Digital platforms that connect people to work opportunities—known as “jobtech”—are rapidly expanding in East Africa. However, this accelerated growth has often excluded refugee and other displaced communities, due to factors ranging from negative stereotypes about refugees to lack of access.
Refugees and host community members gain technology skills through vocational and entrepreneurship training courses at YARID, a refugee-led organization in Nsambya, Uganda. (Conrad N. Hilton Foundation)
To meet this increasing need, the Jobtech Alliance’s Jobtech for Refugees (J4R) program, supported by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, developed a three-year partnership with 14 jobtech platforms across Uganda and Ethiopia to focus on refugee inclusion into labor markets. J4R’s technical assistance and grant investment resulted in more than 6,000 people in refugee and host communities earning income across the two countries, including new access to work, successful job placement, income growth and continued engagement over time.
A new report from the Jobtech Alliance outlines key lessons learned from the first phase of this project:
Refugees are entrepreneurs, not just workers, and are active owners of small and medium enterprises. Jobtech platforms should serve these refugees as customers looking for employees, not only as workers looking for placement.
Subsidies can help refugees overcome some initial barriers, like lack of equipment, smartphones or safety gear. However, even when this assistance helps refugees successfully enroll in jobtech platforms, they face additional barriers after onboarding: navigating unfamiliar app interfaces, managing customer expectations and handling initial setbacks.
Market size and context is more important for refugee inclusion than platform design. Jobtech companies that have fewer than 1,000 active users and are struggling with basic commercial viability are less able to absorb refugee customers compared to denser, more widely used jobtech ecosystems.
Risk-tolerant capital can help jobtech platforms include refugees more effectively. During the three-year project, several platforms experimented with refugee inclusion models—including geographic expansion, dedicated pilot projects and new agency approaches—using investment from entities willing to absorb early-stage uncertainty.
