Empowered to Stay? Ugandan Refugee Policy and Community Support in Shaping Women’s Choices

Abstract

Executive Summary

Refugee women in Uganda, face systemic challenges that undermine their ability to achieve economic autonomy despite their resilience. Drawing on testimonies from 39 respondents at the Nakivale Refugee Settlement, this study examines how personal agency, institutional support, and community-based systems interact to shape economic empowerment within Uganda’s refugee policies. The narratives were analyzed thematically through the lens of the right to stay, migrate, and return framework, while allowing respondents’ voices to challenge and refine its assumptions. Findings show that while women demonstrate self-determination through entrepreneurial initiatives and collective savings groups, their autonomy is constrained by gendered inequalities, limited access to financial resources, and insufficient institutional support. Women consistently described fear of gender-based violence and economic insecurity as decisive factors shaping mobility decisions, underscoring that migration is perceived less as opportunity than as survival necessity. Existing programs such as microfinance and savings groups provide short-term relief but fail to enable business scaling, leaving women confined to survival strategies. The study critiques the right to stay framework, arguing that autonomy cannot be fully realized without addressing structural constraints and gendered barriers. Policy implications include expanding access to larger loans, integrating business training and financial literacy, and strengthening community-based support systems. Ultimately, the respondents’ experiences compel a feminist refinement of the right to stay: autonomy must be understood as relational, structurally contingent, and gendered, with dignity rather than survival at the heart of the right to remain.