Refugee lens investing

Refugee lens investing is an investing framework that connects financing with refugees. It is based on the concept of impact investment, which focuses on the alignment of investor's financial return with social and environmental benefits.

Background
Refugee lens investing was developed by the Refugee Investment Network (RIN), which was established in 2018 by John Kluge. It is described as a movement that aims to tap the economic potential of refugees. Investing in refugees follows the ideas of economists such as John Maynard Keynes, who outlined the benefits of public investment, and Philippe Legrain, who maintained that "investment in refugees acts like a fiscal stimulus yielding an immediate demand dividend." Refugee lens investing identifies the opportunities of this group, which has a global population of 70 million, a number that is expected to expand by 300 million in the next decade due to climate change. John Kluge, RIN founder, maintained that humanitarian response is important but it is not enough due to its unsustainability. In a report, the World Bank maintained the need for the application of a migrant/refugee lens with a clear set of criteria for investments on both refugees and their host communities.

Refugee financing framework
Refugee lens investing deploys capital toward refugees and the communities hosting them. RIN refers to the investing framework as a “connective tissue” that mobilizes investment on refugee entrepreneurs. In the investment framework, refugees are defined as those group of people who are externally or internally displaced by armed or political conflict, ethnic tension, discrimination, environmental disaster, and the displacement of indigenous communities. Investments draw from RIN's private capital, which has more than $200 million in commitments.

An example of an initiative sourced from refugee lens investing is RIN's partnership with Kiva, the micro-loans platform partnered with 300 organizations worldwide. The fund has already provided $3.5 million financing to more than 4,000 refugees from Burundi, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Syria. Kiva and RIN's existing partnership produced the Kiva World Refugee Fund. Other related examples that provide refugees access to finance include the Smart Communities Coalition, Accelerator for Ventures Serving Displaced People.

There are governments that support investment related to refugees. Examples include the United Kingdom's Outcomes Fund and the capital provision to intermediaries for purposes of refugee capacity building. In the United States, there is also the Massachusetts Pathways to Economic Advancement, a project funded by a group of community investors that invests on refugee capacity building so that they can be integrated and progress in the communities of the Greater Boston area.