The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has released a report titled: Policy Guide on Entrepreneurship for Migrants and Refugees.

This policy guide, released in 2018, focuses on the role of entrepreneurship in enhancing the positive effects of migration on economic growth and development. In order to inform policy decisions and programming, UNCTAD, IOM and UNHCR have put together their forces to provide a fact-based guide, highlighting the positive social, cultural and economic contribution that migrants and refugees can make to their home and host countries.

This guide argues that entrepreneurship can be an effective way to include migrants and refugees in local economies, by sharing their knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit, and creating new market opportunities and cross-border networks. Entrepreneurship can also be part of the long-term solutions needed to address the consequences of large movements of forcibly displaced persons, in addition to the important measures that are put in place to cope with the immediate effects of humanitarian crises. The creation of economic opportunities for all, with the purpose of leaving no one behind, is among the top priorities of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. One mechanism to achieve this is thus through the promotion of entrepreneurship. Policies and programmes play an important role in supporting entrepreneurial activity by (and for) refugees and migrants and in addressing the barriers they face to engaging in economic activity.

Click here to view and download the full report.