Multinational - Enhancing Investment Climate for the Empowerment of Refugee and Host Community Women in East Africa

The proposed operation is a grant of UA1, 500,000 million from the ADF 14 cycle TSF Pillar III to support the first phase of the Regional Program on Enhancing the Investment Climate for the Economic Empowerment of Refugee, Returnee and Host/Return Community Women in the East and Horn of Africa and Great Lakes Region. This is essentially a framing phase, supported by an inclusive dialogue between the different stakeholders, that aims at determining the feasibility and developing a draft regional program for enhancing the investment climate with a specific focus on women refugee, returnees and members of the host/return communities issues. The Bank's intervention has the specificity to propose a holistic approach, in that it has a wider geographical scope, as studies, policies or actions undertaken to date are generally undertaken at the national or local (camp-based) level. They do not offer sustainable regional solutions for a refugee crisis with regional spill-over. Based on a scoping study, it is a question of proposing multifaceted solutions through the Bank’s intervention. Therefore, this intervention builds on and complements livelihoods-related activities initiated by several stakeholders, including UNHCR, International Finance Corporation (IFC), donors, NGOs and private sector actors. The project will contribute to (a) developing a conceptual framework for addressing investment climate issues in areas hosting refugees and host communities with a specific focus on gender issues; (b) developing a regional program for investment climate reform in refugee-hosting and return areas; and (c) strengthening the capacity of EAC and IGAD to lead regional policy dialogue and initiatives on investment climate reform in refugee-hosting and return areas. The duration of this phase is estimated to be 24 months after approval and entry into force of the Grant Agreement.