“This extraordinary commitment comes at a time of unprecedented displacement across Africa, and globally,” said Kelly T. Clements, UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner. “Its scale and long-term focus – on education for refugee children and youth, and on livelihoods for adults – lay the foundation for meaningful recovery and lasting contributions to host communities. The stability and opportunities such support provides are exactly what displaced communities need to rebuild their lives and move forward amid all the challenges they face.”

This five-year initiative represents one of the largest private philanthropic commitments of its kind globally and expands the Foundation’s collaboration with UNHCR to improve long-term outcomes for refugees and displaced people.

“We’ve seen refugees and displaced young people make immense contributions to their communities when they have the right support,” said Reeta Roy, President and CEO of the Mastercard Foundation. “As part of our Young Africa Works strategy we are scaling high impact partnerships that enable young people to access the education and skills needed to get a job or build their own businesses. This new commitment to UNHCR is a continuation of that approach and builds upon remarkable results achieved enabling 68,000 youth to access work in just six months.”

This partnership contributes to Mastercard Foundation’s goal of enabling 30 million young people to access dignified work by 2030, as part of the Young Africa Works strategy. The announcement was made in Nairobi at the 2025 Africa Forum on Displacement, a strategic event co-convened by the Amahoro Coalition, Inkomoko and UNHCR and supported by the Mastercard Foundation and IKEA Foundation. Under the theme “All-In,” the Forum convenes industry leaders, government officials, philanthropic organizations, and refugee-led businesses to discuss and commit to sustainable action.

Addressing an Urgent Continental Challenge

With 45 million refugees and displaced people across Africa, countries like Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo represent some of the largest displacement crises globally. This partnership will focus on these most affected regions while providing UNHCR the flexibility to respond to the cross-border nature of displacement.

The partnership aims to achieve the following:

• Enable more than half a million refugees and displaced youth (50% women, 5% persons with disabilities) to access and complete secondary education.
• Support 10,000 young people in tertiary education, including university and TVET (technical and vocational education and training) programs.
• Transition 200,000 youth (70% women) into dignified work through entrepreneurship and employment.
• Strengthen 100 local and refugee-led organizations to co-implement solutions and influence policy.

Building on Proven Impact

Since 2019, the Mastercard Foundation has partnered with UNHCR on several impactful initiatives to strengthen resilience and promote entrepreneurship among displaced young people and refugees. One notable program supporting refugees in Sudan and neighboring countries has helped 30,000 young people return to secondary education and enabled 68,000 youth – 62% of whom are women – to access work opportunities within just six months. 

Behind these numbers are stories of remarkable transformation, like Dr. Fatima, a doctor who fled Sudan’s conflict with her four children. After years serving in some of the toughest emergency wards across Darfur and Khartoum, war changed everything. Overnight, she and her children became refugees, crossing into Chad. Through the Mastercard Foundation–UNHCR partnership, Dr. Fatima received accreditation to continue her medical career, working alongside Sudanese colleagues Yacoub and Hassan. Fatima and Yacoub have now obtained their accreditation to practice in Chad, with Hassan’s accreditation process underway. This professional recognition enables them to work, earn, and serve both refugee and host communities. For Fatima, the ability to work is about more than a paycheck — it’s a return to identity, dignity, and purpose.

The dramatic impact achieved in Sudan demonstrates what is possible when emergency humanitarian response evolves into investment in refugee-led development solutions.

Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of Mastercard Foundation.