Equipping refugee and host community youth — particularly young women and girls — with practical entrepreneurship and employability skills to build sustainable livelihoods and reduce dependency in one of Uganda's largest refugee settlements.
Unemployment and poverty are among the most persistent drivers of vulnerability in Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement. Refugees often arrive with disrupted education histories, unrecognised qualifications, and limited access to formal labour markets. The trauma of displacement compounds the challenge — making it harder to plan for the future, maintain motivation, or build the networks that lead to economic opportunity. For young women and girls, these barriers are layered further by social norms that restrict mobility, limit access to capital, and undervalue female economic participation.
The EFSVL Skilling Project — Enhancing Youth Entrepreneurship and Employability Skills for Sustainable Livelihoods in Refugee and Host Communities in West Nile — was designed to cut through those barriers directly. Implemented by YSAT in partnership with Oxfam and URDMC from September 2020 to December 2021, the project prioritised practical, market-relevant skills that required low startup capital and could generate income quickly. Despite the severe disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the project successfully trained 1,089 youth across six skills tracks and supported 310 graduates to start income-generating activities.
The project's focus on young women and girls was deliberate and evidence-based. With 801 of the 1,089 trainees being female, the project recognised that investing in women's economic agency has compounding benefits — for individual households, for community nutrition, for children's education, and for the broader social fabric of the settlement. Post-training market assessments shaped the programme's direction, with the team concentrating resources on bakery, beadwork, and cosmetology because they offered the most viable path from training to self-employment with the least capital requirement.
Youth participants received training across six practical skills tracks: ICT, salon and hairdressing, leatherwork, baking, beadwork, and cosmetology. Of the 1,205 youth selected for the programme, 1,089 were successfully enrolled and completed training — 801 female and 288 male. Each track was selected based on market demand, low startup capital requirements, and the potential for participants to immediately begin generating income upon completion.
Following post-training market assessments, YSAT concentrated its resources on bakery as one of three priority tracks offering the most viable path from training to self-employment. Bakery required less startup capital than ICT, salon work, and leatherwork while offering consistent demand in the local settlement economy. Graduates were supported to establish small bakery operations and connect to local markets.
Beadwork emerged from the market assessment as a priority track with strong commercial potential and minimal capital requirements. Participants — predominantly young women — were trained in design, production, and pricing, and supported to identify sales channels within and beyond the settlement. The cultural resonance of beadwork in South Sudanese communities gave graduates a built-in market advantage and a product with both local and external demand.
Cosmetology was identified alongside bakery and beadwork as a high-priority track based on strong local demand and low entry barriers. Training covered skincare, hair treatment, and beauty services relevant to the local market. Graduates were equipped to set up service-based businesses requiring minimal equipment investment, making self-employment achievable quickly and without significant external financial support.
YSAT conducted post-training market assessments to evaluate which skills tracks offered the strongest employment and income generation prospects in the local economy. These assessments directly shaped programme priorities, ensuring that investment was directed toward tracks where graduates had the best chance of building sustainable livelihoods. The market linkage approach connected graduates to buyers, market spaces, and peer networks that reduced the isolation common among newly self-employed refugee youth.
310 of the trained youth went on to start income-generating activities, leading to improved household incomes and measurable business growth. The project's emphasis on entrepreneurship rather than employment alone meant that graduates were equipped not just with technical skills but with the business understanding — pricing, customer relations, reinvestment — needed to sustain and grow their operations in the informal economy of the settlement.
Youth enrolled and trained across six skills tracks
Female trainees — prioritising young women and girls
Graduates who started income-generating activities
Skills tracks: ICT, salon, leatherwork, bakery, beadwork, cosmetology