Following recommendations from the Jordan Strategic Humanitarian Committee JoSH meeting dated November 15, where the reform process of the Inter-Sector Working Group has been endorsed; the Inter-Sector Working Group (ISWG) was tasked to come up with final renewed architecture and recommendations to be revised and endorsed by JoSH. (Dec 2022)

New IFC and UNHCR initiative to boost private sector engagement for refugees and their host communities: The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, today announced a joint initiative to create inclusive economic opportunities that will benefit refugees and their host communities. Among other goals, the initiative aims to mobilize private sector projects over the next five years to demonstrate the viability of investments in forced displacement contexts. Read the press release here: https://bit.ly/3Y8PNDG

World Bank: Kenya’s Economic Recovery Remains Strong, Although Slowed by Drought and Inflation: Kenya’s economy continued to rebound from the pandemic in 2022 with real gross domestic product (GDP) increasing by 6% year-on-year in the first half of 2022, driven by broad-based increases in services and industry. This recovery was dampened by global commodity price shocks, the long regional drought, and uncertainty in the run up to the 2022 general elections. Read more here: https://bit.ly/3Y8GhAs

UNHCR - The 2022 High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection Challenges, which will be held on 07 and 08 December, will focus on the theme of development cooperation aimed at advancing protection, inclusion, and solutions for forcibly displaced and stateless persons as well as host communities. Read more here: https://bit.ly/3HcPWQx

Seizing the Agri-Food Opportunity in Eastern and Southern Africa: With more than 66 million people projected to experience food stress, emergency, or famine this year across Eastern and Southern Africa, it is imperative that we help unleash the potential of the agri-food sector—to not only put an end to hunger, but to also establish economic prosperity across the region. Read more here: https://bit.ly/3BktlO7

World Bank - Burundi: Certifying Land Ownership Protects the Landscape and Women as Well. The $30 million project Burundi Landscape Restoration and Resilience Project aims to restore land productivity and increase community resilience in targeted, degraded landscapes. But in its early stages, its component on land certification, designed to address some of the issues that comprise a large number of the legal cases brought before Burundian courts, has brought the project’s biggest gains. Read the feature story here: https://bit.ly/3Vlis6z

UNHCR and its education partner Caritas Czech Republic (CCR) completed the enrolment of 200 (males 123 and females 77) refugees at Cavendish University Zambia (CUZ) under the UNHCR/CUZ scholarships.

In coordination with UNHCR and partners, WFP distributed cash for food assistance to 12,412 people we serve (6,443 females and 5,969 males), through the WFP Cash-based Transfer (CBT) network in Mantapala. Refugees received ZMW118 per person from WFP using a digital payment service in the settlement.

A total of 2,159 individuals in 557 families were assisted to voluntarily repatriate to DRC in September. Cumulatively, 5,807 individuals in 1,653 families had repatriated since the start of the second phase of the voluntary repatriation on 18 July 2022.

UNHCR celebrates DAFI’s 30 years of refugee scholarship support: This month, the UNHCR celebrated 30 years of providing scholarship opportunities through the German-backed DAFI scholarship program to displaced persons, transforming their lives and prospects. Over 21,500 refugee students’ lives have been positively impacted through Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative (DAFI) scholarship program. These students have majored in diverse fields ranging from medicine to business administration, social and behavioural sciences, mathematics, and computer sciences. During the celebrations, the UNHCR urged for more investments in refugee tertiary education in order to achieve the 15 by 30 target – to ensure that 15% of eligible refugees can access tertiary education by 2030. Read more here: https://bit.ly/3FyQnDO