In Sub-Saharan Africa, refugees are located in fragile arid areas. Despite many challenges, there are opportunities to shift from a ‘land degradation’ narrative to one based on ‘land restoration
and resilience’, by enhancing the knowledge and skills of both refugee and host communities in a range of gender-responsive, regenerative and circular bioeconomy innovations, adapted to
the local context. These innovations include, for example: to cultivate small home gardens irrigated with greywater; grow fruit and shade trees in their compounds; make briquettes from
organic residues and soil; and build more efficient stoves from local clay – all of which reduce the impact on the local fragile landscapes caused by dense settlements. In the capacity- building process, newcomers and the host community are transformed from a social justice perspective, as agents of change, transforming ecological challenges and becoming active landscape restoration participants. The “Resource Recovery and Reuse in Refugee Settlements in Africa” project was carried out in 2019-2023 in six refugee camps and settlements and their surrounding host communities in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. To date, it involved over 3,600 households
and reached over 200,000 people indirectly in Kenya and Uganda. Due to conflict, no actions were implemented in Ethiopia. The evidence-based findings from this work are
applicable to other fragile landscapes likely to experience massive arrivals of migrants and refugees in the future.