Project Summary

Project General Description

The proposed operation is a grant of UA1, 500,000 million from the ADF 14 cycle TSF Pillar III to support the first phase of the Regional Program on Enhancing the Investment Climate for the Economic Empowerment of Refugee, Returnee and Host/Return Community Women in the East and Horn of Africa and Great Lakes Region. This is essentially a framing phase, supported by an inclusive dialogue between the different stakeholders, that aims at determining the feasibility and developing a draft regional program for enhancing the investment climate with a specific focus on women refugee, returnees and members of the host/return communities issues. The Bank's intervention has the specificity to propose a holistic approach, in that it has a wider geographical scope, as studies, policies or actions undertaken to date are generally undertaken at the national or local (camp-based) level. They do not offer sustainable regional solutions for a refugee crisis with regional spill-over. Based on a scoping study, it is a question of proposing multifaceted solutions through the Bank’s intervention. Therefore, this intervention builds on and complements livelihoods-related activities initiated by several stakeholders, including UNHCR, International Finance Corporation (IFC), donors, NGOs and private sector actors. The project will contribute to (a) developing a conceptual framework for addressing investment climate issues in areas hosting refugees and host communities with a specific focus on gender issues; (b) developing a regional program for investment climate reform in refugee-hosting and return areas; and (c) strengthening the capacity of EAC and IGAD to lead regional policy dialogue and initiatives on investment climate reform in refugee-hosting and return areas. The duration of this phase is estimated to be 24 months after approval and entry into force of the Grant Agreement.

Project Objectives

The overall goal of the first phase of the project is to identify and lay the foundation to address the legal, regulatory, procedural and infrastructural barriers to the economic empowerment of refugee, returnee and host/return community women and identify sectors of competitive advantage for investment and trade in selected refugee-hosting and return areas in the eleven East, Horn of Africa, and Great Lakes (EHAGL) countries. The project will also contribute to the global efforts to address the development challenges in forced displacement contexts and to improve the refugee response model by strengthening the cooperation and collaboration between host countries and refugees’ countries of origin in East and Horn of Africa, and Great Lakes Region. Furthermore, the project will strengthen regional integration and stability, contribute to economic and financial inclusion of both refugee and host communities and focusing in particular on women's economic inclusion.

Beneficiaries

The project will primarily target (more than half) refugees from Burundi, South Sudan, Somalia and Sudan who make up around 70% of the refugees in the region and the host communities in which they live. While the other part of the target will come from the populations of the other countries. The project will include three quarters of women living in the eleven refugee areas and the host communities. The removal of barriers and the proposed measures will contribute to strengthening the resilience of these vulnerable groups by increasing business and employment opportunities and household incomes. This will therefore contribute to improving the lives of people. The private sector will benefit from this framing phase. The outputs of the scoping study will also benefit the governments of the eleven countries. The establishment of a favourable investment climate for population groups in fragile situations and the untapped commercial potential it creates for these groups and beyond for the entire business community will increase investment and have positive effects in terms of taxation. Alongside the economic gains, this will contribute to socio-political stability in the region.

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