The International Rescue Committee (IRC) uses market-based approaches like microfranchising to promote livelihoods and resilience. Microfranchising provides training, support and business models to help vulnerable groups like women and youth start their own businesses. The IRC has piloted microfranchising programs in Sierra Leone and Kenya that have shown promising early results, with most participants profiting or breaking even from their microfranchise businesses. The IRC is committed to ongoing research to evaluate microfranchising's impacts and ways to further develop and apply the model.

1. From Harm to Home | Rescue.org
IRC’s use of market-based approaches
for livelihoods development

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From Harm to Home | Rescue.org
Goal: Resilience
The people we serve, especially women, youth and children, can
mitigate and recover from conflict and natural disaster so that they are
thriving and transforming their lives
Increased income for those living on less than $2 per day
Improved wellbeing through food security, nutritional status,
psychosocial development, access to services, and agency and voice
Reduced risk of violence, exploitation and abuse against women
and children
Connecting
economic
outcomes to
wellbeing and
violence prevention
Building a pathway
from livelihoods
protection to promotion
Increasing
preparedness as
first-responders
context analysis targeting learning

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Market-
based
programs
Economic
Recovery
and
Develop
ment
Youth and
Livelihoods
Women’s
Protection
and
Empower-
ment
US
Programs
Nutrition
Research,
Evaluation
and
Learning
Who is involved?

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Who is involved in
Microfranchising?
Market-
based
programs
Economic
Recovery
and
Develop
ment
Youth and
Livelihoods
Women’s
Protection
and
Empower-
ment
US
Programs
Nutrition
Research,
Evaluation
and
Learning

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A sad and frustrating story…

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Insanity:
Doing the same thing over and over
again and expecting different results
Albert Einstein

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IRC’s approach:
•Youth selection;
•Business selection;
•Microfranchise business
model development;
•Youth training;
•Product/ service training;
•Savings-led financial
services;
•MoUs between businesses,
youth and IRC;
•Microfranchise start-up;

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Results from pilot
• 100% of youth were still engaged in their micro-
franchises seven months after start-up;
• 83% of youth reported making a profit and 16% of youth
reported breaking even seven months after start-up;
• 100% of youth in Freetown and 48% of youth in Kenema
opened savings accounts with local retail banks;
• 43% of youth reported saving money as their primary
investment for profits;

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Girls Empowered by Microfranchise (GEM),
Kenya
Objective:
2400 girls supported to operate their own microfranchise
Activities:
• Design microfranchise models with selected businesses
• Train, monitor and support girls to engage in microfranchise
businesses
• Evaluate

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Who is involved?
GEM
IRC
Local
training
providers
Open
Capital
Darling,
Kenchic,
Dlight,
Pure-
Flow
IPA,
Population
Council,.
World Bank
Nike
Foundation,
World Bank,
Youth
Employment
Network,
IZA
facilitator
trainers
management
consultants
business
franchisors
research
partners
resource
partners

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Results to date
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20300644

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Commitment to learning
Key research questions:
- What is the impact of microfranchising on
economic and wellbeing indicators?
- What factors create this impact?
- How does the impact of microfranchising
compare to a training, mentoring and cash grant
model?

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Key program questions:
- How can new applications of microfranchising be
applied e.g. rural livelihoods/ production
franchising?

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Questions for discussion
What do you see as the critical success factors for
microfranchising in your context?
What do you see as barriers to use of
microfranchising in your context?
What would you want to learn in relation to the
application and efficacy of microfranchising?