From the Margins to the Market: Lessons on investing in displacement-affected communities
This report distills four principles for funders and investors seeking to build more inclusive and resilient markets in displacement-affected communities.
- Report
- All impact sectors
- All Regions
- 2026
Executive summary
Displacement is a defining feature of frontier markets today. Conflict, climate change, and economic instability are reshaping where and how people live and work. Forcibly displaced people (FDPs) are workers, consumers, and entrepreneurs representing a significant but under-appreciated economic force. Yet they face a number of structural constraints: restrictive policies, lack of access to finance, and social stigmatization. The question for investors and donors becomes: Are your strategies equipped to engage this reality — and this opportunity — proactively and effectively?
This report draws on Acumen’s investment experience and Open Capital’s market-building work across East Africa, informed by interviews with founders, customers, investors, donors, and technical partners, and a 60 Decibels survey of seven companies. We offer this perspective as practitioners who have invested capital, learned from failures, and seen what is possible when the right capital meets the right conditions.
Of FDPs surveyed for the 60 Decibels study
Acknowledgments
This report was co-authored by Acumen and Open Capital. Acumen would like to thank its partners for supporting this work and report: IKEA Foundation, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
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