In 2019 the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford undertook a retrospective evaluation of the impact of programmes the IKEA Foundation has supported in Dollo Ado, Ethiopia. We supported UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, with two grants between 2012 and 2019. Our investment in Dollo Ado is the largest private sector investment ever made in a refugee setting.

The evaluation covers five main areas:

• enabling and inhibiting factors of the programme
• evaluation of IKEA Foundation livelihoods projects
• developing sustainable economies in remote refugee-hosting regions
• the impact on refugee policy and practice
• what needs to happen in the future to maximise benefits of the investment.

The evaluation reported on the performance of cooperatives and business groups that have transformed the economic and social landscape of Dollo Ado. They have done this through projects in agriculture, renewable energy, environmental conservation and the livestock value chain.

One of the biggest returns on investment this programme offers is lessons and insights to inform programming for people forced to flee in Ethiopia and the wider world. It also showed the IKEA Foundation ways to improve at both an organisational and a programme strategy level.