Refugees in Ethiopia

Activity summary

The Socio-Economic Survey of Refugees in Ethiopia (SESRE) was conducted to address the acute lack of socioeconomic data on refugees and their interactions with host communities, with the complementary objectives of building the capacity of the Ethiopian Central Statistics Service (CSS) to include refugees in future national household surveys and providing a comprehensive analytical report to inform policy and programming. Implemented in close partnership with the World Bank, UNHCR, the Ethiopian Refugees and Returnees Service, and the CSS, data was collected and analyzed in alignment with the Ethiopian Household Welfare Statistics Survey; focusing on economic activity, livelihoods, consumption patterns, and social dynamics among refugees and hosts. The resulting report, titled “Expanding Development Approaches to Refugees and Their Hosts in Ethiopia”, and microdata were published in 2024. They highlight economic disparities between refugees and host communities, which are driven by barriers to accessing livelihood opportunities for refugees. On social cohesion, the report shows that host attitudes to refugees are generally positive; most hosts believe that refugees should have the right to free primary education (87 percent), health care (87 percent), work (82 percent) and internal mobility (75 percent). 

Activity outputs

• 2022–2023 Socio-Economic Survey of Refugees in Ethiopia (SESRE) with sample survey data collected from 3,452 households, anonymized and published in the World Bank Microdata Library
• World Bank report: “Expanding Development Approaches to Refugees and Their Hosts in Ethiopia”
• Official launch event of SESRE in Addis Ababa in January 2025 by the Ethiopian Refugees and Returnees Service, Central Statistics Service, World Bank, and UNHCR

Activity outcomes and impact

The survey provided, for the first time, fully comparable socioeconomic profiles of major refugee groups and their host communities, offering critical evidence to support Ethiopia’s shift from an encampment policy toward greater socioeconomic integration of refugees, including through development of Ethiopia’s 2024 Directive to Implement Recognized Refugees’ and Asylum Seekers’ Right to Work. The activity resulted in strengthened relationships between the World Bank, UNHCR and Ethiopian government agencies, which proved essential for successful data collection and policy impact. It set the stage for integrating similar data collection efforts into future official surveys and enhanced the impact and reach of evidence-based policy making for refugee populations in Ethiopia.