Adapting a digital livelihoods project to meet community needs
In Rwanda, an innovative pilot to bridge the gap between young refugees and online opportunities saw demand-driven evolutions in its core objectives, generating learnings to inform future programming.
By Amy Fallon, Associate Innovation Officer
Around 70 percent of the more than 135,000 forcibly displaced people in Rwanda are below the age of 30. Many of these young people have spent the majority of their lives in refugee camps, after fleeing conflicts in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and they struggle to access sustainable livelihoods. Just 15 percent of refugees of working age are employed, according to a recent census. Nevertheless, young refugees are ambitious and motivated, ready to build their skills and seize new opportunities. One such area of emerging opportunity is the digital or ‘gig’ economy.
Globally, the digital economy is becoming an increasingly important vehicle for livelihood opportunities. In Rwanda it holds particular promise in light of the government’s commitment to ensuring digital development by pushing forward an ambitious digital transformation strategy. To ensure the benefits of this transformation could reach refugee communities, a team of colleagues at UNHCR Rwanda designed a pilot project to bridge the gap between young people and online opportunities.
Implemented with the support of the Digital Innovation Fund, this project developed Digital Job and Scholarship Help Desks, staffed by trained Digital Career Counsellors from the refugee community.
Providing peer-to-peer support
In total, seven helpdesks, equipped with the necessary ICT hardware, were established across five refugee camps and two urban areas in Rwanda. Providing the primary support at these desks were 32 Digital Career Counsellors, trained at the start of the project by Prison Fellowship Rwanda, with the support of Carnegie Mellon University Africa. The training focused on preparing participants to assist youth in their community to navigate popular job boards and scholarship websites, craft applications, prepare for interviews, and avoid potential digital risks (such as scams, fraud, or exploitation).
The counsellors were young men and women from the surrounding refugee communities with existing digital skills, who had a desire to help their peers access opportunities online. Some were university graduates applying for jobs themselves, others were self-taught computer enthusiasts and freelancers with time to spare between jobs, who appreciated the extra income and resources. The councillors noted that they were motivated throughout the project by their feeling of ownership over the digital help desk services, and by the respect that working at the Help Desks gave them among the community.
“The training we received helped me a lot as a young person who already had skills with the computer. This project has helped us, the councillors, as it has given us the chance to make money and get laptops, internet and printers. It has also benefited the community as it has provided them with services. […] I feel confident, as we are not operating under any organization, we are doing things just ourselves.” — Digital Career Counsellor, Mahama
An enthusiastic response
The project timeline was short — just three months in total. However, by its end, the counsellors were well established in each of the seven locations and able to provide valuable guidance to members of their communities. While exact user figures were not collected, anecdotal feedback from the Help Desks across all locations suggests that they were very popular, with an average of 50 people or more visiting during opening hours. Of these visitors, the digital career counsellors would support many to seek out, and apply to, education and employment opportunities online.
“Regardless of our small equipment, we have tried hard. Last month, we helped 15 people apply for scholarships and 16 people to apply for jobs.” — Digital Career Counsellor, Mahama Camp
“I didn’t know anything about online applications but when I heard about the job desk, I was inspired to come in and apply. Information is paramount, even knowing where to find the links to find the opportunities is more than we would get if we stayed at home.“ — Help Desk User, Mahama Camp
The immediate popularity of these services offered a strong proof of concept for the foundational problem statement: displaced communities need a trusted, reliable source of guidance and support for online activities. Interestingly, however, the exact sort of online support refugees most needed did not always align with the project’s initial goals.
As it turned out, the most interesting aspects of the pilot were all the ways communities took ownership of the Help Desks, steering this much-needed resource in new directions.
Pivoting in response to user preferences
The first big shift happened naturally, as the Help Desks transitioned away from their initial objectives to meet the diverse demands of the community. Initially envisioned as a way to help job-seeking youth access online work opportunities, the desks, in practice, were visited by community members of all ages seeking support with a range of activities — from completing scholarship applications to accessing online government services.
This shift indicated an acute need within the community for broader support with using digital devices and navigating the world online. For instance, after the Canadian government announced the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot — a scheme to support refugees to find employment opportunities in Canada — the counsellors found themselves supporting many to put themselves forward for the scheme, rather than with job or scholarship searching.
“Me, personally, I have received a huge number of requests for help from people who heard that I was trained in internet services. During the time of mobilisation for jobs in Canada, a huge number of people approached me.” — Digital Career Counsellor, Mahama Camp
As the community became more aware of the sustained presence of digitally skilled counsellors in the Help Desks, more and more came to request assistance with accessing general online services (such as the Rwandan government services portal, Irembo), photocopying and printing materials, and even, in some cases, asking for lessons on how to use a computer or navigate the internet.
“We have helped some people to apply for online scholarships. … [But] people have not asked about applying for jobs. We mainly help them with using the devices.” — Digital Career Counsellor, Kiziba Camp
“Very few people come about job applications. Most people come for civil-status certifications and printing.” — Digital Career Counsellor, Nyabiheke Camp
When asked why he thought that the demand for support with online job applications was low relative to other needs, a counsellor based in Nyabiheke Camp said he didn’t think there was enough awareness around the potential of online work.
Divergent sustainability models
Despite facing the challenge of a short project timeline, the pilot demonstrated remarkable resilience and adaptability. Instead of letting the Help Desks fade away following the end of seed funding, the counsellors in each location took proactive measures to ensure the sustainability of their services.
In Mahama, Nyabiheke, and Kiziba camps, the counsellors began charging for certain services, such as printing and issuing civil status–related certificates, thereby generating revenue to sustain the initiative. In Mahama Camp, plans are also underway to introduce digital skills training for the community, with a small fee charged for participation. The counsellors there reason that, by placing a financial value on the trainings, they will ensure more committed participation and improved results.
Meanwhile, in Kigali, counsellors continue to volunteer their time to run the Help Desk on an ad-hoc basis, ensuring the service remains accessible to those in need.
Lessons to inform future initiatives
This pilot, with its many pivots and its flexibility to accommodate expressed needs, gathered a wealth of lessons to inform future programming. Key learnings include:
1 In the absence of widespread community awareness of digital opportunities, services to support access to those opportunities will not be in high demand. More community sensitization to the idea of digital livelihoods, as well as more sustained and targeted mentorship of the counsellors could have paved the way for greater awareness of the digital economy.
2 Ensure community involvement in the design phase of the project. Substantively involving community members in the design phase of the project could have uncovered several of these key lessons earlier on, leaving more time for appropriate adaptation.
3 There is a high level of need and interest among forcibly displaced communities for general peer-to-peer computer literacy training and digital support. The pilot clearly demonstrated the hunger for digital knowledge and services. It also highlighted that community members respond particularly well to this support being provided by peers.
4 Community members can be counted on to become dedicated service providers — but more could be done to support sustainability plans. The initiative shown by counsellors to sustain services is laudable, but the haphazard development of these plans could have been avoided. How to better support the creation of post-project ‘runways’, so community members don’t manage sustainability planning alone, is a key question to be addressed by UNHCR and partners.
The Innovation Service is increasingly focusing on ways to unlock opportunities for refugees in the digital economy, through initiatives including the PROSPECTS digital livelihoods project and Digital Innovation Fund pilots focusing on digital job and education opportunities. The lessons learned during this pilot project will add valuable insights to refine this work.
Meanwhile, in Rwanda, UNHCR continues to advocate for the Digital Career Counsellors’ capacity building to tap into online job opportunities and cascade this knowledge. To support this aim, partnerships are actively being explored with several digital education institutions.
To read more about our work on the digital economy, check out the Digital Innovation Fund and our PROSPECTS Partnership project, implemented alongside the International Labor Organization.
