The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has announced a $2 million grant from the IKEA Foundation to help improve economic inclusion and self-reliance among forcibly displaced people and their host communities in Kenya and South Sudan.

The funds will enable NRC to expand its efforts to provide legal support, financial services, and mentoring for refugees and formerly displaced people to improve their livelihoods and pivot from short-term humanitarian aid. The project will be piloted in Kenya’s Dadaab Camp, located within a region experiencing acute poverty, and in South Sudan’s northern Bahr el Ghazal, where more than 100,000 forcibly displaced people have recently returned home but are struggling to rebuild their lives.

The project’s economic inclusion model is designed to take an evidence-based approach. To that end, NRC will work closely with displaced people, communities, and local actors to access what efforts work and what needs to be improved in an effort to influence policies and programs designed to support displaced people in other locations.

“We strongly believe that [improved livelihoods and self-reliance] can lift everyone up together and create better futures for families,” said IKEA Foundation refugee livelihoods portfolio head Annemieke De Jong.

“No one wants to be dependent on aid,” said NRC external relations director Sean Nicholson. “We need to find new ways for displaced people to become self-reliant and have more control of their lives.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Claudiad)