In marking World Refugee Day today, we reaffirm our commitment to creating opportunities for economic integration and highlight impactful strides made in supporting refugee communities through the Economic Inclusion of Refugees and Host Communities (ECOREF) project we’ve been implementing in Rwanda since October 2019.

Commissioned by GIZ Rwanda and the European Union (EU), this project has focused on enhancing economic opportunities in and around four refugee camps in Rwanda, as well as supporting urban refugees from Burundi and Congo DRC. Working closely with UNHCR, MINEMA and six district administrations and their Business Development and Employment Units, we're pleased to share tangible achievements:

• professional qualification of 1800 refugees and host community members in a dozen short-term courses with a recognised certificate; 
• creation of 2600 jobs for project clients and other job-seekers; 
• organisation of more than 1200 TVET graduates in 65 savings’ and loan associations and in 37 advanced Business Counselling and Exchange (BCE) groups for start-ups together with existing enterprises to ease access to finance. 

Additionally, for the first time in Rwanda: 

• four rural job fairs were held, with an interactive and traceable approach to link up job-seekers with potential employers to bridge the gap between skilled youth and available employment opportunities. 

Key economic sectors such as hospitality, construction, food processing, and textile manufacturing have thrived through these efforts.

Following the GIZ approach of Leave-No-One-Behind (LNOB), the project ensured that pregnant students and young mothers could take part and finish their studies.

View an ECOREF Report of Success and Learnings in a post here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/giz-rwanda_the-successes-and-learnings-of-ecoref-programme-activity-7207376142251569153-9s5N?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop 

Photo: At the Mahama Camp, among Rwanda's largest refugee camps, ECOREF offered refugees short-term TVET courses and entrepreneurship support (e.g., business plan development, access to small loans from savings groups). The photos depict successful entrepreneurs or employees benefitting from ECOREF project initiatives for income generation. Photo © GIZ, photos by Adalbert Niyobugingo/TT Communications