Self-reliance programming in urban displacement: a pragmatic approach or a disillusionment?

The promotion of self-reliance for refugees is a well-established policy priority within the global refugee support regime, hosting states and for many refugee-supporting organizations. For urban refugees, there is growing recognition of needs as well as potential for self-reliance support. However, meaningful investments in and commitment to the objective of self-reliance remain insufficient and critiques of the concept as an empty buzzword are many and substantial. This is a dialogue between Kellie Leeson and Boel McAteer, in which they elaborate on empirical examples of self-reliance programmes as either beneficial (Kellie) or counterproductive (Boel) to achieving genuine self-reliance. They conclude that self-reliance can only be wholly achieved alongside full refugee rights. They provide novel views of the concept by framing self-reliance as temporal and pragmatic on the one hand, and, on the other, by highlighting that the “self” in self-reliance often becomes unrealistically accentuated for urban refugees.