In 2020, UNHCR supported 164 beneficiaries living in extreme poverty, including refugees, asylum-seekers and host community members living in the Maratane Refugee Camp and its surroundings. Through the graduation approach, participants benefited from a comprehensive package to promote their livelihoods and economic inclusion, including core capacity-building and coaching to build confidence and reinforce their skills.
UNHCR continued offering support and building capacity of 10 community-based saving and loan groups. In addition to this, UNHCR built a partnership with a financial service provider, which is providing a free of charge weekly visit to the camp and offering tailored loan rates to refugees and asylum-seekers. This will benefit not only UNHCR project beneficiaries but the broader community in Maratane.
All participants from the graduation programme benefited from cash assistance to meet basic needs, which allowed them to attend programme components while preventing them from resorting to negative coping mechanisms throughout the project cycle. Cash support was recognized as a way forward to support the achievement of self-reliance and the search for livelihood opportunities.
With regards to wage employment, 29 beneficiaries joined the pilot Apprenticeship Programme, an initiative launched in close collaboration with the private sector. In this pilot, refugees, asylum-seekers and Mozambicans had the opportunity to gain work experience through in-house learning experiences with private sector actors to strengthen their work profile.
UNHCR conducted a study on labour market access and skill value chains with the potential for self-employment creation. The assessment, which took into consideration the impact of COVID-19, was used to inform which value chains would be promoted to the second cohort.
UNHCR promoted vocational and technical training depending on the need of the beneficiaries and the market's observative capacity. Training ranged widely and included waste management and entrepreneurship. UNHCR identified that promoting jointly soft and hard skills bring better results than one type of training alone.
UNHCR took important steps towards bridging the humanitarian-development divide by joining forces with GIZ to reduce protection risks and promoting better socioeconomic conditions to individuals who had been forcibly displaced, both internally displaced people and refugees. The joint response included the provision of skills training, transfer of solar-powered productive assets, and the engagement of 198 beneficiaries in cash-for-work activities.
UNHCR supported refugees and the host community to take advantage of the market niche for protective masks created by COVID-19 outbreak. Through community-based organizations, more than 50 individuals have made an income out of the production of more than 30,000 masks that have been destinated to the private sector and persons of concern for UNHCR. Additionally, refugees with a relevant health background were engaged in a cash-for-work initiative as community health workers.
UNHCR continued to seek funding through additional sources to strengthen the response and foster livelihood opportunities. In partnership with the Danish Government, UNHCR was able to complement the support provided to the Graduation Approach participants through cash-based interventions and skills training. This also allowed for a partnership with GIZ to train participants on sewing techniques while operating solar-powered sewing machines.