The ILO Approach to Inclusive Market Systems (AIMS) team and UNHCR Refugee Livelihoods team have organized a webinar to discuss how a Market Systems Development (MSD) approach can provide a useful framework for actors in this triple nexus to plan strategic, market-driven interventions to build back better, more resilient and inclusive economies in forced displacement settings. This webinar has been organized under the framework of the ILO-UNHCR Joint Action Plan on advancing employment opportunities and decent work for refugees, other forcibly displaced persons and national workers. Panelists shared their reflections and first-hand experiences from the field on how they are adapting their market-based approaches and programmes to contribute to the post-COVID-19 jobs and livelihoods recovery for refugees and host communities. The recording of the ILO-UNHCR Webinar is now available here: https://bit.ly/2DWeOgY

IKEA Foundation contributes $3.5 million to support FAO's work with refugees and host communities in eastern Africa 30 July 2020, Rome - A $3.5 million dollar contribution from the IKEA Foundation will support efforts by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to empower refugees and their host communities in one of the world's largest displacement crises. The partnership will help vulnerable populations in Kenya and Uganda to generate a reliable source of income, by helping them to cultivate in-demand crops and connecting them to market opportunities. The support from the IKEA Foundation will allow FAO, in partnership with UNHCR, to help 17 000 refugees and local residents earn a decent income by growing high-quality crops, using regenerative farming methods that protect the environment. The initial phase of the project will run for four years, and will link the farmers with local food companies which need to develop a reliable supply base for these products. The initial collaboration will focus on passion fruit and groundnut production and will involve two local private sector companies: KadAfrica, which operates in Uganda and exports passion fruit pulp, and INSTA Products, a Kenya-based company that manufactures Ready-to-use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) items where the main ingredient is groundnut paste. Although refugees living in both countries have some access to farmland and rights to work, the majority are still dependent on food aid: more than 70 percent of refugees in Uganda and more than 80 percent in Kenya depend on UN agencies or their partners to meet their basic food needs. Those who can grow their own food often lack ways to sell any surplus, as agricultural production is not linked to market opportunities. In Uganda, for example, only 22 percent of refugees and 45 percent of host communities manage to sell part of their produce. http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1300750/icode/

On 28 July, the Secretary-General released a policy brief on the impact of COVID-19 in an Urban World, which notes that cities are at the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic, accounting for an estimated 90 per cent of cases. However, there is no evidence that urban density per se correlates with higher virus transmission. In fact, most of what has made cities vulnerable is a result of choices about how cities are organised and how people live, work and travel in and around them. The crisis has exposed deep inequalities and showed that tackling the virus is more challenging in urban areas where access to quality healthcare is uneven, housing inadequate, water and sanitation lacking, transport infrastructure patchy and jobs precarious. While local governments play a critical role as front-line responders, they also face a significant financial strain from declining tax revenues. On the other hand, cities are hubs of resilience and human ingenuity, and this crisis has shown how city dwellers can adapt overnight to new ways of working and functioning while demonstrating extraordinary solidarity and support for one another. The policy brief offers three key recommendations. First, all phases of the pandemic response should seek to tackle the inequalities and long-term development deficits that have been so cruelly exposed and that have made certain communities so vulnerable. Second, the capacities of local governments need strengthening to avoid disruptions to essential public services in the near-term and enable them to steer effectively sustainable urban development in the coming decades. Third, it is critical to pursue a green, resilient and inclusive economic recovery that builds on some of the innovations we have seen during lockdowns.

UNHCR has stepped up its efforts in Brazil to protect tens of thousands of refugees and migrants from Venezuela and their host communities, as the Latin American country has become the second worst affected country in the world.

A tripartite agreement between the African Development Bank (AfDB), UNHCR and the G5 Sahel was signed on 23 July that provides a critical USD 20 million in funding to COVID-19 response across the five countries of the Sahel region to support COVID-19 awareness campaigns, strengthen health infrastructure, epidemiological surveillance and case management. It will also allow procurement of essential medical supplies and equipment for the prevention, control and treatment of COVID-19 patients.

FCA, GIZ, ILO and UNHCR are launching a new TVET study – calling for applicants! https://reliefweb.int/job/3652498/inclusion-refugees-tvet-programmes-and-their-transition-world-work-joint-study

COVID-19 AND DROP IN GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN AID MAKE PERFECT STORM FOR WORLD’S MOST VULNERABLE: The Covid-19 pandemic presents an unprecedented challenge to the humanitarian system in both scale and complexity, new research shows. Development Initiatives’ 2020 Global Humanitarian Assistance report reveals that in 2019 over one billion people were living in countries affected by long-term humanitarian crises such as conflict, displacement and natural disasters. In the same period international UN appeals hit a record high but international humanitarian funding dropped by $1.6 billion. Covid-19 is compounding these existing humanitarian challenges: 34 of the 63 countries that require humanitarian assistance to deal with the pandemic are in long-term humanitarian crisis. Despite these growing humanitarian needs, the harsh reality is that with the global economy under significant strain and donor governments facing increasing domestic costs, global aid is projected to decline further and faster.

Refugees are actively contributing to the COVID-19 response by sewing masks and gowns for health workers and helping to distribute aid to the poorest members of their communities. Dr. Fezzeh Hosseini, a 38-year-old Afghan refugee, was recently appointed to head up the coronavirus public outreach programme in Iran’s central Esfahan province. She is the only refugee doctor in Esfahan and provides phone consultations to Iranian and Afghan patients suffering from or at risk of contracting the coronavirus. She is also the head physician of the Razi health centre in Khomeini-Shahr, an area of Esfahan.

EU announces €24 million in Uganda amid coronavirus pandemic. EU humanitarian support in Uganda goes hand in hand with longer-term development strategies to find durable solutions and support the self-reliance of refugees and their inclusion in social protection schemes. https://ec.europa.eu/echo/news/eu-announces-24-million-uganda-amid-coronavirus-pandemic_en

In a press release, UNHCR are WFP warn that severe underfunding, conflict and disasters – as well as supply chain challenges, rising food prices and loss of income due to COVID19 - threaten to leave millions of refugees across Africa without food.