IKEA Foundation CEO Jessica Anderen and 30 ambassadors visit Re:BUiLD clients in Nairobi

May 3, 2024, Nairobi Kenya. The IKEA Foundation's CEO Jessica Anderen interacts with Josephine Nakabugu at her shop in Kawangware. (Photo: Sinnah Lamin/TheIRC) 

Nairobi, Kenya – May 3, 2024: The IKEA Foundation's CEO, Jessica Anderen, on Friday, May 3, 2024, visited several refugees and Kenyans supported under the International Rescue Committee (IRC) Re:BUiLD program in Nairobi.  

Anderen, on her first visit to the East African region since taking over the leadership of the Foundation in January 2024, cited close relationships with clients and partners as a critical component in the effective and sustainable delivery of livelihood interventions. Through one-on-one interactions with clients, Anderen says, actors in the humanitarian and development sector must listen to refugees' needs to identify and address challenges to achieving sustainable livelihoods for themselves and their families. “We all have a common view that people need a healthy and sustainable way of living. It is all about putting people at heart of everything that we do. We need to stay very close to projects and partners for us to tackle the biggest challenges we face in the world; poverty and climate change,” she stated.

The IRC’s Re:BUiLD clients in the neighborhoods of Kawangware and Kayole interacted with Anderen sharing how the program’s micro-enterprise and mentorship support had impacted their entrepreneurial skills and livelihoods. Shop owners, small-business mentors, members of urban savings and loans associations (USLAs), and community networks formed through Re:BUiLD’s partner, Pamoja Trust, were among those visited during the CEO’s field trip.

“You can read, listen, and be in different meetings but this is nothing like standing in someone’s home or their shop with them telling their story about how they have had life-changing experiences because of the support they have been given. This is something that I will take with me, and I will constantly think about going forward,” stated Anderen, commending the client’s resilience in the wake of the recent floods that had caused displacement and disrupted livelihoods across Nairobi.

It is for this reason that the Foundation has invested in developing an ambassador programme  – an initiative in which promising IKEA corporate employees are provided with exposure to Foundation-supported partners and training to spread the word about their work. A group of 30 new Ambassadors joined Anderen in Nairobi for a week-long interaction with  a variety of IKEA Foundation’s partners focused on tackling poverty and climate change. During the trip, the team also interacted with the IRC leadership in the region, as well as other local and international partners of the Foundation.

Since its inception in 2021, the IRC’s Re:BUiLD program with support from the IKEA Foundation has provided business support to refugees and vulnerable Kenyans intending to start or grow their micro-enterprises in Nairobi and Kampala. 

May 3, 2024, Nairobi Kenya. The IKEA Foundation CEO Jessica Anderen with Josephine Nakabugu and her mentor (left) at their tailoring shop in Kawangware. (Photo: Sinnah Lamin/TheIRC) 

Josephine Nakabugu, a Congolese refugee residing in Kabiria, Nairobi while at her tailoring shop appreciated the program’s support saying; “Now, I have a decent job that is helping me take care of my five children and two orphans.”  

Nakabugu is among the refugees and hosts that were reached through the program’s cash grant and mentorship support as part of the first wave of the Re:BUiLD randomized control trials (RCTs). Re:BUiLD provided cash grants to 2,104 mentees in Nairobi, Kenya and another 2,109  in Kampala, Uganda.  Nakabugu and her mentor, a Kenyan fashion designer, turned business partners after being introduced through the Re:BUiLD program. Together, they now design and make bags and clothes from popular African fabric, kitenge. She received a cash grant of Ksh56,000 (approx. USD450) from the IRC to start her business.

“My mentor taught me how to put my grant to proper use, and this has changed my life. My plan is to rent a bigger space that is safer so that I can diversify and have more products and  can earn more from the business,” Nakabugu told the IKEA Foundation CEO.

The Re:BUiLD program has enlisted over 8000 additional urban refugees and vulnerable hosts in Nairobi and Kampala for microenterprise support that will be delivered as part of the second wave of RCTs launched in 2024.

Watch IKEA Foundation CEO Jessica Anderen's visit and hear her insights on the effective and sustainable delivery of livelihood interventions.