Good Jobs | April 25, 2017

IKEA creates a pathway for refugees to join its supply chain

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Swedish furniture giant IKEA seems to take the global refugee crisis personally.

In 2015, the company partnered with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to design modular housing for the 2.6 million long-term refugee camp inhabitants globally.

Now, it wants to help those refugees make a living while also helping its own future business. A social entrepreneurship initiative this summer in Jordan will train refugees and local workers to produce handicrafts.

The program will start with 100 workers — half of them refugees — and aims to employ 200,000 people globally over the next 10 to 15 years.

“We want these people to be our future suppliers,” says IKEA’s Jesper Brodin. New business owners will learn models and production planning to join IKEA’s supply chain.

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Photo credit: Better Shelter