In December 2021 RIN kicked off a partnership with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the IKEA Foundation, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to build the field for ‘refugee lens investing’ (“RLI”) in East Africa.

The partnership is centered on developing an evidence base to mobilize finance and exploring how catalytic capital can advance climate resilience, refugee self-reliance, and social cohesion between those displaced and their hosting communities in the region.

The project aims to identify concrete approaches to financial innovation and investment strategies to advance social and economic integration of forcibly displaced people within their communities. It will also help bridge labor gaps and build a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem in East Africa that will generate dignified work opportunities for forcibly displaced people (FDP) and their host communities.

As part of Phase I of this work, RIN and Acumen hosted an inaugural Refugee Lens Investing Summit in Nairobi to convene 100 key stakeholders representing the emerging refugee lens ecosystem in East Africa.


 

Phase I

The work linked below has been completed in Phase I of this initiative; Phase II is currently under development.