Challenge: People with disabilities face stereotyping and discrimination, increasing their vulnerability. For migrants and refugees with disabilities in South Africa, this is compounded by xenophobia and a lack of proper documentation.

Solution: Redeeming Hope for the Disabled will create a Life Skills Empowerment Centre, where people living with disabilities will be trained to provide repair services, including for cell phones, computers, wheelchairs, and other assistive technologies.

Expected results: Persons with disabilities will become trusted solution-providers for the repair of technology, and the Centre will become a unifying platform to coordinate the efforts of various organizations assisting displaced people living with disabilities in Pretoria and Johannesburg.

Challenge: Lithuania has a rich ecosystem of startups, but refugees are mostly excluded from this ecosystem since entrepreneurship initiatives do not address their specific needs. This prevents refugee entrepreneurs from starting/sustaining enterprises, hindering socioeconomic integration.

Solution: Pabėgėlių Taryba will facilitate market-driven skills acquisition, entrepreneurial development, and innovative partnerships through the Talent Together initiative, which is embedded into existing networks and initiatives at the local and regional level.

Expected results: 8–15 refugee-led startups will be supported to develop and strengthen entrepreneurial skills and to integrate into the ecosystem. Increased availability of robust data on refugee entrepreneurs, and improved pathways for socioeconomic integration.

Challenge: Many refugee women and girls living in Greece are exposed to gender-based violence (GBV), exploitation, and abuse. There’s a lack of services to support these women and online media often contributes to the problem, rather than productively countering it.

Solution: All-female collective Global Girl Media presents AGAPE Athens, a mixed-media awareness-raising campaign, produced by young women from the displaced and host communities, that harnesses the power of social media to change the narrative on GBV.

Expected results: 75 young women will gain awareness of media impacts on gender equality as well as the skills they need to become bold content creatives, producing up to 360 pieces of multimedia content. Plus, up to 75 boys are sensitised through participation in some workshops.

Challenge: The Nakivale refugee settlement has inadequate land to support farming and food production to sustain the population, while environmentally damaging farming techniques and limited capital to purchase tools, equipment and seeds create further challenges.

Solution: KBTN will establish a seed bank and exchange system, set up community gardens and communal access to equipment, provide training on effective land use, and introduce a management structure whereby farmer-led committees lead implementation and monitoring.

Expected results: 2,400 farmers directly benefit from the programme across 24 Nakivale villages. Seeds and trees are distributed to 600 farmers each season. Each participating village has a community garden established, and receives hoes, watering cans, and a water pump.

Challenge: Dzaleka refugee camp is home to more than 57,000 people who depend on limited food aid. Movement restrictions limit livelihood opportunities, while poor conditions result in low crop yields and food insecurity. Some women and girls turn to negative coping mechanisms.

Solution: Women for Action will implement an aquaponics project in the camp to increase food security and provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for women, with training in system installation and maintenance, as well as business management and marketing.

Expected results: 100 women receive capacity-building and training, gaining access to income-generating activities. Aquaponics, with its relatively minor land/environmental footprint, is integrated into refugee livelihoods and food systems, improving food security for 1,000 people.

Challenge: Refugees face barriers to social and economic integration in France, with their career trajectories characterised by jobs with low qualifications, low wages, and precarious conditions. Many refugees have sewing skills, but face challenges accessing the prestigious textile industry.

Solution: Espero will implement a project using haute couture upcycling as a formal integration pathway. Vocational workshops on design and sewing techniques will be complemented by networking opportunities and socioeconomic support to access housing and French classes.

Expected results: 20 refugees gain marketable skills and are supported to sell their products, boosting their socioeconomic integration. The project will also change the narrative around refugees, combating prejudice and raising awareness about displacement issues.

Challenge: Since August 2021, displaced Afghan women have steadily been arriving in Portugal with their families, and many of them face challenges finding employment.

Solution: ACAP aims to link the rich textile-manufacturing heritage of Afghanistan and Portugal, to support socioeconomic integration. Market-driven skills acquisition, innovative partnerships, and the promotion of Afghan textile techniques will support refugee women to become self-reliant.

Expected results: 10 Afghan women will be trained, connected to Portuguese fashion designers and textile manufacturers, and supported to start their own businesses. 850 members of the Afghan refugee community in Portugal will indirectly benefit.

Challenge: Statelessness is poorly understood by the Italian public and academia, resulting in discriminatory policies and behaviours. This prevents stateless people from enjoying their rights, and is compounded by inadequate research and data on statelessness in Italy.

Solution: Unione Italiana Apolidi will equip stateless people with enhanced advocacy skills to change the narrative on this issue, as well as partnering with Italian universities to organise seminars and essay competitions about statelessness in order to promote timely research and data on statelessness in the country.

Expected results: 4 stateless individuals will initially receive advocacy training – with others identified in due course – and 300 students across 6 universities will participate in research and essay competitions, resulting in greater visibility and understanding of statelessness.

Challenge: Displaced young people in Sudan lack outlets for positive and creative expression and access to educational and therapeutic services. This results in feelings of despair, mental health disorders, and violence between displacement camp residents and host communities.

Solution: Education for Peace will facilitate drama workshops to help youth address conflicts, accept difference, and develop a sense of belonging, while a documentary will be produced to raise awareness of refugee talent. A complementary teacher-training program to improve the quality of education in the camps will be provided for refugee teachers.

Expected results: 500 young people benefit from drama workshops, while 360 refugee teachers will receive teacher training to improve the quality of education offered to youth. Displaced youth organise a month-long drama festival, with the participation of host communities, showcasing the peacebuilding potential of drama and education.

Challenge: Refugees in France lack professional, social, and cultural integration opportunities. Inability to access art and culture stymies their integration process, while a lack of access to employment opportunities is a major barrier to achieving self-reliance and economic integration.

Solution: Sama for All will provide tailored, immersive professional training in art and museums professions in partnership with French museums and cultural centres (such as Paris’s Cité des Sciences et de l’industrie and Musee d’Orsay) and with the support of the Ministry of Culture.

Expected results: Up to 25 refugees will receive 10 months of training, with at least 30% of them securing work in the cultural sector following the programme. All participants will feel an enhanced sense of belonging and social inclusion, and intercultural dialogue will be facilitated.

Challenge: Only 6% of displaced youth worldwide enter higher education, despite demand being extremely high, with thousands of applications submitted each year. This is in part due to a lack of access to information about work and study opportunities as well as limited support.

Solution: TRSN will provide capacity building and advocacy opportunities to refugee students, with a refugee-led advisory network established to provide customised one-on-one support, guidance, and counselling by trained refugee experts to prospective students.

Expected results: Within the 12-month funding period, up to 700 refugee students across two locations will receive guidance on higher education opportunities, possible education pathways, job placements, and remote work opportunities, boosting resilience and livelihood opportunities.

Challenge: Forcibly displaced people living in the DRC’s Mole refugee camp are affected by severe food insecurity and malnutrition, with the host community also suffering from these issues. This often drives intercommunal conflict.

Solution: Coopérative Agropastorale Maboko will implement a project to create 30 additional fishponds, using water from plentiful mangrove springs, to increase yields, diversify diets, and reduce food insecurity. Waste from guinea-pig and rabbit breeding will be used to feed the fish.

Expected results: 265 households benefit directly from increased income and improved food security, while 800 people in surrounding towns benefit from newly available fish products. The project will contribute to peaceful cohabitation and boost self-sufficiency.

Challenge: LGBTQI+ refugees come to South Africa in pursuit of freedom from discrimination. Instead, they are too often met with homophobia and xenophobia, which is in part driven by fear stemming from a lack of knowledge about this community.

Solution: PASSOP will launch a series of initiatives to facilitate sustained, positive contact among LGBTQI+ refugees and host community members and leaders. Through safe community gatherings and education initiatives, South Africans will have the opportunity to meet LGBTQI+ refugees, hear their stories, understand their rights, and develop empathy with them.

Expected results: More than 200 LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers living in Cape Town and the surrounding areas will benefit from the project, which will tackle prejudice and discrimination, and support enhanced social integration and wellbeing.

Challenge: Many residents of Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi – including 26% of camp residents under five years of age – suffer from chronic malnutrition, due to food security challenges and a lack of livelihood opportunities.

Solution: SOFERES will train refugees and host community members on farming techniques and financial literacy, as well as providing agricultural inputs and seed funding. 20 farming cooperatives will be established to improve competitiveness and market-access.

Expected results: 200 people, mostly women, from the refugee and host community will benefit from capacity-building, improved livelihood opportunities, and greater market access. Camp residents will experience enhanced food security, with improved health outcomes.

Challenge: An increasing number of refugee families are returning from Uganda to South Sudan’s Kajo-Keji, but Kajo-Keji lacks infrastructure and services for returnees – which has particular health implications for women as well as people with disabilities or chronic illness.

Solution: HHA EA aims to improve outcomes for returnees by establishing a new outpatient health centre to meet some immediate needs and to function as a hub and referral platform for other health services (such as those provided by CRADLE and UNHCR’s public health teams).

Expected results: The clinic will initially serve up to 500 patients per month, with CRADLE providing coverage for around 17,300 women of child-bearing age. Around 2,300 households with a person with a disability will be supported by community-based rehabilitation services.