Establishing a bold influencing agenda aimed at changing policies, practices, and investments at national, regional, and global levels by encouraging adoption of program evidence and learning.
Our aim is to ensure that Re:BUiLD’s scope of change extends across Kampala and Nairobi, and beyond to any city hosting refugees. The specific outcomes for our Influence and Adoption pillar are focused on two levels:
- Enabling policy change through national, regional and global policy makers.
- Sector change within the humanitarian and development community, who in turn must engage local private sector stakeholders.
- Using our evidence and learnings, we promote the value and effectiveness of urban refugee livelihoods programming.
Campaigns
Campaigns are tools employed by Re:BUiLD to influence policy and practice at a global, regional, national and community level. Through these campaigns, Re:BUiLD raises awareness, amplifies refugee voices, and drives systemic change to promote inclusion, rights, and access to services for refugees and host communities.
Securing Documentation Campaign for Refugees in Kenya and Uganda
We have officially begun our 8-month campaign titled "Securing Documentation Campaign for Refugees in Kenya and Uganda" for the year 2025. In August 2025, the International Rescue Committee, in collaboration with other agencies, convened a series of engagements in Nairobi and Kampala bringing together international, regional, and national legal and human rights practitioners, consultants, legal aid workers and advocates, refugees, community leaders and Refugee-Led Organizations (RLOs). These sessions provided a platform for participants to share firsthand experiences on refugee documentation, contribute personal stories, and helped identify practical solutions to propose to policymakers.
From these conversations, research findings were developed and shared with legal experts and human rights defenders. The goal is to support them in providing direct legal aid to refugees facing challenges in documentation processes, including appeals and legal recognition.
The insights will inform the advocacy efforts aimed at pushing for policy and legislative reforms by governments and regional bodies to simplify documentation processes. Below are the key resources available:
The campaign is ongoing. We are now focusing on engaging policymakers and the media to spotlight potential solutions and progress, showcase contributions from policymakers and relevant institutions while also holding them accountable by tracking their commitments and recommended actions.
Policy and Research Symposium
On 15th and 16th October 2024, Re:BUiLD held a Policy and Research Symposium in Nairobi, which was a result of the collaborative effort between the Re:BUiLD program, the IKEA Foundation, and the World Bank, in collaboration with other partners. The Symposium sought to challenge traditional paradigms, foster innovative approaches to confront the complex issues surrounding forced displacement in the region and offered a networking opportunity for practitioners, refugees, donors, academia, private sector, policy makers and researchers from Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, with focus on four key themes: Access to Finance and Micro-enterprises; Access to Jobs and Skills Development; Access to Justice and Legal Identity; and Access to Social Protection. Presentations of research papers were done to set the tone for evidence-driven dialogue combined with insights from those with lived experiences in forced displacement, to inform policy making. You can find the full recordings of the sessions here, the post-event report here, and the blog on the Policy and Research Symposium Roadmap
Decent Work Campaign
In 2023, Re:BUiLD conducted a six-month long campaign on ‘Decent Work’ to promote refugees’ access to decent work in Nairobi and Kampala. The campaign aims to ensure that employers, governments, the private sector , humanitarian, and development actors understand the regulatory framework governing the type of employment that refugees can access and adopt strategies and practices that address barriers to refugee access to the formal and decent work.
Cost-of-Living Crisis Campaign
In 2022, Re:BUiLD conducted a campaign on the cost-of-living crisis for urban communities in Kampala and Nairobi which climaxed with the launch of a policy brief in October of the same year. The brief was launched during the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) conference on the Kampala Declaration held in Nairobi. The brief called on donors and host governments to provide humanitarian assistance and national social protection on the basis of a human right without discrimination based on refugee status and location. Globally, the Re:BUiLD brief was presented at the UNHCR’s dialogue on protection challenges in Geneva.