Kakuma as a Marketplace: Private Sector Solutions for Refugees and Host Communities

With over six decades of experience working with the private sector in emerging markets, including in some of the most challenging places, IFC has been exploring innovative private sector solutions to respond to the refugee crisis by creating new markets for refugees and host communities through different initiatives. In 2018, IFC, in collaboration with UNHCR, published a study on the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya to assess its market potential and identify business opportunities and bottlenecks for the private sector. Based on the findings of the Kakuma study, IFC plans to launch the Kakuma Kalobeyei Challenge Fund (KKCF) by the end of 2019. KKCF is a competitive financing mechanism that aims to incentivize private sector investments in the refugee-hosting areas of Kakuma and Kalobeyei to enable better economic integration of displaced populations and their hosts. The fund consists of three components: support provided to local entrepreneurs to implement sustainable businesses in the refugee camp; an investment climate and policy advisory intervention to work on the creation of a conducive business environment in the camp; support provided to corporates that will consider expanding their operations in Kakuma. The project will be implemented over a period of five years and will bring about needed innovations which will be critical in responding to the global refugee crisis.