‘I know where I’m heading’
Empowering women through digital livelihoods is changing lives in Kenyaâs Kakuma Refugee Camp.
Fardosa, a young woman from South Sudan, grew up in Kenyaâs Kakuma Refugee Camp with dreams of becoming a digital marketer. For a long time, her goals seemed out of reach. After losing her mother, she took on the responsibility of caring for her younger siblings. Once she had graduated from secondary school, in 2019, she had no means to pursue further studies and very limited opportunities to find a job to support her family. Fardosa, like many refugee women, lacked the support and resources she needed to navigate the digital world.
Forcibly displaced and stateless women and girls are disproportionately affected by interconnected barriers â including electricity, equipment, and internet connectivity â to accessing, using, and benefiting from digital technology. These challenges limit access to information and livelihood opportunities. They are further compounded by policy and legal constraints, such as lack of documentation or restrictive work regulations, that hinder participation in the digital economy. Limited access to financial services also restricts their ability to invest in the tools and platforms needed for online work. Many women lack all-hours access to safe workspaces, making it difficult to engage in remote jobs that require flexibility across time zones.
Refugee-led organization Solidarity Initiative for Refugees (SIR) is working to bridge this digital gender divide in Kakuma. In 2023, SIR took part in the first ever Digital Gender Inclusion and Innovation Bootcamp run by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, to build their capacity to implement digital inclusion programming. Then, in 2024, with seed funding from UNHCR and the skills gained through the Bootcamp, they implemented a digital skills training programme to empower women from the refugee and host communities â like Fardosa â to build pathways toward digital livelihoods, economic independence, and self-sufficiency.
More than 70% of their training participants are now accessing digital employment opportunities online, doing work such as transcription and content creation through microwork platforms. This is how they did it â and what they learned along the way.
Tailoring support to meet market demand and participantsâ circumstances
Kakuma Refugee Camp is home to more than 200,000 refugees, 76% of whom are women and children. Inhabitants of the camp face extreme poverty and limited access to education, digital infrastructure, and economic opportunities. These challenges are compounded by high unemployment rates and socio-cultural barriers hindering womenâs participation in the workforce. So, SIR aimed to equip refugee women and girls with the skills and resources to overcome these barriers, and to more effectively access and navigate digital freelancing, remote work, content creation, and entrepreneurship, through digital skills training.
For Bahana Hydrogene, Executive Director of SIR and an inhabitant of Kakuma since 2015, attending the Digital Gender Inclusion and Innovation Bootcamp âwas eye opening for us in terms of finding the nexus between training [participants] and transitioning [them] to self-reliance opportunities.â In 2023, the Bootcamp brought together 12 community-based, refugee-led, and women-led organizations to foster collaboration and innovation supporting digital gender inclusion. A second iteration, in 2024, upskilled an additional 32 organizations led by forcibly displaced and stateless women. Bahana notes that the diversity of perspectives at the Bootcamp, and âthe ability to learn from what other colleagues are doing in different regions,â was a valuable aspect of the experience, helping SIR strengthen its own approach to advancing accessible and effective programming for digital gender equality.
Applying their learnings from the Bootcamp, SIR began reaching out to potential training participants â via both physical and digital spaces â in 2024. They then surveyed the 55 enrolled women on their baseline ICT knowledge and employment goals, in order to provide support targeted to their circumstances, needs, and aspirations. Based on this initial information and on identified market demands, SIR designed and implemented a six-month training programme, delivering courses on digital skills including freelancing, social media management, transcription, and content creation.
Mercy, a young refugee woman from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, learned techniques for video editing, graphic design, and freelancing as a digital marketer. âThe world is heading [toward] using digital tools,â Mercy points out, âso I decided to learn them to do business, to connect with different people, to gain more skills.â Another participant, Nyawera, learned how to develop social media marketing campaigns and create content for Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. She now understands the unique dynamics of each platform, allowing her to optimize her posts, network with professionals, and establish a robust online presence in a highly competitive market.
Taking a holistic approach
During the pilot, SIR led a focus group discussion with participants to reflect on ways to increase the impact of their training. Recognizing gaps in sexual and reproductive health knowledge, they collaborated with K De Ingratium International (KDII) to organize a session on sexual and reproductive health and rights, distributing reusable sanitary pads to the women and girls involved in the programme. Bahana emphasizes the importance of taking a holistic approach to closing the digital gender gap. He sees participants not âjust like someone who is in need of digital skills and maybe some pathways toward self-relianceâ but rather âas a whole person with different needs,â all of which impact their ability to thrive in the digital ecosystem.
The needs of mothers, accordingly, was another significant consideration. Since 2021, SIR had run a crèche facility where women could drop off their children to be cared for while they participated in various training sessions. After SIR participated in the Bootcamp and gathered initial learnings from the 2024 pilot, they strengthened this childcare facility by adding more play and educational equipment. This built trust among parents and made the training more accessible to mothers, allowing them to learn skills for digital employment and, thus, further support their families.
At the conclusion of the training, participants were able to benefit from ongoing support. Graduates are able to use the facilities and resources in SIRâs centre on an ongoing basis, and to engage with the teachers who taught them. Additionally, 31 women were provided with laptops to facilitate their efforts to access digital employment. This is particularly important, Bahana notes, since some organizations require employees and contractors to work on personal devices for reasons of digital security.
Expanding possibilities and cascading skills
In October 2024, 51 women completed the digital skills training. A majority of them â 70% â have already begun to earn income through online platforms. Nyawera, for instance, earned more than 9,000 KES (almost $70) in the first month following the pilot through social media marketing. Receiving a laptop has allowed her to efficiently manage her social media accounts, design engaging graphics, schedule posts, and monitor engagement metrics as a digital marketer.
Fardosa similarly highlights the impact of having a laptop, with which she stays connected with prospective clients and keeps up with industry trends. By the end of October, she had made more than 6,000 KES ($46), which went toward school needs for her younger brother. By linking participants to job opportunities, facilitating network building, and providing technological resources, SIR has laid the foundation for refugee women and girlsâ long-term economic independence and self-reliance.
Mercy, who works in digital marketing as a freelancer, is also giving back to her community by working with SIR to train more women and girls alongside her former teachers. The training, she says, âhelped me to help my family needs and also my needs as a girl,â inspiring her to pass on her knowledge to others. Looking ahead, she envisions a future working as a digital entrepreneur and continuing to make digital employment more accessible for women in Kakuma:
âââI want to create more opportunities to start my own business online and also to help and serve my community.â
Learning from stumbling blocks
As transformative as the training was for the participants, SIR faced several challenges. Infrastructure gaps, namely unstable internet connectivity, made it difficult for women to efficiently complete online tasks. Further, security concerns, which led to temporary closure of the center and restricted movement of people, affected attendance during the first month of training. Transitioning to a more reliable internet provider and ensuring a secure learning environment are key priorities for SIR in planning future programming. These challenges also highlight the critical importance of initiatives like Connectivity for Refugees, which seeks to enhance the connectivity of the worldâs major refugee hosting areas.
Another challenge for some participants was the attitude of family and community members toward women pursuing further education. To address this in advance of the training start, SIR led a community outreach event for 150 community leaders and parents to address cultural norms and build support among men for womenâ s participation. Nevertheless, Mercy recalls being told by some that the training was a waste of time and she should instead concentrate on her marriage prospects. âBut I told them no,â she says:
âI know what I want. I know where Iâm heading. I want to become the person I want [to be]. So I just didnât listen to what they were telling me. I kept pushing, I kept persisting until where I am today.â
As women like Mercy persevered and demonstrated the benefits of digital employment â alongside SIRâs community outreach efforts â she and Bahana noticed a positive shift in community attitudes, a hopeful sign for the future of digital gender inclusion in Kakuma.
Building an inclusive digital future
Inspired by the successes of the pilot, SIR plans to build out its efforts to address the digital gender divide. This includes expanding its offerings to include more courses on digital entrepreneurship and soft skills like communication and client management, as well as establishing co-working spaces with stable internet connectivity for refugee women to engage in freelancing or remote work.
As many aspects of life move increasingly online, ensuring forcibly displaced women and girls have equal access to the digital future is ever more crucial for their safety, education, leisure, and livelihoods. Bridging the digital gender divide will require sustained innovation and collaboration â and a nuanced understanding of the needs and aspirations of forcibly displaced women and girls. SIRâs focus on tailoring its training to the participants, taking a holistic approach to facilitate learning, and providing ongoing support have borne significant fruit â demonstrating the potential impact of this kind of inclusive, community-driven programming.
UNHCRâs Digital Inclusion and Innovation Bootcamp is made possible through Safe from the Start and the PROSPECTS Partnership project, delivered alongside the International Labor Organization.