Refugee Entrepreneurship as a Pathway to Self-Reliance and Sustainable Development in Host Communities: Insights from African Refugee Experiences

This article examines how entrepreneurship can serve as a sustainable pathway to refugee self-reliance, moving beyond short-term aid dependency. Drawing on qualitative evidence from refugee camps in Italy and historical displacement during the Liberian civil conflict in West Africa, it highlights how practical skills such as hair-plaiting function as critical survival strategies. Using the sustainable livelihoods framework and intercultural competence theory, the paper proposes a “Refugee Entrepreneurship Program” to integrate entrepreneurial training into camp management systems. The study underscores the potential of such interventions to restore agency, enhance socio-economic integration, and strengthen humanitarian policy, offering actionable recommendations for the United Nations, host governments, and NGOs.