Cash in Hand: Urban Refugees, the Right to Work and UNHCR's Advocacy Activities

The urban policy is not intended to provide “detailed operational guidelines.” UNHCR?s
Operational Solutions and Transition Section (OSTS, Livelihoods Unit) has, however, produced
operational guidelines on urban livelihoods and is also creating practical guidelines on
advocating for the right to work of displaced populations.3 This paper seeks to highlight
challenges and opportunities in this area, and to contribute both to these guidelines and to the
larger discussion around enhancing the space for realising urban refugees? right to work.

The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2 briefly presents some of the
key issues around the right to work in each of the countries. Section 3 focuses on three particular
challenges and possible advocacy responses to these. Section 4 presents a short case for
comparison to the three countries. Section 5 proposes possible principles for an advocacy
strategy.