The EU-IOM Knowledge Management Hub released today the 10th factsheet on “Supporting SMEs and former returnees to create jobs for migrants returning to Afghanistan” from the Reintegration Assistance: Good, Promising and Innovative Practices Series.

Read the 10th Factsheet here

The series, launched in 2020, aims at highlighting innovative reintegration activities along with operational details and recommendations that will allow reintegration practitioners to learn more about these activities, understand how they are implemented and how they could be replicated or adapted in their respective contexts.

Check out the good practices’ factsheet from the series!
 

• Practice #1: Cash-for-work, Guine

• Practice #2: Promote employment through training in Burkina Faso

• Practice #3: Support for Entrepreneurship in Burkina Faso

• Practice #4: Support for Returnee Employability and Empowerment Through Vocational Training and Job Search in Mali

• Practice #5: Establishing a Permanent Dialogue with the Government to Foster Ownership and Sustainability of Reintegration Mechanisms and Activities in Cameroon

• Practice #6: Pre-departure reintegration assistance in the Netherlands: material and shipment support

• Practice #7: Pre-departure reintegration assistance in Morocco: orientation, counselling and training

• Practice #8: Revitalizing Economy and Enhancing Social Cohesion through Community-Based Planning and Community-Prioritized Infrastructure Works: the construction of a Bridge in Somalia

• Practice #9: Boosting returnees’ employment through support to SMEs in Iraq 

The 10th factsheet released describes how IOM, through the  Reintegration Assistance and Development in Afghanistan (RADA) project funded by the European Union, supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with a potential for growth to expand their production capacities and their market reach, with the aim to create jobs for returnees.

The support provided not only allowed hiring returnees, it also allowed developing their skills (on-the-job training) and strengthening productive enterprises in a complex economic and security environment.

The technical support provided to enhance the SMEs’ productivity and revenue (including business linkages and packaging or marketing support, among others) as well as the attempt to link returnees with SMEs established by former returnees, constitute promising practices to be further examined in the future.

By December 2020, 104 returnees (82 male, 22 female) were employed by seventeen SMEs supported by RADA, including 13 employed in two SMEs established by former returnees.

Do not hesitate to share your insights on good and promising reintegration practices by filling in this form 

The information and evidence collected on such practices, implemented by IOM, partners or other stakeholders, is translated into short knowledge bites in the form of factsheets for easy dissemination among reintegration practitioners.

Get in touch with us at ReturnReintegrationPlatform@iom.int. Your unique experience may benefit other practitioners around the globe!