Evaluating multi-dimensional interventions to promote the economic and social integration of refugees into host communities in Southern Africa

UNHCR is in the process of implementing a graduation-type program in Northern Mozambique to promote the economic and social integration of both refugees and ultra-poor host community members into the local economy. The refugee camp was established in 2001 and hosts about 9,500 refugees and asylum seekers mainly from the DRC (63 per cent), Burundi (32 per cent), and other nationalities such as Rwanda (3 per cent) and Somalia (1 per cent). Also living in the surrounding camp area are 16,390 people from the host community, who directly rely on the camp for essential services that are provided by the government and UNHCR (eg: Health, Education and other Social Services).
The intervention includes assistance in the following areas: consumption support, core skills training, language training, financial literacy classes, market-oriented skills and vocational training, job support, asset transfer and coaching services to provide encouragement and improve self-esteem as well as personalize interventions to individual needs. The program segments participants into wage employment opportunities or into self-employment with integration into local value chains.
The impact evaluation aims not only to understand the standard impacts of the graduation program on labour, income, and food security of both refugees and ultra-poor hosts, but also to measure the impact of the program on social cohesion, trust and emotional health. It further examines how both economic and social integration may differ across graduation program beneficiaries engaged in self-employment versus wage employment, and across localities (rural vs urban jobs).