Refugee Entrepreneurship in Action: A Stanford Impact Labs Fellowship Update
ABOVE: Eesley (right) with Sarah Bimbona from Makerere University Business School (center), along with undergraduate research assistants Faith Zehfuss (second from left) and Natalie Milan (second from right), and former PhD student Abisola Kusimo (left), who guided the team in qualitative interview methods in Kampala.
By Professor Chuck Eesley
Over the past several months, I’ve been a part of the Stanford Impact Labs Faculty Design Fellowship, allowing me to expand on my refugee entrepreneurship work in Uganda. Through a design-thinking approach, this fellowship has allowed me to combine interactive workshops and stakeholder interviews with NGOs, policymakers, and practitioners in Africa to understand how to move beyond academic research and create real, scalable impact. Here are some of my learnings.
Understanding systemic assets and challenges
Uganda has one of the most progressive refugee integration policies in the world, hosting nearly 1.7 million refugees. Its refugee graduation system moves displaced individuals from Stage 1 (new arrivals in precarious conditions) to Stage 4 (financially stable, ready to move into cities), and understanding this system has helped clarify where interventions like AI-powered training, microlending, and market access programs could be most effective in supporting long-term economic self-reliance.
I began my fellowship in listening mode, conducting multiple waves of interviews with organizations working directly with refugee populations, including Challenges Uganda, Mercy Corps, Grameen Foundation, and the ReBuild Program at the Immigration Policy Lab. These conversations provided invaluable insights into how financial literacy, job training, and entrepreneurship programs currently support refugee livelihoods—and what gaps still exist.
Building a scalable model for refugee entrepreneurship
A major goal of this fellowship has been to bring together the right puzzle pieces—mentorship, training, microfinance, and digital literacy—to create a holistic, evidence-based approach to improving refugee livelihoods. I created a concept note and funding strategy now with potential funders, I’ve hired a manager to support operations from pilot projects into long-term growth, and we’re now identifying key organizations to work with to expand our model.
My doctoral student Zahra Hejrati and I have also been working on analyzing and documenting our previous cohorts to publish our findings, ensuring that we are building on a strong evidence base as we expand.
Engaging the funder & policy communities
Beyond working directly with entrepreneurs, I’ve been engaging with funders, policymakers, and ecosystem builders to understand where refugee entrepreneurship fits into broader economic development trends. With funding organizations like USAID no longer resourced to provide the same level of support to refugees, and other private funders such as the Ikea Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation stepping in to address funding challenges, there is growing momentum for more integrated approaches that combine AI, financial literacy, mentorship, and market access to create lasting economic mobility.
Through discussions with Prof. Shelley Correll and Prof. Soledad Artiz Prillaman, as well as my fellowship peers, I’ve gained valuable insights into how to manage multi-stakeholder partnerships, scale social impact initiatives, and build an effective organization to support this work long-term.
What’s Next? Funding & Partnerships to Scale
We are now at an exciting inflection point where we have a refined theory of change based on our work to date focusing on a plan to scale with operational and funding strategies in place, and strong partnerships with NGOs, universities, and private sector collaborators. The next phase involves securing funding and implementation partners to expand the program and optimize the combination of training, mentorship, microlending, and market access for refugee entrepreneurs.
We are also developing a learning panel composed of experts in the field, leaders of NGOs and others to understand their perspectives on what’s working and appears promising in supporting refugees more broadly. Stay tuned (feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn) for more developments from my social impact lab fellowship focused on the role of entrepreneurship in improving refugee livelihoods.
Chuck Eesley is an Associate Professor and W.M. Keck Foundation Faculty Scholar in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University and a Faculty Director of STVP.
