DREAMS Program

The creation and evolution of the DREAMS program (Delivering Resilient Enterprises and Market Systems) is a story of two very effective organizations coming together to change the lives of refugees and others in extreme poverty, from aid-dependency to self-reliance. Like many strong partnerships, it started with one shared activity and ignited a spark in both parties for a great deal more.

In 2017, Village Enterprise and Mercy Corps were working together in Northern Uganda on an agricultural best practices and micro business development project for out-of-school youth. As John Ilima, now the Uganda Country Director, puts it, “We were like newlyweds, coming to understand what we each do. We realized that each of us provided answers to challenges the other faced in our separate programs. Village Enterprise got their ultra-poor cohorts started in businesses but it was challenging for those businesses to grow beyond the micro enterprises. Mercy Corps was establishing market systems at the small and medium level but had little access to people at the very bottom of the business scale.” This led to a collaboration in 2019, blending both organizations’ strengths to take on the complex challenge of creating viable economic systems in refugee camps—some of the toughest environments for fostering economic growth.

When they came up with this idea they looked for evidence of where a combination of these two models had been tried before and found none. The impact of the DREAMS approach will therefore be studied in an independent randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted by IDinsight so the approach can be translated to other situations in the future. By April 2025 they’ll have the first results on cost effectiveness and self-reliance outcomes.

DREAMS offers two kinds of interventions. Through Village Enterprise’s poverty graduation program, they start by equipping refugees with the resources, skills, and mentorship needed to start an enterprise. Then, if it’s relevant to the nature of the business involved, Mercy Corps helps establish market systems, providing subsidies and creating connections that enable the entrepreneurs to reach a broader market.

One such example has been the creation of a poultry value chain in Uganda’s  Bidi Bidi Refugee and Rhino Camp Settlements. Initially, potential farmers could only get good quality chicks from 500 miles away and when very young chicks did arrive, conditions weren’t adequate to keep them alive. DREAMS set up a supply chain that delivered four-week-old chicks, an age at which they can be grown on with few additional resources. At three months, the chickens are sold for a profit. As the poultry economic system grew – it now supports about 10,000 people – it became self-sustaining and subsidies could be stopped. DREAMS has also created a market system for oil seed crops in the same settlements, mainly focusing on sesame, sunflower, and soy. 

Besides these value chains, participants are also supported in developing secondary, off-season enterprises to sustain financial security during agricultural off months. Recent expansion into Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya have required modifying the delivery models to work with the specific conditions and opportunities in the new territories.

Part of the success of these programs lies in the depth and breadth of human connection created in the market systems. The establishment of trusted relationships that help foster collaboration and mutual support are essential for business growth and sustainability. Buyers and sellers work together to maintain market values that are in everyone’s best interests. “These are very human relationships that get developed,” says John. “The people involved are creating personal connections, not just a place in an economic system.” In the process, refugee communities, which might not have been seen as viable markets before, become recognized participants in a broader economy.

Cohorts for the program come from a combination of refugees and those in the host communities (30%). This maintains fairness and fosters social cohesion and integration of refugees with host communities. Initial surveys using the Poverty Probability Index (PPI) demonstrated there was, in fact, little difference in the poverty levels between them. In the DREAMS project geographies, about 90% of households qualify. With the support of 20 staff, cohorts of 1200 people at a time are enrolled, with three cohorts typically graduating each year. The project geographies are partially determined by government assessment and do not overlap with other NGO programs.

When asked how he personally became involved, John’s face lights up. Three-quarters of the DREAMS team are past refugees and John himself was internally displaced within Uganda as a child, due to an insurgency. “The first time I went to a refugee camp for my work as a Village Enterprise Monitoring and Evaluation Associate, I saw the same traditional model I’d been part of as a child in the ‘80s,” he says. “The same plot of land, the same closed system. I had a single mother and my sisters quit school to help make ends meet.” John’s childhood experience and his work with Village Enterprise gave him exactly what he needed to manage DREAMS and bring to life its very different model, aimed at creating self-sufficiency for refugees. “My story gives hope,” he says. “I started out as a small boy with no shirt or shoes and here I am now.”

An additional evolution in their approach recognizes the degree to which the traumatic experience of being a refugee can inhibit hope and the sense of possibility needed for someone to get started in a DREAMS enterprise. Mental health and a mindset that includes a feeling of personal agency are key to business success. DREAMS programs are therefore beginning to integrate mental health interventions into their support.

At The Patchwork Collective, we’re very fond of collaboration as a means of expanding impact. The DREAMS program demonstrates the power of that approach for us and our partners; we came to it through the Larsen Lam ICONIQ Impact collaborative fund, and our grantee partners came to each other through a project collaboration that became so much more. This is how effective change is created, by pooling our resources and supporting each other in work that lifts the human condition.

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