Samenvatting

Empowerment has been a buzz word for quite some time among development organizations running poverty alleviation initiatives. This thesis provides insights on how income-generating activities (IGAs), as an empowerment instrument has influenced the social capital, collective action, leadership, skills building and decision-making for refugee women in order to develop strategies that integrate IGAs with the empowerment of refugee women. The study was carried out for six weeks in Kiryandongo refugee settlement in Uganda. It includes interviews with refugee women from South Sudan and Kenya to understand their experiences with IGAs, key informants to gain their expertise, two FGDs with refugee women and men from South Sudan descent, and triangulated my data through participant observation and informal conversations with refugee men, women and host community.