Financial inclusion and refugees’ self-reliance: an assessment for women’s economic empowerment at Nakivale refugee settlement, southwestern Uganda

Abstract

The study examines the role of financial inclusion to women refugees’ self-reliance in Nakivale settlement. While self-reliance and economic inclusion are increasingly centralized in the international refugee regime as tools of empowerment that benefit women refugees, policy makers largely fail to consider the distribution and availability of local resources in promoting these ideas. Women refugees are often identified as passive and vulnerable victims of violence in need of support and remain disadvantaged in various socio-economic aspects. Nakivale settlement is not well suited for refugees’ economic independence due to the area’s land scarcity and social conflict. Employing qualitative methods, the study established economic challenges faced by women refugees and identified ways of solving socio-economic challenges that affect women refugees. The study recommends that creating credit facilities to enterprising women refugees will encourage trade within and outside the settlement and this could reduce vulnerability while improving the economy of the refugees and host community. The study concludes that since the majority of the refugees women are involved in agriculture, more land be allocate to them and their skills enhanced through trainings.